Citronella Collar

Have You Tried Just About Every Advice On Earth “How To Stop Dogs From Barking” Only To Realize…Nothing Really Works… Are You Thinking It Is Time To Give Up And Return That “Crazy Dog” To Shelter House?

Citronella Collars For Dogs, also called citronella spray collars, citronella dog collars or citronella anti bark collars, become available in the US in early 1995.

The concept of managing the excessive barking by utilizing a harmless spray of citronella was very interesting to say at last.    While the concept itself was great the question that remains to be answered is:
Does This Method Work Or Not

For any bark collar to be accepted by the public, in addition to being safe and humane anti-bark collar it also needs to be effective at stopping or reducing nuisance barking.

Even-though it is well accepted fact that dogs barking is totally normal behavior for dogs, in many social settings barking is rather seen as very inappropriate, conflict creating, troubling and considering that noise level it can reach [1] very stressful therefore the need for “the effective” bark collar is quite understandable.

How Does Citronella Collar Work?

Once we learn that citronella collars do work the most obvious question that follows is: “How do they work?”. And this is when many dog owners “fall in love” with these type of no bark collars.

Citronella Spray Collars could be said to be the “smart collars” due the fact that they “do all the work”. They will discover the barking and activate spray dispenser without us having to do anything. Here is how it works:

Citronella Dog Collar resembles regular dog collar with the addition of small citronella container which is also equipped with the bark detection unit and spray dispensing unit. When bark sensors detect barking it immediately activates the spray dispensing unit which in turn emits a burst of citronella towards dog’s snout. While harmless this spray is very annoying for dogs so that they stop barking in order to avoid to be sprayed again.

Do Citronella Collars For Dogs Actually Stop Nuisance Barking?

In order to answer this question we were looking to find some evidence such as scientific studies and luckily there were a few and one of the early studies in particular got our attention, the scientific study conducted at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, NY and published in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association, May/June 1996.

The focus of the study was only the nuisance barking and to insure that only healthy dogs were accepted for the study, all dog owners were asked to fill out 11 page questionnaire. If there were any signs that dog was aggressive toward the owners or the strangers they wouldn’t be accepted.

Total of 9 dogs were accepted for the study (and only 8 completed the study). Each owner was given instructions on how to use bark collar and they were randomly given either citronella collar or dog shock collar for two weeks trial and then the collar type would be changed.

It is important to point out that no other behavior modification  technique were shown to dog owners and the no bark collars were the only method used int his study to control the excessive barking.

The Results?

The results of this study were rather startling. Overall 88.9 % of dog owners reported satisfaction with the citronella collars for dogs. Overall 50% of dog owners reported satisfaction with dog shock collar.

It is interesting to point out that all but one dog owner expressed a preference for citronella collar over dog shock collar.
This was mainly because most of dog owners didn’t like the idea itself to use electronic shock  as a punishment.

Any Shortcomings of Citronella Collars?

Without any doubt the astonishing results above are very important but we shouldn’t overlook some very interesting potential problem areas this study had identified. Let’s look into the few:

Inappropriate Citronella Discharge

One of the biggest citronella collar problems identified by this study was the inappropriate citronella discharge. This means that the collar was activated by other noise (other barking dog) and dog would be punished for no reason.

Since the whole idea behind using a punishment was to identify/associate the negative behavior (nuisance barking)with the punishment (spray of citronella) and if this collar would be activated by external noise created by other dogs than the punishment would be coming randomly and as a such wouldn’t have any meaning therefore it would discredit otherwise great concept.

Luckily the fix to this problem was rather the easy one and in our reviews of featured citronella collar models we will point out to improved bark detection systems such as dual bark detection [2].

The invention of more advanced bark detection systems has put citronella collar “back in the game” as safe, humane and effective no bark collar.

Battery Didn’t Last Long (May Need Changing)

Some dog owners reported that batteries didn’t last long. While the quality of the batteries needs improvements it also needs to be pointed out that this will greatly depend to the frequency/duration of the usage of the citronella collar.

Effective/Limited To Certain Environments

Some early citronella collar models were not waterproof. In addition some dog owners do not like smell of citronella and especially they didn’t like to have citronella solution on their furniture.

It needs to be said that the manufacturers of citronella collars (and for this mater for all other bark collars) have listened to these concerns and we have seen great improvements so that most of the citronella anti bark collars nowadays have overcome the above limitations.

 

Any Citronella Collars Side Effects?

Generally speaking citronella dog collars are safe. However, it is important to follow instructions provided in user operating guide. It is recommended to use citronella collars only on healthy dogs.

If collar is not fitted correctly or kept too long on the pet it could lead to skin damages including bed sores. Therefore it is very important to read and follow operating guide.

Recently Added Reviews:

Premier Spray Sense Review
Premier Spray Sense is one of the most popular and budget friendly no bark collars to safely control the excessive dog barking. Here is in-depth spray sense review

Spray Commander Review

Spray Commnder remote control activated bark collar brings dog training to the new level. It helps dogs owner to correct not only the excessive dog barking but also many other unwanted behaviors such as running away, not coming when called, chewing, digging, jumping on visitors and many more. Here is in-depth spray commander review.

References:

[1] German Shepherd is proud champ, the Guinness World Record of 108 dB. (Guinness World Records)

[2]  Perfect Bark™ detection that uses both vibration and sound to detect dog’s bark www.petsafe.net