There are a lot of training tools saturating the pet stores right now, all targeting you as a dog owner who's desperate for a solution. Is your dog an incessant puller on the leash? Here's 25 different contraptions - take your pick! They've got easy-walk harnesses, gentle leaders, prong collars, chain collars, martingale collars, the list goes on.
Does your dog bark non-stop? Here's a few things to try. A bark collar which might vibrate or buzz every time your dog barks (or a loud sound goes off depending on the quality of the collar). Some collars spray citronella spray into your dog's face.
And they might work really well... until they don't. Maybe the discomfort of the tool you've purchase stops becoming uncomfortable and your dog starts pulling on the leash again. Or your dog becomes smart to how the bark collar works and learns how to work around it and starts barking again. Why is that? It's because you didn't address your dog's mental state.
Here's the thing - I'm not anti-training tool. I use slip leads and prong collars and electronic collars on a regular basis, but I use them to aide my training. They're not doing the work for me. It's really important to figure out WHY your dog is doing the behaviors you're finding so unsatisfactory and addressing that first.
Your dog is probably pulling on the leash because all dogs have something called an opposition reflex. It's a balance thing. Pressure is put on the leash, the dog feels off balance, so they continue putting pressure on the leash rather than yield to the pressure in order to stay balanced. They also continue to pull on the leash because they've continually been allowed to. It was never an issue when they were a puppy, but it is of course an issue now. That doesn't mean all hope is lost now, it will just take some work. No tool on earth will make your dog pay attention to you when your outside on a walk (including treats!!!). These tools may help to decrease the pulling, but you will still have an incredibly disengaged dog.
Why is your dog barking at everything in sight? Are they insecure? Are they fearful? Are they protective of their space? Are they resource guarding you? Is it a breed specific behavior? Once you narrow down what is the root cause for this behavior, you can start addressing that. A bark collar may be helpful in interrupting and suppressing some of that behavior so that you can start redirecting your dog, but it shouldn't be the only solution.
These tools aren't awful (although I do have personal beef with the Easy Walk Harness, that's a story for another day). They're just pieces of material artfully crafted for a reason. I clearly have my preferred ones and my preferred methods, but at the end of the day the quality of the tools you are using in conjunction with other methods to address your dog's behavior to achieve the best results for a happy and well balanced dog.
What does work? Consistency, repetition, finding what your dog responds to, what tool works for your dog, working your dog in a calm state of mind, a consistent reward pattern, and so much more. It takes a lot of time. And I know that that's really frustrating. Especially when Big Training Tool is marketing a quick fix for a couple of dollars, but that couple of dollars will add up quickly when you're going to be buying every tool on the shelf because your dog stops responding to everything you try.
Once again... the training tools don't train your dog... you do!
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