we signed up for barkbusters. we’ve already had one session and have yet to schedule a second session. partly because both my husband and i are having some doubts about the effectiveness of the methods. a lot of reviews will read like this: “oh we saw results immediately and whenever we had an issue our trainer was always available to come back.”
well, the second part is true. the first part unfortunately is not. now i suppose it does depend on the dog (or dogs, in our case). but i had an easier time training our dogs to do simple things like SIT and DOWN by watching trainers on animal planet. i’m not a huge fan of the growling (because it seldom works with our dogs) and i don’t feel comfortable with the special leash and collar (similar to a choke chain). we use prong collars when we walk becuase otherwise they will drag us around.
the idea is that by growling, you are communicating in a way that the dogs are familiar with since they use growling to “talk” to other dogs. what i think that most dog owners, if not every dog owner, will tell you is that dogs do recognize certain english words. they obviously aren’t able to understand the word but they do understand the sound (and what it means for them).
our experience with BB is that for the first few days afterwards, our pups were confused and anxious. we have barking issues and some biting issues that we wanted corrected and our trainer has not addressed either of these. her advice was this: “if you see them perk up RIGHT BEFORE they start to bark, then growl and they should behave.” my reaction (in my head): “unless you want me to sit by the window forever keeping a lookout for anything that might ignite a barking spree, then please offer a solution to make them STOP barking.”
they are expensive. because of that we had expected MAJOR results. but just remember, training takes a ton of patience. your dog is learning about the world around him and learning how humans want him to behave as opposed to how he–as a dog–would behave.
i hope that this helps! good luck!
crumb199
We used them and while their techniques do work – I wouldn’t spend the $$ on them again. It could be the specific trainer that we had but she never bothered to even follow up after our initial session.
Save your $$ and take your pup to a class at a local obedience school. I wish we had.
Ultimately though – successfully training your dog has more to do with you and your consistency than anything else!
we signed up for barkbusters. we’ve already had one session and have yet to schedule a second session. partly because both my husband and i are having some doubts about the effectiveness of the methods. a lot of reviews will read like this: “oh we saw results immediately and whenever we had an issue our trainer was always available to come back.”
well, the second part is true. the first part unfortunately is not. now i suppose it does depend on the dog (or dogs, in our case). but i had an easier time training our dogs to do simple things like SIT and DOWN by watching trainers on animal planet. i’m not a huge fan of the growling (because it seldom works with our dogs) and i don’t feel comfortable with the special leash and collar (similar to a choke chain). we use prong collars when we walk becuase otherwise they will drag us around.
the idea is that by growling, you are communicating in a way that the dogs are familiar with since they use growling to “talk” to other dogs. what i think that most dog owners, if not every dog owner, will tell you is that dogs do recognize certain english words. they obviously aren’t able to understand the word but they do understand the sound (and what it means for them).
our experience with BB is that for the first few days afterwards, our pups were confused and anxious. we have barking issues and some biting issues that we wanted corrected and our trainer has not addressed either of these. her advice was this: “if you see them perk up RIGHT BEFORE they start to bark, then growl and they should behave.” my reaction (in my head): “unless you want me to sit by the window forever keeping a lookout for anything that might ignite a barking spree, then please offer a solution to make them STOP barking.”
they are expensive. because of that we had expected MAJOR results. but just remember, training takes a ton of patience. your dog is learning about the world around him and learning how humans want him to behave as opposed to how he–as a dog–would behave.
i hope that this helps! good luck!
We used them and while their techniques do work – I wouldn’t spend the $$ on them again. It could be the specific trainer that we had but she never bothered to even follow up after our initial session.
Save your $$ and take your pup to a class at a local obedience school. I wish we had.
Ultimately though – successfully training your dog has more to do with you and your consistency than anything else!
Most times the dog AND THE OWNER need training. Buy some decent dog training books.