My wife and I love pets and we treat them like family members. They sleep in our beds, eat with us, and travel with us all over the world. We spare no expense on the best food, vet care, toys, healthy treats, clothes, etc. So we were very reluctant to even consider a shock collar but our newest puppy has been very stubborn and hasn't responded to the normal training methods. After doing a lot of research we finally decided to try this collar.Our dog is a 10-lb. 6-month old matli-poo so he is pretty small and thin but he is at least a bit bigger than a yorkie or chihuahua. When we first opened this collar it appeared to be a bit too stiff and rigid to bend around his small neck, however after we adjusted the buckle and trimmed it to size then it wasn't too bad. We can use the quick-release buckle to take it on or off as designed, however it is a little akward to bend the stiff collar band around the hinged metal buckle while you snap the plastic buckle in place, and the fine fur from around his neck often gets stuck in the plastic buckle slots so we have to be careful not to pinch his fur. Once it is on properly then it fits him ok but it is obviously harder for him to sleep or lay down with it on so we take it off when he is napping or in bed for the night.
We read the instructions at least 3 times from front to back, charged the remote for 24 hours, and then installed the battery in the collar. It fired right up with the blinking green light and completed the self-tests just fine. Then we stuck the collar against our own skin and tested the various shock levels to make sure they wouldn't hurt him. The 0, 1, and 2 settings were so mild that we could barely feel them so we were relieved and not worried at all about using it on him. Then the big moment of truth came: we put it on him for his first training session. Wearing it didn't seem to bother him at all and it didn't take long for him to misbehave. At the first sign of bad behavior we called out NO! and issued the warning beep. He ignored us just as before, but then we called out NO! again and hit the shock on level 0. He didn't react to the shock at all so we tried again on level 1 he only barely noticed but continued his bad behavior. Finally on level 2 he immediately stopped his bad behavior and did not return to it again. He didn't yelp, bark, or cry but he did stop his behavior and shake his head a little as if confused. After just a few shocks for bad behavior on level 2, we now rarely need to shock him for real. He has learned that the command NO! is to be taken seriously, and if he ignores our command then we give him a warning tone and it turns him into an angel. So the collar really does work, and it is humane and harmless, so we would highly recommend it as a true miracle... but there is one issue which is a big problem...
We intended to keep the collar on our dog for somewhere between 4-6 hours each day during his most active periods. We would only need to issue a warning tone or shock maybe 3 times throughout the day and the rest of the time the collar would be turned on but idle. The instruction book says that if you leave the collar turned on continously then the collar battery will last about 2 weeks. This was fine with us, but in our case the first collar battery which came with the unit died after just 2 hours of use. The light on the collar goes from blinking green to blinking red to warn of a low battery, and then just a few minutes later it goes to solid red and the collar shuts off indicating a dead battery. If you turn it off and back on a little while later you might get a few more minutes out of the battery but then it dies again. So we figured that our unit was shipped with a bad battery, maybe from sitting in a store warehouse too long. I called the manufacturer and they were super nice. They sent me a whole new unit along with a prepaid return shipping label for the old one. The new unit arrived and looked just like the old one. We anxiously charged it and tested it as before with good results, but then the collar battery died again after just a few hours of use.
Now I must say that I am a very technical person. I often build and repair my own electronic devices so I know a lot about these things. I am not someone that puts the batteries in backwards or has trouble charging products. After seeing the second collar battery die so quickly I went back and read all the instructions yet again to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I checked the battery and collar several times for any defects. I searched the web for any similar problems. The only thing I found was a tip on how to modify the collar battery holder so that you can replace the battery yourself instead of buying their expensive replacements. So I modified my battery holder as shown, which was very easy, and then I purchased a dozen high quality photo batteries which are specifically designed for professional cameras and dog collars with a high power drain. The new batteries arrived and I tested them each before using them every one was fully charged. The modification worked great and the collar fired right up with the new battery in it, but once again the new battery only lasted about 2 hours. I cycled through 7 more batteries, all of which were brand new Energizer brand, but all of them died after just 1-2 hours of use. And I am not talking about a lot of beeps or shocks here. We would only get maybe 2 warning beeps out of it in the 1-2 hour period and then it would be dead. Most of the time we never even used a shock at all.
So we have now tried two brand new units and roughly 10 different batteries, and the collar itself works wonderfully well when it works, but the batteries die in just a few hours of idle use. This is totally unacceptable but I had to wonder why more people are not complaining. Other people talk of days, weeks, or even months before their batteries die. So I called the manufacturer back again and they are sending me out a new factory battery for free to try in this second unit. If it lasts a long time then maybe we just got really unlucky and had 10 bad batteries in a row, but somehow I think the collar is too blame. Perhaps a small percentage of units have a short which drains the battery too fast, and if so then I will exchange my collar a third time and hope for the best. But if the new battery doesn't do the trick and the third exchange fails then I will go for a refund and buy a different brand. We are really sold on using this type of product if it will only work for more than 1-2 hours per battery. I will update this review when we find out what the answer is.
Update:
I just received a new replacement battery from the manufacturer. We installed it and turned the collar on then immediately put it on our dog for the evening. It worked great for about 4 hours but we only had to press the warning tone button 4 times and we never used the shock feature at all during this period. I did notice the low battery indicator coming on near the end of the 4-hour period but it was still working when we removed it. We turned off the collar and removed it from the dog when he went to sleep. The next morning we turned the collar back on and put it on the dog when he woke up, but it only lasted about 1 hour and then the battery was completely dead. So a brand new battery only lasted a total of 5 hours which included only 4 warning tones and no shocks. This is very poor battery life and is not even close to the 2-week average life which is mentioned in the instruction book. And a new battery normally costs about $10 so this would cost $2 per hour to use the collar not to mention you would have to replace the batteries all the time. No thank you. We really like the way the collar fits and works when the battery is good, but the battery life is just way too short and replacements are not cheap so it is going back for a refund. We will look for a different brand with better results.
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This is a very nice collar. The remote is rechargeable and with a simple mod generic batteries can be used in the receiver.There are photos on picassaweb and flickr
It looks like high quality construction and the buttons are ergonomically different so you can tell which is which without looking at them. It has only three buttons, good tone, bad tone, and stimulation. The stimulation is controlled by a dial.
I self tested the collar and could feel level one. Level two would definitely make me comply. Why do they need waterboarding when they could get the job done with electric collars?
I have this collar and the Innotek SD-70 lap dog trainer. While the lap dog trainer comes with a dvd, the Petsafe comes with a pretty good manual.
This just has a better look and feel to it that the boxish Innotek. The stimulation feels similar. The Petsafe level one is a bit more subtle than the Innotek. Level 4, the max on the Innotek, is stronger on the Petsafe. Frankly I don't even want to think about higher than level four on bare skin. I was able to tolerate all the way up to level 8 through clothing.
The unit looks like it could take some moisture. I like that it has a flashing light on the transmitter and the receiver so you have an idea
if it's working or not.
It's a good starter unit with minimal levels and range. Also this has a bit more range than the Innotek.
Update Oct 16, 2009
I've since moved on to Dogtra and Tri-Tronics and have used the Sportdog Field Trainer 400. I stopped using Sportdog as I felt the stimulation was too harsh. Tri-Tronics Flyway G2 has a small enough receiver that it can be used on a small dog and that's what I'm using on our smallest dog. I'm using a Dogtra 282 NCP on our slightly larger chihuahua mixes and consider those units to be superior in every respect to the Petsafe offering. Also the tones I felt were a waste and not sure a dog knows the difference between a good tone and a bad tone. The Dogra has a page function which is a vibration however I don't use it as it can freak the dog out more than a nick.
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After the initial battery ran out in this product, I purchased a new one. About 5 minutes after I turned the unit on and it began flashing red, then went to a solid red light on the unit. Thinking it was simply a bad battery, I purchased another one. The same thing happened. Contacting support resulted in me being told that for $45 they would replace the unit.Save your money and buy something else.
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It's ironic. Petsafe has a great little training collar here... almost. It fits our small dog well, and it works great ... for about 3 hours. Then the battery is dead. Problem is, the batteries cost around $10 each. Nice. So your dog training with this collar works out to be about $3 an hour, which is absolutely ridiculous. Because of the horrible battery life, I have to recommend against this product. As expensive as it is, they should have put a little more engineering into the battery and collar arrangement. The fact that the battery is not rechargeable, expensive, and short-life means this product is a definite, definite, DO NOT BUY.
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