Spray Commander

Has anyone had experience with the spray commander and did it work for you ?

Is it a collar?

yes it sprays citronella

Hi I used a spray commander on 1 of my Utes. I just had the plain spray not the citronella one. I used it 'cause he jumped up people all the time. Glad to say it worked he only forgets himself if he's really excited and once is all he'll really do wereas before he was like zeebady! I always rewarded him with a treat when he was good/corrected his behaviour. It does come with a disc instruction guide with tips on how to use it. My other Ute just wasn't bothered by the spray at all - she's very alpha. Although you can get a dog corrector spray can. It has no smell but the spray noise is louder and can get their attention quicker. Only draw back is you have to hold this whereas the spray commander collar can be remote controlled. It worked for us but I think it will depend on your dogs personality. I had mine off ebay - alot cheaper than in the shops. If you but more than one state it at the time of sale so you get two on different frequencies - you don't want to spray one dog and have them both get sprayed!! Beware if you get one from abroad as they can't send the refill bottle air mail. Hope that helps.

What do you want to use it for? I really feel they should only be attempted when all else fails - and definitely not suitable for some dogs and some situations.

We bought one last year as we had one dog that jumped up alot and another with very selective recall. The dog that jumped up when excited it did seem to work in the house although with the same dog outside it didn't. The other dog didn't take the slightest bit of notice of it although he does have a very thick coat and we did wonder if it was spraying through his coat or not. We tried both the citronella and plain and found them both the same with our dogs. The fault we found was that after a few weeks the remote control on ours stopped working. We were given a full refund from the shop we bought it from and didn't think in our case it was worth getting another.

It will be used on a GSD who has started running up to people and barking.

I did use a MasterPlus on Bertie when he was about a year old, he had very selective hearing, it was only a short term fix, he soon learnt when he had the collar on to do as he was told, but if he didn't he could do just as he pleased. The other problem I had was that lots of dogs had them at agility and if 1 went off while he was in the queue it would really flatten him. This was about 8 years ago, I found clicker training him alot better, it built our bond alot more and he was involved in the training process.

I'd be a little wary abut using it for running up to people & barking in case it made her more upset about the people, unless you used it when she barked with no people involved at first to see if it had any effect & so she didn't see it as being caused by the person I personally would be very unhappy about using it for this.

Do you know why she is barking at them?

I personally wouldn't use it in that situation, I feel that by distracting her, keeping her on a long lead and calling her away and giving her a huge reward for any acceptable behaviour you'd get better, more reliable behaviour than by using the spray collar.

The problem with the spray collar is that it may be associated with the people and not the unwanted behaviour and make the behaviour much worse. Whether this happens or not, you're not getting to the root of the problem and you're only stopping the dog from expressing her fear (assuming that's what it is) rather than making her more comfortable with the people.