Do no bark collars really work?

[Frankie Flowers]

My dog is a huge barker. Lately, it's become really bothersome, and I can't let him out in the yard without supervision because he bothers the neighbors. He literally barks insanely at nothing. I am not sure what is causing the escalation. My brother had a dog that barked a lot, and he used a no-bark collar. It seemed to work, but I don't like the idea of shocking my dog. I know some can just buzz or beep. I really need to stop this crazy barking. I can't really afford a trainer, but I can try to do it myself. Do you have any advice on where to start and or no bark collars that really work?

 

[Alex Schenker]

In our experience, how well "no bark" collars work totally depends on the dog. Our dalmation, for example, hated citronella spray, so we were able to get him a citronella collar and it worked great (no shocking necessary - and it doesn't look like it's available anymore or I would post the exact one we used). However with our other dog, a Carolina Brown mix, the priority was to keep her from running into streets and getting run over by cars, so a shock collar was the only way (to jolt her to attention when chasing a squirrel or deer).

We've got articles covering bark collars, shock collars, and training collars in-depth that you may be interested in exploring further.