I'm trying to decide between the two for a gift for the mother-in-law.

She has a 2 year old mix that is driving her nuts barking, inside, outside, all the time. She had friends over the other night and her dog barked the entire time (several hours straight), even after she crated her in the basement. She has tried verbal corrections and leash corrections with no luck. She admittedly is not a very good dog trainer.

She want's to control the barking, not completely eliminate barking. My impression of a bark limiter vs an e-collar is that the bark limiter will eventually completely eliminate a dog's barking. It works independent of the handler though, so the fact that she is not very good with timing, corrections, etc, would be eliminated.

She would still like the dog to bark to warn her if somone is at the door, in the house, to go out, come in, etc.

Would an e-collar be a better choice, giving her the control to correct when needed? Does Ed's DVD on e-collars cover how to utlize the e-collar to control barking?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 Quote: Keith Jablonowski

It works independent of the handler though, so the fact that she is not very good with timing, corrections, etc, would be eliminated.

I would go with the bark collar if she is not good with timing and correction. This way she can have the collar on the dog when she does not want it to bark (friends over and such) but with the collar off the dog would probably still bark.

I would get her the pack leader video and the basic obedience video as well.

I use bark collars on my dogs. You can use an e-collar but like you say, timing is key and if she cannot get the timing down then the e-collar will not be effective.

I can't comment on the desire to have differential barking while the collar is on the dog and would love to see the responses there, but my vote is for a bark collar.

The timing of correction for barking is very difficult. And for not a very good dog trainer, it could be disasterous as she could be inadvertently correcting a desired behavior.

With good training perhaps you could teach a DIFFERENT behavior when someone comes to the house like tugging on a bell or bouncing on her. But that takes a commitment to training, which would need continual reinforcement, which it sounds like she may not have

Personally, if my one bark meister never barked at all I would be perfectly happy. She knows when the collar is on and when it is not. She has learned to modulate her bark so as not to get shocked by changing the timing and the pitch (both with the Petsafe and the Tritronics) - but it still reduces it greatly. Unfortunately the modulated bark is at a higher pitch and is more annying.

Any collar left on the dog - she will need to be aware that it needs to be tight to work, and needs to be moved around so the contact points don't cause sores.

For continual wear spend the extra money for the Tritronics. The petsafe batteries will eat you alive.

 Quote: Nancy Jocoy

For continual wear spend the extra money for the Tritronics. The petsafe batteries will eat you alive.

Tritronics are good collars, but Dogtra's rock. I have a Sport Dog made by Tri Tronic, and while it is a good collar (good for a half way serious barker) it is not near what I need and the dogs can bark through it. The Dogtra, well, all is quiet. They don't even try.

Innotek sucks, in my opinion.

Good to know - my tritronics was given to me but the Dogtra is rechargable too, isn't it?

Yep, totally rechargeable.

Carol, I don't see the Dogtra no-bark collar on Leerburg, only the Tri-Tronics. Am I missing it? If not, any idea why Leerburg doesn't carry it?

http://www.leerburg.com/815.htm

This is the only one he sells, and he explains why. To be honest, I have never had experience with that collar, but if LB is using it then it must be a good one.

The only one from Tri Tronics I have is the Sport Dog, so that is why my opinion of Dogtra is high. I bought mine at a pet store for about $90.

I probably would purchase this TT collar after reading about it and I like the dummy collar as well.

Hey Keith, I got the Tri-tronics and the dummy collar from Leerburg and it works perfectly. When he has the collar on he will not bark. He barks fine without it. It hasnt changed his behavior except he chases the squirrels in our back yard silently.

What is the function of the dummy collar? What is the advantage/disadvantage of using or not using it?

Would the E-Collar DVD be of any use for just the Tri-tronics bark limiter?