anti-bark colars

scotty1971

what are peoples thoughts on anti bark collars,pros and cons?

cheers

scott

gettingready

Why is the dog barking?
They won't work on all dogs, some are even cruel to use on a dog.
Finding the reason for barking and adressing it - far better option.

I had/have a 40kg of a barker so.. feel for anyone having to deal with that.

JennyW_2

scotty1971 wrote: »

what are peoples thoughts on anti bark collars,pros and cons?

cheers

scott

there are no pro's. Awful things. Please don't use one. Address the problem as to why your dog is barking.

any form of punishment to correct an animal will only make their behaviour worse

krlyr

The pro is that it's a quick fix - for the barking. Sometimes. Often a dog will know when the collar is on (so behave) and off (so mishave), or some suss out the citronella type collars and learn to bark in quick succession until the cannister is empty, and then they are free to bark without consequence all day. Depending on the cause of the barking, the dog's emotions may be expressed in a different matter - for example, becoming aggressive or destructive, 'self-harming' with fur pulling, chewing at their feet/tail, excessive licking to the point of lick granulomas, and other undesirable behaviours.
The collar may also cause bad associations with unrelated triggers. For example, your dog barks when left alone, you leave it with the collar on and off you go. The dog gets anxious and begins to bark - but at the same time, the postman walks up your driveway in plain sight. The collar sprays or shocks the dog and suddenly the postman has a negative association. If this keeps happening, the dog may begin to feel afraid of the postman and this could become a real issue - e.g. the dog reacting to everyone in a postie uniform or similar he sees out on walks. Or it wasn't the postman, but a courier driver, and now he's afraid of anyone carrying a large box past him. Or you/your partner/your child/your other dog/cat/whatever passed at the same time as the collar was set off and you create a new fear which could cause more serious problems than a barking problem.

Definately worth dealing with the cause of the barking rather than the symptom itself.

Fire_Fox

Watch some episodes of 'It's Me or the Dog'. Victoria Stilwell is very against these collars as being cruel and often ineffective, and shows relatively simple ways of training a dog out of inappropriate barking. You might also try a DAP diffuser.

scotty1971

my dog sleeps downstairs in the kitchen,we leave a radio on for him,but he howls and barks all night to get upstairs beside us,we have tried just leaving him too it,so he might eventually settle down but to no avail.the thing is if we go out during the day he settles fine in the kitchen and does not bark it is just through the night. any suggestions most welcome

scott

krlyr

If he is anxious about being left downstairs then you need to reduce his anxiety, a collar will most likely make things worse. If he stops barking he may end up becoming destructive instead.
The quickest fix would be to let him up with you, and then slowly work on moving him downstairs. An easy way to do this is to use a crate, if he is crate trained. Crate goes in your bedroom, and over time you just shift it closer and closer to the door, into the hall, down stairs, into the kitchen, etc. over days/weeks/months (however long it takes). If a crate won't fit in the bedroom, you can try a babygate across the bedroom door and have him settle on a bed just outside the bedroom.
Ideally you want him to settle from the go rather than whine to himself for 10 minutes/half an hour etc. so when you prepare his dinner, keep some food aside and pop it into a Kong. Wet food works best so if you feed him dry, cut his dinner portion down slightly to compensate and then put a bit of wet food into the Kong. Over time you can make the Kong more challenging, e.g. freezing it so it lasts longer. Then just give him the Kong when you go to bed so he has positive associations with being left.
When we moved house, Kiki started whining when downstairs overnight and I initially left the door open (she would actually choose to sleep downstairs still but knowing she had the option to come upstairs seemed enough to settle her), and during the day I would make positive associations with being left downstairs. So if I nipped up to the loo, I'd scatter a handful of treats on the floor as I closed the door and went upstairs. If I had to take the rubbish out to the front, I smeared a bit of cream cheese into a Kong to occupy her for the minute or so I was out. Then at night I would prepare a Kong and started to shut the door rather than leave it open, all the previous work had acclimatised her to the shut door and it didn't take long before she was happy to settle downstairs, door closed, at night. No need for a bark collar and it actually addressed the cause, the anxiety, rather than the symptom, the whining.

scotty1971

what is a "kong"? he goes into kennels for two weeks on saturday as we are going away on holiday.i'm hoping this does not make his anxiety worse

Fire_Fox

Good advice from Krlyr. Speak to your vet about the anxiety, get a referral to a behaviourist: this may be covered on your pet insurance. Alternatively watch some TV series on dog behavioural issues - separation anxiety, general anxiety and barking are often covered. A DAP diffuser could well help.

krlyr

A Kong is a pyramid shaped rubber toy that you fill with food - it can take the dog a while to get the food out, depending on how difficult you make it (dry food = really easy, large biscuits = slightly harder, wet food = harder still, jam packed with wet food & frozen solid = pretty challenging!). It also is great for anxiety and similar as the act of chewing and licking releases endorphins which can help calm a dog down - this is why some anxious dogs develop a habit of licking themselves/the floor, or chewing bits of fur off.
http://canineconcepts.co.uk/en/blog/30-how-to-use-a-kong-toy

There are quite a few products on the market for anxious dogs so could be worth looking into. For the kennels, a DAP/Adaptil collar may be worth looking into - it's the same concept as the diffuser but you leave it on the dog's neck, so you could introduce it a week or two before the kenneling to check the dog doesn't react badly (on the odd occasion it can make an anxious dog slightly worse, but it's not that common a reaction) and then leave it on while he's in the kennels so he gets the benefit of it there.
http://www.ehow.com/about_5372399_calmative-dogs.html

kingdavid2012

Most of the time,this is the case in my neighborhood that,when a stranger is approaching,the dogs feel alert and begin to bark.
You can't ban people from walking.Neither can you use an anti-bark collar ,too cruel.A tough thing.