Many dog owners are getting fantastic results using a spray bark collar but you need to be aware of how to best use them.
Using an anti bark spray collar will normally reduce your dog's nuisance barking, and without you even having to be there to train your dog in person. Nowadays the technology they build into the anti bark spray collars includes a microphone that releases a citronella spray when you dog starts barking - all on autopilot for you.
The citronella spray is harmless to your pet but works to interrupt your dog's behaviour. The look on your dog's face the first time it gets a spray is classic and you will find it hard not to laugh when you see it. But when your dog has had a couple of sprays it realizes very quickly that barking results in consequences for the first time in its life.
The spray works on four out of the five senses; dogs hear it, see it, feel it, and smell it. Citronella is a unique scent that most pets don't normally get a lot of and normally don't like it much.
At the very least, your dog will now smell a lot better, while at the same time getting trained to stop barking.
Why is a Citronella Dog Collar Better To Use?
There are other barking dog collar types you can use so here's why I think these are best.
You may have been considering an electric shock collar or an ultra-sonic collar to try training your dog to not bark, using pain as a deterrent.
But you are likely to discover that this kind of pain therapy is less effective than spray and the pain of shock treatments may just make your dog anxious and aggressive, and can in fact make the problem behaviour even worse as a result.
But a citronella dog collar simply sprays the neck to release an unfamiliar scent, that interrupts the dogs pattern of behaviour and distracts them long enough to break their old patterns.
It is a great remote-control reinforcement when you are also there to verbally reprimand them, so that they soon learn to associate the smell with your verbal commands and you won't need to be there to stop barking. But it also helps to reinforce your verbal commands, as the dog will remember the 'unpleasant' smell of citronella when you need to tell it to stop barking, long after it has stopped wearing the collar.
The dog training citronella anti bark spray collar can also be used with any breed of dog, as long as it weighs 6 pounds (3 kilos) or more and is aged six months or older.
The only main reason to not use a collar like this is when a dog is suffering from anxiety related barking, as they need actual behaviour modification training and confidence building to make them feel more secure and confident. In those cases, any of the anti-bark dog collars should not be used. Get a dog trainer to help you with advice for how to support your dog through this period of anxiety, as their expertise is what is required in cases like that.
In most cases with medium to large sized dogs using an anti bark spray collar is a simple and humane way to train your dog to stop barking, and you just need to use commonsense in how you use it with your dog.
When you first get the collar, make sure it is only fitted on the dog when you are there to supervise it and make sure that it is operating correctly. Occasionally a defective sprayer or over-sensitive microphone could cause constant spraying to your dog when it is not barking at all, so make sure your dog is not being sprayed needlessly.
Remove the collar when the dog is normally quiet, for instance if it sleeps inside at night and doesn't bark, then there is no need to leave the collar on. Sometimes other noises or a sensitive microphone on the collar can result in wasted citronella when the dog was not barking, so remove the collar for the hours of the day or night when it is not essential for the training. Remember to turn OFF the spray mechanism to preserve the battery life when you remove the collar, otherwise you will be replacing batteries unnecessarily.
Most users of these anti barking collars highly recommend them, especially compared to electric shock collars that use pain aversion therapy as a training too. If you and your dog find the citronella too extreme you can even get scent free spray collars to help your dog stop barking.
It certainly is a big improvement on the bucket of water by the back door that I used to train my first dog with 35 years ago! Most of the time we both ended up soaked and miserable, and all that old fashioned way of training dogs to stop barking really achieved was to make my dog hate water and make giving him a bath nearly impossible. I really wish this training system had been around back then as I know we would both have been much happier using this method.
