Bark collars?

[deerminator]

Anyone have any thoughts on them? I have been looking at the tri-tronics one for each of our two energetic beagles. We had neighbors move in down at the lake with two labs and our dogs go absolutely bezerk each time they see them much less the neighbors. They have a 50 foot wide lot and so are pretty close to us. If they let their dogs come over to our place and hang out with our dogs, the beagles would settle down. They love other dogs for the most part and they are barking out of excitement. That's not a realistic option all of the time, though. And the only other one I can think of is to kennel them up in the garage on Summer weekends since the neighbors are seasonal. So I'm thinking of giving the bark collars a shot for everyone's sanity this Summer.

[fishwidow]

I do have bark collars for my dogs, but only use them when they get real excited, usually about deer crossing the creek on the back 40. I would start by suggesting to the neighbors that the dogs get introduced to each other, providing that none of them are agressive. Our dogs are contained by an invisible fence, but neighbor's dogs come over all the time to play. It works out pretty well for everyone. Good luck.

[Todd Caswell]

I'm not a big fan of bark collars, I have a couple and keep them in my truck and will only use them if I'm on the road and at a motel, if the dogs insist on making noise, witch isn't very often, I would rather teach them to be quiet, to me a bark collar is a bandade. You would be better off taking the time to teach them that barking and raising a fuss around other dogs isn't accecptable behavior. Always better to fix a problem than try to cover it up.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I have not used a bark collar for a long time. However, when my current dog was a young lad, I'm guessing right around 8-10 months old, I put a bark collar on him.

World of difference. He was a puppy though and not all growed up. Now he's not a barker. He'll let a few out if someone pulls into the driveway, or if he has a cat up a tree, or when I'm wrestling around with him, and that's pretty much it. He learned not to bark at and early age and I think teaching them not to bark as a pup is way better than trying to stop them from barking once they're growed up.

[deerminator]

Yeah, I'm not one to cover up problems either. But you also have to consider the breed and dog. I'm sorry, but Beagles are barkers, fierce ones in many cases. Had I realized this - and admittingly I dropped the ball - when they were younger, I would have worked on it to hopefully minimize the barking in such situations. But even then, who knows. I also have electric collars on the dogs to keep them in the yard. Sure, that's a Band-Aid to some but I did try to train them to stay in the yard initially. And you have to realize, beagles are bred to trail and the second a rabbit caught their attention, they were gone without that collar. Thanks for the input.

[Capt'nMorgan]

I use a bark collar anytime my GSP dog is kenneled outside. If I don't she will bark occasinaly but wine more. The tri-tronics has 5 different levels so you can set to your needs. it will display to you the number of times it corrects(shocks) the dog so you can determine the correct setting.

[B-man715]

I have a few beagles too. When we lived in the country they would bark at the occasional jogger a few hundred feet away, so I knew full well before we moved into town they were going to need some bark collars while we were away at work.

They definitely worked and stopped the barking. But the problem I soon found, was that the collars are activated by vibration (vocal chords).

My dogs also wear a containment collar. When they would scratch their neck or run around the yard fast enough the two collars would rub against eachother and activate the bark collar.

So I scrapped that idea and gently used an e-collar from inside the house when we were home. They still bark some, but the person has to be at the end of the driveway or walking up towards the house.