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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 20 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 found the following review helpful:
 Great for specific uses Apr 06, 2009
By Daniel Jacobson
This product is the best way to train off-lead recall, period. And off-lead recall is a matter of life and death for dogs, as so many are killed by cars.
What I don't recommend this product for is teaching a behavior. It's much more effective to use all reward for that, or reward and minor correction. But *once your dog knows the "Come" command, then -- if you let your dog off lead at all -- you need to train off-lead recall WITH DISTRACTIONS. Just because Sparky will come when there are no temptations around doesn't mean he'll do it when there are dogs, squirrels....or cars around.
The product is easy to turn on and off, and to use. However, the instructions aren't perfect. For one thing, I wouldn't bother with the positive tone -- better to use your voice to praise. But there's a negative tone and a spray button. When your dog needs correction, you press FIRST the negative tone button, THEN the spray button. When you push the spray, an unpleasant but harmless lemon spray squirts your dog in the face. He won't like it. That's good: you want a punishment that's harmless but unpleasant, and it's best if it doesn't come from you but from The World.
Then use BOTH treats and the collar to train recall. When your dogs comes when called -- called once! -- he gets a treat. When he doesn't, he gets sprayed. If your dog is clever, you'll only have to spray a few times, and then you can correct using just the negative tone.
This is by far the easiest and most effective way of training the single most important command (at least if you ever have your dog off leash). It can also be used to eliminate other behaviors. I just DON'T recommend that you teach your dog with it. Use this only after your dog knows what he should and shouldn't do, and use it just to train one behavior -- or, even better, to discourage one behavior. (One at a time, that is.)
Used correctly this is a great product and well worth the money.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Huge upgrade from the Spray Commander Oct 22, 2009
By chris
I've been using the Spray Commander for a few years MultiVet Spray Commander Remote Training System. Not because I loved it, but because there were no alternatives with a remote.
But the spray commander
- is clunky / oversized
- never lasted more than 6 months (clogging, short-circuiting, etc)
- required an endless supply of batteries
So this product is a welcome upgrade. I've been using it for 3 months, will update if things change.
1. Look ma, no batteries: it's so convenient to just charge the thing every once in a while.
2. It hasn't broken. Lovely.
3. It has a lifetime warranty (not sure what that means but the language plainly indicates if it breaks, they'll replace it)
4. It's more slender than the Spray Commander. Looks less clunky on my dog.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Best Money I've Ever Spent! Feb 11, 2010
By Shoe Gal
I agree with another reviewer that this collar probably isn't the best for TEACHING a behavior, but for fine-tuning response to off-lead commands that the dog already understands or for correcting behaviors that happen when the dog is diffcult to reach (like darting out the front door, etc.), there is nothing better than this PetSafe remote spray trainer. And believe me, I know! I'd tried everything I could think of to teach my dog a good, solid recall and he was good as long as there was nothing else more interesting going on, but God forbid if he saw a cat running across the yard, or another dog approaching us at the park. And I can't count the times I ended up having to crash through the bushes after him because of a squirrel who unwisely chose to depart from his tree and cross our path as we walked along.
I mean, seriously, I'd tried a lot of things to improve his recall around the distractions; calling his name and running the opposite direction while waving my arms around and making crazy noises so he'd find me more interesting, using a whistle and teaching him to associate it w/ good things like treats, keeping him on a 30 foot training lead so I could step on it if he made a break for it (incidentally, this was the worst of the ideas. Almost broke an ankle when the lead wound around my leg and he took off!) and even an electric shock collar, which did serve to get his attention off of whatever he was running after, but even on the lowest setting he'd yelp and look around and seemed so distressed that it was still hard to get his attention back on me, not to mention how bad it made me feel to see that "What the heck was THAT??" look on his face.
He was kind of like that nursery rhyme about the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forhead, you know? When I could get his attention, his recall was fantastic, but when he was too distracted, he was horrid! So it occured to me that since his nose seemed to be the driving force behind his distractability, maybe I needed something to interrupt it and I came across the PetSafe spray trainer. It was enough to distract him, but wasn't so much of a distraction that it freaked him out and made him shut down.
I didn't see any point in using both the "negative" and "positive" buttons, so I just used an enthusiastic voice for positive and the button for negative. We spent a couple of days working on it during our high-distraction situations on our walks w/ him on a super-long Flexi leash. I'd wait until he was distracted and call him. If he came, he gots lots of praise and a high-value treat. If he didn't immediately turn towards me, I'd use the tone followed by a spray. It only took a couple of times of the tone/spray combo before he figured out that if he turned and started coming towards me, the tone and the following spray didn't happen. After a couple of days of on-leash practice, we tried it off-leash. He was fabulous the whole time w/ the exception of one time, when one of the other dogs started chasing a jogger and my dog went to join in. I gave him a stern "AAh AAAHH" and sprayed and he turned and came running back. Now all I have to do is give him a verbal correction and he'll leave whatever I want him to leave w/ no problems. We'll phase it out eventually, after his coming when called the first time becomes an ingrained behavior for him.
All in all, this PetSafe trainer has been an absolute God-send for me and for my dog, as well. I can go to the off-leash dog park to walk w/ friends and their dogs and not have to worry about what'll happen if a dog we don't know comes running around the corner or worry that he'll run off playing w/ another dog in our usual group of boneheads and get distracted and take off after something. If I see someone jogging or an unfamiliar dog/human combo up ahead, all I have to do is call his name and he'll turn right around and come back to me to see what I want. He used to be a devil to get out of the water, now if he ignores me calling him, it only takes hearing the collar beep for him to come back. We've even ordered a second one, in case we ever need to send this one off for repair (Lifetime Guarantee, too!) Best money I ever spent!
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
It works almost too well Sep 23, 2008
By P. Douglas
This is a radio controlled collar that sprays a mist at your dog's face. The device comes with a lemon scented spray, though it would appear that all of the refills they sell for such devices will work, including the harsher citronella and the plain water. We found that our young Welsh Terrier responded almost too well. When we used the spray to correct, it brought his head up, and outright frightened him. We used it once quite successfully to stop him from running out of a door, which is a real concern, of course, with any dog, but terriers in particular can be tough in this regard. However, we did find that for minor correction, a simple "No" was plenty, as our dog was sensitive to disapproval, and the spray was overkill. We use it very sparingly. I shudder to think what an electrical shock collar would do to this pup, and I suppose this is the much more humane correction device. I would recommend it to owners who find themselves in one or two situations where a correction is needed when the dog is out of reach and frustration would otherwise be the problem. I would recommend this product for adult use only, as it could easily result in a frightened, neurotic dog if used incorrectly.
Also, the back of the collar unit fell right off the first time I went to recharge it, so it had to be reglued--I would not trust its claims of being waterproof, certainly not after having to reglue it. For this reason, I took off another star.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Great Manufacturer Nov 30, 2010
By Joyce
The unit arrived new in package but did not work properly. I contacted the seller requesting replacement or refund and authorization to return. The seller did not respond to my emails. I then found a customer service number in the instruction book so I called it. The manufacturer immediately sent out a replacement along with postage-paid return for my non-working unit. I have used the collar on my pet for a week and it is very good at getting his attention without scaring him. I would recommend this product. I do not recommend Pet Supply House to use for purchase. If you have a problem, they will not help.
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