 Effectively Ceased Our Dog's Barking Issues |
| Review Date: March 9, 2010 |
| Reviewer: H. Villaloboz, Aurora, IL |
For anyone who has lived in an apartment building with a dog (your own or a neighbor's), you can understand the need for extensive bark control training. With people coming in and out of their apartments all day and night, our 7 month old Irish Terrier (Seamus) was having a field day growling and barking at out neighbors. Our treat and scratchy training was proving effective in teaching Seamus basic commands like sit and come, but would not derail him when he got into a barking fit. The last straw was when one of our neighbors politely placed a note on our door complaining about the barking. Enter the Petsafe Remote Trainer (#PDLDT-305).
Like any responsible parent, I absolutely had to try the trainer for myself so I could gauge what kind of correction I was giving my dog. I placed the electrodes on, you guessed it, my neck, and started with level 1, in which I couldn't feel anything. 2 offered a slight tingle, but nothing really attention grabbing. 3 is where I could start to really get a sense of the "shock" the trainer gave. Petsafe describes it as "the same static shock you get from carpet" but I have to disagree. Whereas that shock is more of like an external jolt, this shock is more of an internal stabbing sensation, almost like getting pricked with a needle. Level 4 is quite uncomfortable, and level 5 is as far as I wanted to take my little experiment. Of course, your dog will have a different tolerance than you, so be sure to use the directions in the manual for finding your dog's tolerance. Level 4 is where we keep it for our pup.
But before setting the tolerance you have to actually get the collar on and situated where the electrodes make contact with your dog's skin and not just the hair. There are 2 sets of electrodes included, a shorter and longer set, for dogs of shorter and longer fur respectively. Seeing as our dog is still a pup, and not a large breed to begin with, we had to make the collar quite small before the electrodes would actually sit securely on his skin. This is a minor issue, seeing as how the receiver antenna for the remote trainer actually extends a considerable length throughout the collar. We exhausted the "antenna-less" portion of the collar and had to actually feed the antenna portion through the collar tightener. I'm not sure if this does damage to that area of the antenna, but it certainly doesn't make for easy adjustments. Also, the collar is a buckle style rather than our preferred "belt" style for collars. Overall, the collar quality is quite low. In fact, it is partially the reason why this product does not receive 5 stars from me.
However, the quality of the collar isn't so much a concern as the quality of the training aspect. With the collar fitted, the tolerance found, and a bustling downtown apartment building, we were ready to do some bark control training. It was a little after 5pm, so it didn't take long before our next door neighbor returned from work for the day. As usual, this set Seamus into a barking fit. I promptly engaged the shock and firmly told him "Quiet" as I held the button down. With 2 seconds he had recognized the shock, ceased barking, and walked away from the door. As soon as he did this, I released the shock and gave him scratchy praise. 10 minutes later, a neighbor down the hall came home and at this point Seamus began to growl. Without even engaging the shock, I firmly told him "Quiet" and that was the last peep he made about the whole situation. Amazing! The next day he was back to barking again, but we just continued the training as same as the day before. By the end of the week, we didn't even have the collar on and he didn't so much as growl as our neighbors came home. Success it would seem!
It's now been about 3 weeks since we began and we still don't have a need to continue the training. He will growl every so often when he hears a neighbor, but it has never escalated to barking, even without us telling him "Quiet" (such as in the middle of the night). To be honest, I have no way of knowing if he barks when we are not home, but we haven't received any more notes or calls about him, so I just have to assume he's as good alone as he is with us present. Like I mentioned earlier, treat and scratchy praise has been working fine for his other training so we haven't had a need for the remote trainer in those instances. But for the bark control training alone, this trainer was well worth the price. There are cheaper trainers that are automatic for bark control only, but we decided to spend the little extra so we have full control of when he gets corrected, as well as the option of using this trainer in the future for other training issues we face besides bark control. On the subject of extended use, the manual indicates that "if the remote trainer is left on 24/7, the batteries will last about 2 weeks". That would be about 335 hours. Petsafe recommends not leaving the trainer on more than 8 hours a day, so by that standard you can get about 40 days of use before you need to change the batteries. During the week we used our trainer, we only needed to leave it on about 2 hours. At our rate, that gives us about 6 months of use.
So there you have my own limited perspective on this product. I hope some find it helpful, as I couldn't find too many reviews on how this trainer worked for people seeking bark control. It seems like most users purchase this product to help with "come" and "down" commands, and I can see how this product could be quite effective for that type of training as well. In conclusion, I must say the Petsafe PDLDT-305 is well worth the $76 paid here on Amazon, if not just for our sanity but the sanity of our neighbors. |
Petsafe PDLDT-305 Deluxe Little-Dog Remote Trainer
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| Review Date: February 25, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Bobb L. Bittner, |
This unit didn't work very well.
The collar seemed like it would turn off randomly. There is no external indicator, so I couldn't tell whether it was on unless I caught my dog and clicked the on/off button. The warning beep is very quiet, so I couldn't even use that as an indicator of whether it was working. There is no button on the transmitter that beeps and then immediately shocks; I had to click both buttons in quick succession. I suspect that this makes it more difficult to associate the two in the dog's mind. The buttons were big and mushy and I couldn't tell when they were actually depressed.
Also, the collar has an antenna wire built into it. If your dog weighs less than 25 pounds or so, the wire actually has to go through the length-adjustment buckle. I don't imagine it is going to last very long, being folded over like that.
If you dog is over 25 pounds or so, the Yard-and-Park Remote Trainer (Petsafe PDT00-10603) will fit just fine. It is rechargeable, has a bunch of features that this unit does not, and it works great. That's what I ended up getting.
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Night and Day
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| Review Date: February 24, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Bryan E. Wilson, Virginia |
| After months of using verbal commands and a snout harness with no improvement, I decided to pick up this great collar. My dog would go crazy at the sight of another dog and sometimes even people when on walks, but after two days of using this product, he won't leave my side. I have only used the shock button 3 times at level 5, and the sound button any time he does something wrong. Walking him is so much easier but I've yet to test it when another dog is within 5 feet of us. Also, I let him off leash in a tennis court, and every time I pushed the sound button he came running back to me. As long as the collar/remote hold up I give this a 5 star rating. |
Great Product - Get Extra Batteries
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| Review Date: February 20, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Manuel Domingo, MONROE, NC, US |
| This product worked well even for my furry Keeshond. But make sure you get extra good batteries. The first couple of batteries I purchased only lasted a couple of days. Buying Energizer batteries made them last a couple of weeks. Their lasting about a month now since I rarely use the electric zap mode. |
Terrible range
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| Review Date: February 19, 2010 |
| Reviewer: J. Park, Henderson, NV USA |
| I had high hopes for this collar. Simply does not work past 30 feet. I thought the batteries were defective so I put new ones in and still the same result. Also, if I'm in range there's a pause between the time I hit the zap/sound button and when it registers on the collar. I bought this trainer after I bought the Petsafe's no bark collar which happened to work perfectly. |
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