PetSafe Spray Bark Control Collar for Dogs 8 lbs & Up – Adjustable Anti-Bark Training Device (Fits 27" Neck) – Safe & Humane Solution for Excessive Barking at Home, Outdoors & Travel

After researching anti-bark methods and devices online, I found several independent research articles on the success/fail rate of the different types (not brands) of anti-bark collars on the market and found time after time that the citronella spray collars have a much higher success rate than the shock or vibration type collars. I did not want to use a shock collar, and even after reading the research, I was VERY skeptical that citronella would stop or even deter my dog from barking-- He barks at everything and I mean EVERYTHING: every car that passes by, every squirrel on a branch, the light "click" from the thermostat when the A/C kicks on, any sound from the television that is even remotely similar to a doorbell will set him off, etc. Enough was enough and I finally decided to try a spray collar. I read the various Amazon reviews and decided this Pet Safe collar seemed to be the most promising. It arrived well packaged, included everything needed to start using immediately, and came with very clear and easy to follow instructions. I tested the collar by "barking" towards the microphone and heard a small"poof" followed by a very, very faint smell of citronella. In general, dogs supposedly have a strong dislike for the smell of citronella...and with the collar's "poof" of the citronella scent being so faint, I was 100 times more skeptical. Nevertheless, I adjusted the collar to fit, put it on my dog, opened his doggie door, and off he went. Per usual, he sprinted down the steps of the deck while simultaneously starting to bark, BUT he came to a sudden stop 3-4 steps down the stairs. He stood there "frozen" for a few seconds and then attempted to resume his usual chorus of barking, BUT again, he stopped and my skepticism was beginning to lift! Long story shortened: After 2 days of putting the collar on him before I open his doggie door first thing in the morning and wearing it for an hour each of the two mornings, he no longer barked inside nor outside. After a couple of weeks of bark-free living, he began to bark inside one afternoon. I pulled out the collar and headed towards him. Once he saw it, he immediately stopped barking. I've had this collar for several months now, and while my dog only wore it for 1-2 hours each of 3 times, he is no longer a barker. I'm still in total awe of this collar! My neighbor is a vet and her practice also has an adoption center for homeless animals. She will often foster 2-3 dogs at a time until a permanent home can be found. Low & behold she brought home a STRONG barker. Like me, she was completely against using a shock collar. So, I told her about my experience and offered her the use of my dog's collar. It worked and completely stopped her foster dogs from barking, and she ordered one for herself. Not only does it seem inhumane to use a shock collar, citronella spray collars have plenty of research available proving that it's more effective. I cannot recommend this collar enough. If you're unsure & skeptical like I was, I suggest you give this collar a try.**UPDATE** March 10, 2019I purchased this collar in January 2017 and wrote my above review exactly one year later in Jan. 2018. Now, another year has passed, and I thought an update might be helpful. Every 2-3 months I find myself needing to pull the collar out to remind my pup, Raddles, that it's not acceptable when his nuisance barking rears its head. Half of the time, all that's needed is for him to see the collar to put him back in line. The other half of the time, I need to put it on him for an hour, maybe two. I pulled it out last week and when I tested it, it didn't give off the familiar "poof" of sound and light mist of citronella. Hoping that it was simply a dead battery, I ordered the least expensive, appropriately sized battery that Amazon sells (an 8 pack for just under $10). As it turned out, the battery simply needed to be replaced, and the collar worked just like it did out of the box. After an hour of wearing the collar one morning, Raddles was quickly reminded that barking wasn't acceptable and back in the drawer it went. When I began writing this update, I noticed that there are now two versions of this collar: The Original (which I bought) and an Upgraded/Newer version. As of today (3/10/19) the newer version is about $35 more than the original, and the differences appear to be that the newer version is rechargeable & the citronella spray comes in a longer lasting replaceable cartridge instead of a can that you use to refill the collar manually. Personally, I wouldn't pay the additional cost of the Newer/Upgraded version. Why? #1) My original battery lasted 2+years w/light use and even with more heavy-duty use, the generic batteries on Amazon are about $1.15/each and #2) The refill cartridges in the newer version are 2.5 times the cost of the refill can of citronella (I'm still on the can that came with the collar AND I've lent the collar & can out to at least a handful of friends skeptical the collar would work for their dog but& on the fence about purchasing it-- everyone loved it.). So, even though I don't have experience with the newest/upgraded version, for the cost difference, I'd personally stick with the proven original version!We have an 11 month old 7 lb. Yorkie, who aside from her separation anxiety/barking is a good little dog. She would go in "panic mode" when we left her alone (even though we have a cat, she wanted the human companionship). She wouldn't just bark for a few minutes, no, but for hours, only stopping when she would collapse of pure exhaustion. When we returned she would have peed or pooped and quite often in her state of panic, she would run through the poop and you can just imagine the mess. We resorted to putting her in diapers when we left her alone. We were living with our own anxiety about her barking, having to have pet-sitters or find pet friendly venues to take her on outings. We were just waiting for the complaints from the very patient neighbors. I bought the Cesar Milan books, read everything I could and implemented every training technique possible to try to stop the barking. Nothing worked! Fortunately, I have a friend who uses these collars on her dogs, and I looked up bark collars on the net and read all the comparisons and chose this one. (As a side note, I found the fact that these Citronella collars are more effective than shock collars, very comforting, as I would never consider using such a method on my dog.)We anxiously awaited the day for the product to arrive. In preparation, I decided to start aqcuainting the dog with the idea of a spray of water as punishment for barking, by using a water spray bottle on the mist setting. I would have the water bottle right outside the door and when she started the barking (as soon as we clicked the door shut), I would step back in and give her a quick spray and telling her "No bark, bad girl!". She would stop for a minute and of course continue barking.When the package arrived I was so excited but a little dismayed that the instructions suggested putting the collar on the dog in un-armed mode (no spray, no battery) for about a week. Not wanting to create any variable that might make this experiment all go wrong, I did exactly that. I put it on her from time to time and she didn't seem to mind at all.One week later, my husband returns from a business trip and we started day one of "Operation No Bark". I followed the instructions to the T, which said do not allow the dog to see you filling the tank with the citronella. As she has said "Separation Anxiety" I had to slip into the bathroom and lock her out while doing it! I put the batteries in, and placed the collar on her. The moment we were ready to step out the door, I turned the switch to the "on" position. We stepped out. Within one second we heard the usual high pitched yelp, but it was kind of cut short and then half a yelp and then...nothing! The glorious sound of silence. We left her for about 2 hours that first day. Day two, same thing, but this time only half a yelp, and no more barking, we left her for four hours. Neighbors assured me no barking went on while we were away. The first two days we still used the diaper and indeed she had wet in them. But, we noticed after using the bark collar the third and fourth time that she seemed calmer when we returned, as if not barking helped her to not escalate into such a panic attack. She stopped wetting her diapers and we stopped putting them on her.I don't think she associates the collar with the spray, so I always pick her up immediately when I return and switch it into "off" mode before she gets sprayed for her yelps of happiness. I remove the collar after a while to keep her from having the association.The first few times, I felt sorry for the side effect of her not barking even in a joyous fashion like when my husband would return home, or playing with the cat, (even when she didn't have the collar on). But eventually she began to bark at the "appropriate" times as she figured out it only happened when we left her. Now everyone is happy, and I want to give the inventor of this collar a huge hug and my deepest gratitude!My lovely little cocker spaniel bitch becomes hysterical when the postman arrives. Ditto if she sees my daughters hens. Otherwise she is as good as gold. We tried all the known techniques to train her out of this behaviour and finally bought this collar in desperation and after a friend's recommendation. What can I say ... it works, and she got the message really quickly. The post arrived, she rushed to the door, barked, stopped and stared at the letter box, barked again, stopped, walked away. Next day she ignored the post. Next day she tried other types of noises, yelps, growls, etc - presumably to see if she could find a compromise. Then she gave up. It was really that quick. Mostly now we only have to put the collar on her (with the spray switched off) for her to stop barking completely and we only have to do that once in a while.With the hens she was cautious around them, then finally gave in and barked, whereupon the spray released went over her muzzle and the hens! If I say that all of them stopped dead and stared at each other as if to say "how did you do that?" you will get the picture. She now ignores them.One work of caution however, this collar would not work in a multi dog household - if another dog barks the one wearing the collar gets sprayed - not fun and not fair!! We also took care to follow the suggestion that we never put the collar on when we are having fun with the dog either at home or taking her for walks. She has to be able to bark sometimes.I have three dogs and when I am out I ( I often leave at 5.30 am) I leave them in my basement which leads directly to the garden, so they have a run and do they love to run and bark, yes they do! They are big dogs with big barks. I have used these collars regularly as I leave them for a period each day and have found that the battery has lasted a long time + they dont need refilling with citronella too often either.I brought extra batteries and plenty of spare tins of citronella but wonder if that was a waste of money as I havent needed to replace the batteries, but have topped up the citronella. I dont think it ran out i was just being cautiousMy dogs do not bark with these collars on and if they ever forget and make a noise, the puff of citronella in their faces (bless em) stops them straight away. I have a puppy aged 9mths he loves to bark. Theses collars arnt recommended for pups under six months so I didnt use one until he got to 7mths. When he wore it and barked he looked aghast and stopped barking imediatley.The good thing is they dont associate you as the owner with the bad experience so you remain their fav person. My dogs dont need the collar every time I go out now as they have learned barking isnt a good thing to do. Theses collars are not the cheapest on the market but they represent good value for money as they work and help keep peaceful relations with neighbours. They are durable too. I am notoriously clumsy and have dropped them on concrete floors from standing height with no ill effect thus far; so they have withstood me, my golden retreiver puppy, his mum and our boarder collie. I read lots of reviews and found pluses and minuses for them all, but had to buy something and am happy that i settled on these collars. I would recommend these collars for what it is worth.After trying everything else, even paying a dog trainer, to get my dog to stop barking like something possessed by the devil every time someone/something passed a window or the back garden fence or came to my door, I reluctantly bought a shock collar. This didn't work either as the transmitter unit would go on standby after a couple of mins and would take a couple of seconds to be re-activated. By which time she had already started barking and was in the 'zone' so wouldn't stop. I had bought a similar spray collar previously but looking back it was either not sensitive enough or was faulty. Anyway, I bought this collar and the first knock at my door while she was wearing it she barked, but the spray activated immediately and she only barked once. About 20 mins later a delivery arrived and she went to bark but as soon as the grumble started in her throat the collar sprayed and stopped her in her tracks ! Now whenever there's a situation where she would usually bark like a maniac, she gets up to have a look then just 'snuffles' and lies back down, B L I S S !!! Her barking was so bad I was really considering re-homing her. The collar has also stopped her from jumping around like she was on hot coals whenever we had visitors. So we now have a calm, and much more happy dog AND a much much quieter and happier home YAY !!! Only draw back is the STINK ! It is truly HORRIBLE ! It is NOT a 'nice' lemony scent, but we just spray an air freshener or leave the room for a few seconds until the smell dissipates. I wish this brand had been my first spray collar purchase as we would've had these results a LONG time ago.Our 18 month Bichon Frise used to barks/yelp non-stop when we left him alone . We videoed him to confirm this (a neighbour had told us), and yes it was constant. We are retired so at least one of us is home most of the time, but we found we could not go out together without taking him with us, and sometimes this was not possible, and we even had to ask relatives to dog-sit.Plug-in pheromone machines did not work, and we tried one of those devices that emits a high-pitched sound when a dog barks, but that didn't work either. It was as a last resort that we ordered the citronella version of the Innotek Anti-barking Spray Collar.We were very sceptical....but it worked like a dream right from the first go!!! One bark and a couple of yips and he got the hint, and he has even twigged that if he has the collar on he does not bark, but when it is off he can, and we only ever use it if we just have to go out together. We know he hasn't barked when we have been out because we have listened from the driveway, from inside next door, and also the place does not smell of citronella when we get back, which would be a good sign. The dog does not appear to be nervous either and is just lying there with his toys/chews calmly waiting for us.It's done the trick, and at a reasonable price too, as some of those 'squirty collars' are so expensive, especially if you don't know if they are going to work when you spend the money. Really great product. May not work for all dogs, but certainly did for ours. Can't recommend it highly enough!!I made the mistake of using this product for about a week, finding it didn't work when I went out, and abandoning it. I went about it all the wrong way. If your dog is suffering from anxiety which is causing her to bark, then address all that at the same time as using the product, if not before. I found that using it during the day gave her enough time to realise that should she bark, something happened.Then when she stopped, I could say 'Quiet. Good girl', and she would learn that the bad thing happened when she was noisy but if she was quiet, *immediately* she got praise and a treat.Then I made the mistake of leaving an anxious dog on her own for half an hour, and all she did was get more upset and angry in an already fraught situation. Her anxiety far outweighed the effect the collar had, and I returned to a house full of an intense lemon smell! Don't do that, is my suggestion. Work up to it outside of anxious situations, like leaving the house or placing inside a crate.Then I gave up altogether. Don't do that, either.She is wearing it again now and once more she is learning that if she barks, something happens. We have, as I write, got it down to a very tiny 'oooofff' which she has worked out is her noise limit. That's fine: It shouldn't upset the neighbours any further. My leaving the house still needs serious work, but hopefully patience, training, gradual separation, and the collar will all come together.