Let me preface this by saying I've used a LOT of different bark collars...more than the three that are in the pictures for this review. This is a very good one, especially considering the price, but I recommend you read over my cons to make sure it will work for your situation. We have two dogs and one of them barks excessively when we are out taking walks, so this collar is helpful in reminding him to relax and not cause a scene that frankly scares children...like he acts like a nut job. I don't mind the occasional barking, but he goes into fits...this collar has worked great. It beeps and vibrates to remind him to stop and if he doesn't, it gives a small shock. PROS: - it doesn't go off due to other loud noises, which is especially important since I live in a crowded apt complex in the city...I cant have a collar that goes off with car alarms or shouting - the sleek design is a huge plus...many bark collars look very obviously like electrical equipment and it makes me feel like I need to apologize to strangers for torturing my dog or something - the sequence of response is great-- in response to barking, it beeps. If barking continues, it vibrates. If barking STILL continues, it will send a shock. The level of beeping, vibrating, and shocking is all adjustable from 0-7, so you can set it to never shock if your dog is sensitive to that. My dog has thick fur and an even thicker skull (that's a joke) so while he doesn't LIKE the zaps, they don't bother him. Two of my moms dogs get very upset by shocks no matter how mild, so it's good to have a collar where that's adjustable...dogs senstive to it wont learn to not bark with zaps, they'll just get emotionally upset so this is something to take seriously. - rechargeable and the charge lasts a while...many collars require special batteries that are quite expensive. Alternatively, I've had rechargeable collars that won't hold a charge for a day...this one has held a charge for over a week. I normally charge it daily, but I brought it with us to my moms and it never once needed to be charged the whole time. - the response sequence (beep, vibrate, shock) can't be triggered immedietly after its already run a few times in a row. That is, it won't continuously shock a dog more than a few times. This matters because sometimes several shocks can start to make the dog panic and then now they're yelling in panic and the collar WONT STOP ZAPPING them which makes them panic MORE. Trust me, it might annoy you that it waits an interval before it can be retriggered sometimes, but this is an important mecahnism. Collars that don't have this...I just can't keep using them. They dont help train the dog more, they just make the dog think theyre being attacked...like your dog is probably smart enough to get that "ok this things punishes me for yelling, I won't do that," but once your dogs in a panicked state, that reasoning goes out the window and they will interpret the collar response as an invisible attack and freak out more. This might not be a big deal for most dogs, but mine has like PTSD or something (he was given to me because his past owners couldn't handle his issues). The regular collar response is a great reminder to not bark...honestly this might be weird but it comforts him most of the time. Its a reminder that hes safe and I'll handle it if theres a problem. Theres no need for him to yell. But once he starts getting 'nam flashbacks or whatever, now its just that this dangerous jogger also has the psychic ability to attack him at a distance and hes got to protect me at all costs. Seriously, collars that can infinitely be retriggered are a bad thing. The collar isn't busted because it won't go off after a few responses...its programmed to wait for a short interval before its capable of being triggered again and this is a GOOD thing. I'm really glad this collar does this. - this thing is super easy to use and changing the settings is really straightforward. Honestly, other collars may have had some of the same features as this one but they were so hard to program that I just never really learned how to change any of the settings. CONS: - this collar is triggered by the sound of barking and will go off if another dog RIGHT NEXT to your dog barks. If the dog is a few feet away, it recognizes that this sound is coming from another dog and doesn't go off. This is how MOST collars work and this one is actually especially good at distinguishing between barking and other noises and barking thats coming from another dog so long as that dog is far enough away. There are collars that go if response to barking AND vibration from your dogs vocal cords so that they never go off when theyre not on your dog. These are rare and the one collar I had like this was super expensive and the battery replacements for it were also outrageously expensive...so it IS an option, but youre going to be dishing out more money. As far as sound-exclusive collars, this is one of the best I've encountered. It has gone off due to another dog barking, but this is actually rare...they basically have to be shoulder-to-shoulder for this to happen - it would be nice if the collar had a loop for a leash to clip onto - the prongs are a little longer than I'd like. Theyre not outrageous but, my dogs small (<20 lbs). There are prongs you can switch out with the original that are longer...I'd like if there were also alternative prongs shorter than the default for littler dogs, BUT still these prongs are less ridiculous and the device is far less bulky than some collars NOTE: I replaced the strap with a strap from a different collar so that it would have the loop for a leash to clip on to. The hole for the strap to loop through on the actual device is really really tight so I dont recommend replacing the strap if you don't need to and its long and adjustable enough that you shouldnt have to...I would have just added a leash hook loop right to the original strap but I already removed the original strap so I had to squeeze a strap back through regardless once I did that. To do that, on the end of the strap, I put a piece of electrical tape and then looped that back to connect to the backside of the tape all the way back to the strap...so that the strap was now extended with this thin smooth tape "strap" that easily slipped through the strap hole on the device...then I had to tug the rest of the strap through behind it which took quite a bit of force. Picture 1: collar alongside the original strap Picture 2: collar alongside other bark collars...the one I'm reviewing is on the far left. Collar on the far right is the expensive one that also detects vocal cord vibrations...which while smaller still lowkey looks like a bomb strapped to my dogs neck. Picture 3: the collar on my dog to demonstrate how the device is low profile and doesnt look like I strapped a bomb to my dogs neck
