Do they work?

Kay and I are dog lovers, so one of our favourite programmes on the TV is Dog Borstal. For those that haven’t seen the programme, it is on for an hour and there are always 3 dogs from different households, or occasionally there may be more than one dog from the same household.

The dogs all have one thing in common; they have bad behaviour, whether it is running away, nastiness, disobedience, fouling in the house, humping people’s legs, or barking.
For the past seven years we have had a rescue dog, who wasn’t an Angel at first, but he is more like a Son to us now than a dog. He isn’t ruined though and doesn’t have any bad behaviour traits at all.

Our Son also got a rescue dog about 5 years ago, a Labrador cross, although it is the size of and virtually looks like a pedigree lab. They now have 3 young children and another dog and were struggling to cope with Millie, mainly because she has a barking habit and not only was she setting the other dog off, but she was waking the baby all the time. So, we have had her for the past 5 months and she is now our dog.

She is lovely natured and has been an Angel with the 3 young girls, but her barking is really annoying.
She doesn’t bark in the garden but only when people come to the door, or she thinks she has heard somebody about to. It is a fairly constant and loud bark and when she is near you it makes you jump.
It doesn’t stop either when she recognises the person; even me and I know it really annoys my eldest son who calls regularly. Unlike the other dog, she doesn’t recognise the sound of the different cars and the sound of the approaching person.

So, Kay went to a local pet shop and bought an anti barking collar of the type they have so much success with on Dog Borstal. It sprays water in the dogs face when they bark, but after 2 weeks of trying it with no success, we moved onto the next step. A Citronella spray canister to replace the water, but that didn’t work either. All you could hear when a visitor called was woof, hiss, woof, hiss and the air stank of Citronella, but there was no reduction in the barking. This was particularly annoying at meal times, when the smell of Citronella spoiled the taste of our food.

So, I bought a far cheaper anti barking collar which the dog also wears and it omits a high pitched noise when the dog barks. The problem is it not only picks up the other dogs occasional bark, but also punishes the innocent other dog every time Millie barks, with the high pitched squeal.

I know there is another type available which gives the dog an electric shock, the power of which can be altered, but as dog lovers we will not go down that street.

Mainly due to her sensing our annoyance, the barking is not quite as severe and so we are living with it.
I am sure that anti barking collars do work, but not on our Millie.