Bark Collars

Automatic Bark Collars

I was asked today about the use of collars to deter barking. I decided it was best answered on a page about training & training tools.

Short answer -- electronic collars can be effective, but they are not without risk. Should never be used unsupervised. And need to be conditioned properly and paired with training - helping the dog know what the error is and what acceptable behavior is -- consistently. I never want to see a collar create a dog that is fearful of the collar or afraid to be vocal in any way. There are times being vocal is important!

I think it's best to teach the dog to not bark inappropriately, to use a command like "enough" or "quiet" when they stop, mark it and reward it so that they learn.

The canned air collars are NOT a better option, especially if they are fragranced. Given the dog's olfactory system, a face full of citronella would not be pleasant all day. Sure it might stop the barking, but it's likely more "punitive" to deal with unnecessary scent all day than to have a 1 and done electronic stim paired with teaching!

Supervision of electronic collars is required because they can malfunction. I have seen dogs bark, get stimmed, get scared and yelp gets stimmed again, and then panic again with the automatic bark collars and it's a hot mess trying to get the collar off a terrified and confused dog. That's a hard no for me. Don’t put them on your dog and leave the house hoping they will not bark while you’re gone. It could go very wrong.

So if you're going to use electronics, I prefer the remote-controlled version paired with proper teaching.

There are no shortcuts to dealing with dog behavior.

Bark Deterrent Collars

Read Our How-To Stop Barking Post