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Originally Posted by ziggy925  Well, because it may work on some dogs, but it didn't do squat with Ruger. I even called the company several times to get advice and we wound up returning it.
Tonight Ruger went downstairs and started crazy barking out the window. "Quiet," didn't work - never does, so I put the collar on him. He barked a couple more times, made a sound like "Hey, WTF," - and hasn't made another sound all night. I just took it off and he's still quiet.
I will admit I feel better since I put the resistor on the collar, and now it's more like getting his attention. I want to thank everyone for convincing me to rethink the bark collar.
The way I see it if you are going to train your dog you have to catch him the instant he does something wrong. As we all know, you don't rub your dog's nose in a mess he made, especially when you didn't see it happen. If you catch the dog in the act you are supposed to startle him and place him where he's supposed to go. The collar startles the dog the instant he barks. Often, all I have to do is put the collar on him and he stops and won't bark again.
Some of you obviously swear by vibrating collars, ultrasonic devices and sprays, but none of these devices worked at all on my or my girlfriend's dog. This is also born out in the ratings these devices get. Again, I would never hurt my dog, and many of you make it sound like I've got Ruger strapped to a little electric chair.  |
You probably didn't want to hurt your dog. Nevertheless, the dog kept yelping from a training device and it was not immediately taken off, so you did hurt your dog. Stuff happens. Lesson learned. Move on... However, I really hope that you tried the new collar with the resistors around your own neck for a few hours to see 1) exactly how much discomfort there is - discomfort vs. pain (keeping in mind that a small dog is going to experience pain much faster than a person even if they don't show it, and 2) thought during that time exactly what it felt like not being able to talk because that is exactly what is continuous suppressed in your pup over fear of being hurt.
I'm not saying a dog should bark all day and run the house, but it's a very natural behavior and IMO one or two barks now and then should not automatically be stopped (but that is what is happening now).