Little Scared To Ask This, But...

[poodlefan]

I'm not a fan of citronella collars - if the dog does find it aversive it's not much use to have the aversive odour lingering for minutes after the dog has ceased the behaviour.

Neither am I. I used the Innotek cold spray collars on my boys and they worked well. They certainly weren't depressed wearing them.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

would the lesson only be applied and only work when the dog is wearing the collar? Or is it something that they learn and you can take the collar off after a week or so and the lesson will stick?

This depends a lot on the dog. My dog is collar smart - she knows what the agility collar means, vs the one with all the tags hanging off it for council. But my uncle's bedlingtons totally respect the "invisible fence" even though they haven't had their collars on for ages.

It also depends on whether the collar is on when it's switched off. Ie this is recommended for dogs that are good at figuring things out. So that they don't associate the collar directly with the punishment. But I wouldn't want them to know they could bark and not get punished if this was the system I was using.

I'd have to be pretty desperate to want to go that path with what I know about +r and +p now.

[Astese]

I have a GSD who barks whenever someone comes close to the fence or is actually walking up our driveway. After a visit from the Rangers (who suggested their spray collars, which did not work anyway) I purchased a barking collar dogtra YS500. It works wonderfully now I put it on her without turning it on. Highly recommend this one but you must realise that they are illegal in some states. The people who use reward training will no doubtably disagree with the use of such collars. But if the Council is involved it is worth the money and it works.