Citronella collars - at my wit's end..*update*

[Alysser]

What if . . . before you buy a citronella (I know, you said not at $70), can you carry a water squirt bottle with you and squirt his head? You'd have to be able to control him on leash with one hand, as the other hand will be using the bottle, and it will be a nuisance. Just a thought as I was reading.

I loved that Jasper outsmarted the collar! Ha ha haaaaa

Freedom, I was thinking this. I was also thinking I would look like a dufus, but if anyone asks at least I look like I am attempting to train him out of this. It will be a nuisance but I am going to a park tomorrow so I will try this. If it works great if not, then Citronella collar and $70 it is.

[cloverfdx]

The citronella collars do work with most dogs, i'd go that over the static shock ones and it will be easier than carrying a spray bottle around. What about the sonic anti bark collars, that might be another cheaper option. Shop around for the citronella collars, i know the price has dropped atleast $100 here in the last year or so.

[lizbud]

Have a question. When Mikey starts barking, do you stop & correct him, or just keep walking on ?

[Alysser]

WOW, am I relieved the squirt bottle worked. I took him for about 2 hours today and we went 2 miles in and 2 miles back, so he can handle 4 miles. We took 2 long breaks and he got some water. We saw plenty of dogs, at first he was BAD, barking his head off, straight through the water in his face. I thought it was gonna be a disaster. On the 3rd dog, I sat him down held his collar and said "NO" over and over again with the water bottle visible. He whined but no barking!! He did it again and again everytime I sat him down and said "NO". Ever bark, he'd get a squirt but he stopped completely. He may have barked a total of 6 or 7 times after the third dog He usually just goes on and on. We saw a couple of American Coots and he didn't bark AT ALL for them and he saw them!! I am such a proud mommy.

Clover, I am had a similar device for the house but it stopped working with him. He would ignore it. I changed the batteries to make sure it wasn't that but he would still FREAK.

Liz, I would stop him and sit him down and hold treats and everything. He just wouldn't stop, but at least this seems to be working.

[wolf_Q]

Pet edge has a citronella collar for a bit cheaper if you still want to try it http://www.petedge.com/product/intel...llar/51760.uts I've never personally used one so no experience there. You can also try this product http://www.petco.com/product/109946/...sultRedirect=1 a customer told me about it and I got some for my mom for her schnauzers and it worked awesome with them. You don't actually spray the dog with it you just spray the air and the sound distracts them from barking. My mom's schnauzers are really bad barkers too, of course it doesn't work if they are across the yard and barking but it works good for barking where you are close by.

[Alysser]

Pet edge has a citronella collar for a bit cheaper if you still want to try it http://www.petedge.com/product/intel...llar/51760.uts I've never personally used one so no experience there. You can also try this product http://www.petco.com/product/109946/...sultRedirect=1 a customer told me about it and I got some for my mom for her schnauzers and it worked awesome with them. You don't actually spray the dog with it you just spray the air and the sound distracts them from barking. My mom's schnauzers are really bad barkers too, of course it doesn't work if they are across the yard and barking but it works good for barking where you are close by.

Thanks Amy! I am still interested in it, and will of course look into both if this method stops working.

[Sowa]

I asked the trainer I go to about these collars cause I was thinking about using it for training Clover. I asked what she thought, cause I didn't know much about it. I thought I'd post what she said, just as something to think about cause I never really thought about it this way. I wasn't planning to use it to stop barking but other problems.

"I don’t like them much at all, although sometimes if it’s a family being evicted due to barking problems, or taking the dog to the shelter, I’ll sometimes recommend giving one a shot if it is in dire circumstances and it will keep the dog and family in its home. But I don’t really associate them as being useful for anything other than barking. They don’t cause pain, in the way that a shock collar does, but they DO cause a dog to be uncomfortable by spraying a burst of citronella oil into the dog’s face, nose, and sometimes eyes. Many people think they are less aversive than shock collars, because they don’t use electricity, but what a lot of folks don’t consider is how important a dog’s nose is to their world, and how dogs understand scent. Knowing about how much better a dog’s sense of smell is than ours, and how important it is, it may even be more aversive (it doesn’t have to be painful to be aversive!) than a momentary shock because of how long the oil sticks to the nasal passages, hair, etc.



The secondary problem that they come with is the same with the shock collars – once you start using it, if it is effective, you’ll probably be reliant upon it for life, because dogs become very knowledgable about when the collar is on versus off. Most dogs who need to use these collars cannot be weaned off of them, and once you do, the behaviours come back quite quickly. This is because the dog has learned by context, and the behaviour depends on the presence of the collar.



That being said, of course dogs who are trained using food rewards will always need random rewards for good behaviour throughout its life (as any behaviour will only persist as long as it is either reinforced once in a while, or punished for lack of compliance). The learning component is no different. But personally, I would much rather use rewards for good behaviour, over the life of the dog, than punishments for unwanted behaviour, for the life of the dog. I suppose you just need to know what you would rather do, and ask yourself if there’s a way to use rewards to get to the same behaviour that the citronella collar would be used for. "