Does your dog bark excessively when left alone? Does he enthusiastically greet your visitors by pawing them with his front legs while standing on his hind ones? Does he run away when let loose in the backyard? Or does he simply pull you down the street when out for your daily stroll? If you have tried everything you know how to with no success, you are certainly not alone. Some people can’t quite get their dogs to behave properly even with positive reinforcement and patience. If your dog has one or more of these problems, never fear, there are solutions. Many manufacturers of dog care products have developed sophisticated training collars to help alleviate a myriad of common dog behavior products.

1. No Bark Collars: These collars are helpful for the pet parent who has a dog with a bad case of separation anxiety. Constant barking from your dog could violate local anti-nuisance laws and get you into trouble with your neighbors as well as the court system. There are two common varieties of anti-bark collars. One type squirts citronella towards the dogs face when it senses excessive barking and the other emits a high pitched ultra-sonic sound. Both of these stimuli are unpleasant to your dog and he will eventually learn not to bark excessively. Most collars on the market today are sensitive enough to sense the difference between a playful or protective barking and nuisance barking due to the duration of the barking.

2. Shock Collars: Shock collars emit an electric shock to prevent bad behavior. These collars come with a remote, controlled by you. When your dog engages in a behavior you disapprove of like jumping on visitors or chewing on an inappropriate object simply press a button on the remote and deliver a shock to your dog. Your dog will stop in his tracks and the behavior is instantly corrected. While this sounds inhumane, there are many different settings on the collar from barely detected to mildly painful. They are not tasers and will never render your dog immobile. These collars are beneficial because your dog is instantly corrected and the correction appeared to come from an object he is forbidden to play with.

3. Barrier Collars: These invisible fence collars are designed to shock your dog in a similar fashion as shock collars; however, you do not control them. They work outdoors in conjunction with an invisible fence system. Simply bury a wire around the perimeter of your yard and when your dog tries to cross the barrier he will receive a shock. This is extremely helpful to dog owners without fences who own dogs with the urge to roam. These collars emit a warning beep when he gets too close and shocks him in the event that he does. This should send your dog running back to the safety of your house. Eventually your dog will hear the beep and know he went too far, thus preventing frequent shocks. If you are still unsure about the safety of these collars, try one on yourself. The shock will be uncomfortable, but not painful. Keep in mind that dogs have excess fat around their necks as well as a fur coat between their skin and the electrodes of the collar.

These tools help to shortcut the training process and correct bad behavior more quickly. Some dogs need more correction than others because of the extreme nature of their problems. Often, dogs end up in shelters because exasperated owners can’t ever seem to make them behave. This is completely avoidable considering the technology available in these electronic training collars. Costs for these products range from just under $100 for citronella anti-bark collars to approximately $300 for electric fence containment systems with remote controlled shock collars falling in the middle at $150. Of course this depends on the size of your dog and the size of your dog. When considering the fines that can result from nuisance barking or getting picked up by the dog catcher, these collars will almost pay for themselves.