If you are a dog owner,like myself, hen I am sure you have no problem with your lovable pet barking.  It is what they are supposed to do.  Getting mad at the fact that your dog barks is like getting mad at your newborn baby for crying.

What can get extremely annoying, however, is incessant barking that never seems to end.

The individual living next to school, busy street or anyone with neighbors might find himself getting a daily headache from the daily barks his dogs make whenever they see any sign of life on the outside.

What is the solution?  As you might have guessed from the title: an anti bark collar.

When I started this blog two years I had a pug that I loved dearly.  He was the cutest dog you have ever seen.  But I could not get him to shut up.  It got to the point where it was going to be me or him.  And, since Woodstock (my dog) could not make the house payment it would be him.

I broke down and got him a shock collar.  It cost me a little more than $118.  It had various settings so you could adjust it as needed.  Within a day I started to see its affects.  It took a couple hard “zaps” and I did feel sorry for the little guy, but it did what it was designed to do.  The loud barks went from crazy earth shattering noises to nothing.  He learned quickly that he was not going to be able to bark at everything.

Eventually, he did adjust.  He learned that the device only went off after three barks and that it did not activate if he barked soft.  I can live with that.  Again, it was never the fact that he did bark but what drove me crazy was the fact that he barked loudly at everything and at all times of the day.

When using these anti bark collars, though, here is what I have learned from experience:

Take Them Off At Night

So your dog does not get a rash it is a good idea to take them off before going to bed.  Just make sure you put the collar back on him or her as soon as you wake up.

Check the Battery

As long as the battery is good then a green light will be blinking.  When it is not then the battery is dead.  Its good to have some spare ones available just in case this happens.

Adjust Settings Over Time

As your dog learns you can lower the settings.  I am a firm believer of putting it on full blast for the first two days and then lowering the settings over the next week or so as your dog learns to adjust.

There are three types of collars on the market.  They are shock, sonic and citronella dog collars.  Each one has its own pros and cons and are all discussed in depth on this blog.  Read on to find out more about them.

I would like to assure you they are not.  The shock produced by these collars are really not meant to hurt the dog.  The shock is meant to create a small unpleasant sensation that tells them to stop doing whatever they are doing.

I was fairly leery myself of the whole “shock collar” device until I got a pug two years ago.  He is the cutest dog you have ever seen but he will bark non-stop at any and everything.  A school bus, kids, the mailman, other dogs, you name it he barks at it.  It was enough to make your nerves rattle at times.  I had to find some way to address this problem.

I went to the nearby pet store, Petco, and bought an anti bark collar for approximately $100 after some fierce negotiating with the store manager.  They had an ad on their website for one price yet when I went into the store they had another price.  The difference was $30 so I got them to take that off.  Anyway I bought it and put it on my dog that very day.  No keep in mind that most bark collars have several levels of correction so you can choose how strong the shock will be.  Even the top level will not hurt your dog but for small dogs likes mine I keep it at medium.

I have to admit that I did feel bad at first but wow did the training go fast.  With the collar one my dog stopped the constant barking within several hours and stopped most random barking within 2 days.

The bark collar does not just zap the dog whenever he barks.  He has to bark loud and more than three times for it to go off.  So after a while if he barked it was only two times and then he abruptly stopped.  Dogs learn quickly!

My pug is pretty good about barking now.  I do not mind the occasional bark he and there or to alert us that someone is at the door but the out of control inappropriate barking is pretty rare now.