Citronella Bark Collar
Citronella Bark Collar
Citronella Bark Collar (also called citronella anti bark collar or simple gentle spray) is considered by many users to be “the safest”, “most humane”, and “the most effective” bark control product available.
This bold statement has prompted us to research these claims and see whether they stand the test or not.
Citronella Bark Collar: The Basics
We started our research by looking into some basic information such as history, design, features, and how it works. Citronella bark collar was introduced to US market in 1995 to address the need for the safe, human and effective bark control collar.
When it comes to citronella bark collar design it resembles the regular bark collar with the addition of a citronella spray device.
This device is equipped with: bark sensing unit (top models come with dual bark detection system), spray valve, fill port and battery compartment.
Citronella Bark Collar Features:
Citronella Bark Collar features will vary depending on the particular model. However, most models advertise some common features such as:
- Uses a burst of safe citronella spray to deter the excessive barking
- Suitable for dogs of all sizes
- Safe
- Humane
- Effective
- Warranty (some models come with lifetime warranty)
How Does Citronella Bark Collar Work?
Some are surprise to find out that citronella bark collar isn’t sold in “ready-to-use” condition and (usually) there are two steps we need to do before we can start using citronella bark collar:
1. Prepare the collar
2. Getting our dog acquainted with the collar
How To Prepare Citronella Bark Collar For Use?
Preparing citronella bark collar to use usually involves attaching the spray device to the strap, filling the spray container with the citronella, inserting the batteries, and testing the unit.
How To Get Our Dog Acquainted With Citronella Collar?
Getting our dog acquainted with this bark collar is equally important! It usually involves fitting the spray collar to our dog properly and making sure that bark sensing unit faces dogs neck. It is recommended to adjust a collar to fit just like a regular collar (we should be able to slip two fingers under the collar).
Using The Citronella Bark Collar
It is important to read “User Guide” before we use this citronella collar. (Here is copy of innotek spray commander user guide) It instructs us to plan our first session when we have plenty of time to monitor our dog. In order to avoid that our dog associates bark collar with us, it is recommended to put this collar on our dog some 30-45 minutes prior to our first session.
When all of the above preparation steps have been completed we should test how it works. It is achieved by putting our dog into the situation that usually triggers the barking.
What To Expect?
Our dog could respond in several ways; he may try to “jump away” from the spray, he may shake his head; or maybe just keep sneezing.
Using Citronella Bark Collar For Training
Before we continue, it might be good idea to take a short break and summarize what we have covered so far. This short video from PetSafe seems to be just what we need at this time.
(Please note that this video cover so-called remote citronella bark collar model but still the most basic principles remain the same).
At the very beginning of the Premier Gentle Spray Citronella Anti Bark Collar (User) Instruction Guide it says:
This revolutionary product allows you to combine patented Spray Logic™ technology with proven behavior modification techniques.
So; if I understand this correctly, Premier tells us upfront that (for the best results) we need to combine their patented Spray Logic ™ technology with proven behavior modification techniques!?
How So?
It is important to point out that the critics of bark collars for dogs have pointed out that while bark collars may be effective at stopping the unwanted behavior(s), they do next to nothing in introducing the desired behavior and reinforcing it.
On their web site Humane Society of the United States we find the following comment on the use of aversive collars (chock chains, pinch collars and shock collars):
Some trainers use aversive collars to train “difficult” dogs with correction or punishment. These collars rely on physical discomfort or even pain to teach the dog what not to do.
They suppress the unwanted behavior but don’t teach him what the proper one is. At best, they are unpleasant for your dog, and at worst, they may cause your dog to act aggressively and even bite you. Positive training methods should always be your first choice.
These comments, as you may have noticed, do not mention the citronella bark collar. Does it mean citronella bark collar isn’t considered a “Aversive Collar”?
In order to move forward we need to look into several (scientific) definitions related to dog training (Operant Conditioning)
On her website http://www.clickertraining.com/glossary, Karen Pryor, leading authority in the field of clicker training, offers great collection of (clicker) dog training terms. Let’s take a look at a few that will help us gain more understanding to the above comments.
Aversive
Any circumstance or event that causes pain, fear, or emotional discomfort.
Operant conditioning (OC)
The process of changing an animal’s response to a certain stimulus by manipulating the consequences that immediately follow the response. The five principles of operant conditioning were developed by B.F. Skinner.
Clicker training is a subset of operant conditioning, using only positive reinforcement, extinction, and, to a lesser extent, negative punishment.
Classical conditioning
The process of associating a neutral stimulus with an involuntary response until the stimulus elicits the response.
Punishment
In operant conditioning, a consequence to a behavior in which something is added to or removed from the situation to make the behavior less likely to occur in the future.
Negative punishment (P-)
Taking away something the animal will work for to suppress (lessen the frequency of) a behavior. For example, a dog jumps on you to get attention. By turning your back or leaving the room, you apply P- by removing the attention he wants.
Positive punishment (P+)
Adding something the animal will work to avoid to suppress (lessen the frequency of) a behavior. For example, jerking on the leash to stop a dog from jumping on someone is P+ used to suppress the behavior of jumping. Other common examples of P+ include yelling, nose taps, spanking, electric shock, and assorted “booby traps.”
For more clicker training terms please visit http://www.clickertraining.com/glossary
After taking a look at the above definitions it becomes clear why Humane Society of the United States didn’t include citronella bark collar on the list above.
To take it a “step further, we recommend checking out this great article by Doug Johnson where he explains why citronella bark collar isn’t considered an aversive punishment but rather disruptive stimulus.
How To Use Citronella Bark Collar To Achieve The Best Results?
It is time now to see just what Premier had in mind when saying: “This revolutionary product allows you to combine patented Spray Logic technology with proven behavior modification techniques.”
In their User Guide they recommend follow technique:
When bark collar discovers dog barking it will deliver a burst of citronella which will startle our dog. As mentioned earlier in this article, our dog may respond in many different ways such as shake his head or sneeze.
It is important that at this point we do not yell at our dog “NO” or for that matter say anything during the time when our dog barks. However, when our dog stops barking we should acknowledge it by using our favorite verbal cue (such as “good quiet”) and reward our dog for desired behavior.
Why It Is Important To Stay Consistent With This Technique?
Perhaps the easiest way to answer this question is to look into so-called learning theory (to find out more about, generally speaking, learning theory check out http://www.learning-theories.com) and particularly, when it comes do dog training, the theory of “Classical Conditioning and “Operant Conditioning”
Now, I am not suggesting here that dog owners or dog trainers must have some degree in Psychology but rather that knowing the basics of how our dog learns will make it much easier to teach our dog(s) whatever it is that we want to teach him.
Dog Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov
Classical conditioning is also referred to as “Pavlovian Conditioning” on the account that it was the Russian Physiologist Ivan Pavlov who made very interesting observation while studying digestion in dogs.
In order to understand this theory let’s make a clear distinction between two types of stimuli:
- Primary or unconditioned stimuli (US) and
- Secondary or conditioned stimuli (CS)
Primary stimuli are those to which dogs (or other animals) respond naturally, without having to be trained to respond. Such stimuli are food, pain, and other instinctive stimuli. For example when we present food to our dog he start drooling naturally.
Secondary stimuli or conditioned stimuli (CS) as the name suggest, are those stimuli to which dog will respond only after being trained to do so (after being associated with the primary stimulus).
During his experiment, while presenting dog variety of edible and non-edible items, Pavlov discovered that dog salivation was rather automatic response to the specific stimulus.
However, he also noted that sometimes dog would start to salivate even-though there was no food presented (so no smell of food as well) but only his assistant (who usually was feeding dogs).
And this gave a new theory that this was “learned response” due to building the associations between lab assistant (who was wearing a white coat) and the presentation of food.
So, any time dog sees the lab assistant, he expects the food to be presented and started to salivate. Pavlov called this response conditioned response and went on to experiment further by ringing the bell each time they would present a food to dog.
He predicted that after some time dog would start to salivate only if he hears a sound of the bell. And that’s exactly what had happened.
Operant Conditioning
In the contrast to the Classical Condition, where association is built between two stimuli, the Operant Condition is geared toward building the association between the behavior and consequence.
Just what consequences a behavior may have?
Basically, there a four consequences:
- Something good happens and behavior will increase (Positive Reinforcement: R+)
- Something good ends, or taken away which will decrease the behavior (Negative Punishment P-)
- Something bad happens which will decrease the behavior (Positive Punishment P+)
- Something bad ends which will increase the behavior (Negative Reinforcement R-)
Just as they say:”Control the consequence and you control the behavior.” But, there is a catch here!
Let’s say we come back home and discovered a puddle on our new carpet. Which of the above consequence should we subject out pet to?
Would Fido really understand why he is being punished (if this was our choice)? It doesn’t take much to realize that for any of these consequences to be effective, it must be applied at the moment when our pet is doing something (or be clearly linked to the behavior).
Easier Said Than Done?
Indeed! It is one of the biggest challenges animal trainers must have. If they do not apply the consequence at the right time the animal will not know why it is being rewarded/punished, right?
So, how to overcome this?
Well, now that we learned about the classical conditioning we may already know the answer, right?
Remember that Pavlov got dog to salivate only by ringing the bell; so, the professional animal trainers use the same principle and associate something animal naturally likes with some other stimulus that is much easier to deliver (for example sound of whistle)
One good example of using this principle we find in dog clicker training, where first thing to teach our dog is the meaning of the click (you are doing good, your reward is coming).
Finally, after reviewing the dog learning theories we are ready to answer the question:”Why It Is Important To Stay Consistent (when using citronella bark collar)?”
Because our pet learns by building the association, either the associations between the two stimuli or the association between the behavior and the consequence.
Citronella Bark Collar Scientific Studies
Citronella Bark Collar Study
One of such studies was conducted at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, NY and published in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association, May/June 1996
There were total of 9 healthy dogs that were accepted for this study. The dog owners were explained how to use bark collar and no other dog behavior modification techniques were discussed with the owners.
The participants were given either shock collar or the citronella bark collar for the two week trial. At the end of the study 88.9 % of dog owners were satisfied with the citronella bark collar!
On the other hand only 50% of dog owners reported satisfaction with shock collars for dogs.
In addition this study also has identified a few issues with early citronella collar models. One of the biggest concerns (and weakness) was the inappropriate collar discharge.
It is important to remember that early citronella collar models were equipped with the microphone that was picking up the noise and as this study pointed out, it was detecting the barking noise from other dogs.
Why is this the issue?
Simply put, our dog would be punished even-though he wasn’t barking. The goal here was to mathch the unwanted behavior (as in this case the nuisance barking) with unpleasant consequence (as in this case spray of annoying citronella) and since dogs learn by building the associations between the behavior and consequence (Operant Conditioning) it wasexpected that dog will soon stop the negative behavior in order to avoid negative consequence.
However, if our dog would be punished while he was not misbehaving than it would confused our dog since it wouldn’t be clear why he was being punished.
It was clear that more reliable means of dog’s barking detection needed to be developed and most citronella collar manufactures have made great improvements.
Nowadays most bark collars come with some kind of dual detection system that would activate the unit only if “dog with the collar” barks and not pick up the barking from other dogs.
Thanks to the advancements in the techniques many citronella anti bark collars come with the remote control (so-called remote citronella collar) and as such they are playing much greater role than just reducing the excessive dog barking.
Coupled with the techniques from positive dog training this collar is becoming a great training tool for overall pet education.
In addition to correct the nuisance dog barking it is now possible to correct many other unwanted behaviors (using this spray collar) such as jumping on visitors, running away, not coming when called, digging, chewing and many more.
Why Is Citronella Bark Collar Considered The Safest & Most Humane Bark Collar?
This collar is designed to interrupt dog’s unwanted behaviors (such as excessive barking) by delivering a spray of harmless citronella each time dog barks.
Since this spray is harmless and is designed ONLY to get’s dog’s attention and not to harm our best friend it is rightly considered one of the safest bark collar.
Why Is Citronella Bark Collar So Effective?
As mentioned above this collar is equipped with dog bark sensing unit which when detects barking automatically activates the citronella spray dispensing unit which in turn emits a short burst of of citronella mist towards dog’s nose.
This spray is very annoying for dogs and since they learn by building the associations either between two stimuli or between the behavior and consequence our dog very quickly discovers that it is his barking that earns him the that annoying spray.
Citronella Bark Collar affects four out of our dog five senses:
- Our Dog Hears It
- Our Dog Sees It
- Our Dog Smells It
- Our Dog Feels It
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