Has anyone used and found successful the citronella spray training collars? My very large 16 month old castrated male 'rescue' lurcher has a major problem with other dogs on leads, barking, lunging and snarling. At this point he appears very aggressive, which he isn't. He weighs circa 6 stone and as you can imagine, this is a major problem for me, especially as I also walk our other much smaller lurcher at the same time. It can get even more stressful if they both take a dislike to the dog coming the other way!
We have just started dog training classes in the hope of overcoming this behavioural problem and was recommended by the trainer to use a 'Dogmatic' head collar, coupled with a slip collar, in favour of the Gentle Leader we were using and it does seem to give slightly better control.
We would like to make our walks enjoyable again and not the stressful ones we currently have. I am at my wits end, so much so, I am now thinking of purchasing a spray collar. He was tried with this method at the training class and it did stop him from barking, but I am wondering if this was a 'one off' and he'll be back to his usual anti-social self again. 
He has had several homes, probably we're his 4th, so to be fair, he's probably not been socialised properly with other dogs at a young age when he needed to be? He gets on fine with other dogs off the lead and also the male dog he lives with. He's a confident dog and loves children and is good with adults.

I guess all dogs are different and methods have to be tailored to individuals.
We use a citronella collar for ou 10nearly 11month old terrier. It is fantastic  He is good natured and full of character, but can get ot,t and then we struggle to keep stress levels down. This is where it has been used by us, we do it as and when required and now just the mention of it can modify his behaviour, so I am pleased we got it. My opinion only, no doubt others will frown!
Karen

Hi Scruffy, your post sounds so familiar to me, I've spent what seems like years of hanging on to a 50kg borzoi boy while he leapt around barking at every dog on the horizon. I have to say the spray collar is a god send with him. With the collar on he won't bark or jump around at all and can now walk sensibly past other dogs, allowing me to praise his good behaviour. The first few times he wore it he would bark once or twice then just reverse back and sit down, now he doesn't even think about barking. A lot of people don't like them but to me it is a great invention, allowing me and my dog to enjoy walks again. He isn't scared of it, is quite happy to get his collar on - he just doesn't like it when it sprays - so he doesn't bark :) It also means I can walk all my dogs together which was impossible beforehand. I would never leave his collar on off lead though, as when he's playing chases with his brother he sometimes woofs and I wouldn't want this stopped.

They vary a huge amount in price, I've found the most reasonable place to buy them is ebay, from petvetmed. You can get one for £35 including postage. (item no 150033786606 for example).

Hi Chaumsong
Thank you for your reply. I know this is a common problem but neverthless it's great to hear from someone with a similar story. I have done a search on ebay and the web generally and found, as you say, prices do vary quite a lot, so I'll certainly take a look at the ebay link you kindly sent. By the way what's the make of the one you use?

I've got the multivet one, have had it for 3 years now and it's great - no problems. I buy the citrus refill on ebay but have found the batteries much much cheaper at http://www.budgetbatteries.co.uk/

The spray collar may or may not stop the problem - it's something I'd use only as  a last resort. Reason being that a dog may start to associate strange dogs not only with fear anyway, but also worry over being sprayed. It depends an awful lot on the reason for the problem - if it is fear I'd not ever suggest using it.

Best way to overcome fear lunging etc I believe, is to use a programme of desensitising and counterconditioning, so that other dogs aren't so scarey. A good behaviourist would assess your dog and hopefully guide you on how to implement a programme to help. Ideally your dog's actual emotions would be changed so that he would be less afraid of strange dosg and perhaps even associate them with the good things in life...:)

Try www.apbc.org.uk or www.apdt.co.uk for some ideas  on peeps who could help...

Best of luck
Lindsay
x

Using a spray collar will not change his emotional response to other dogs, it will just prevent him displaying his feelings.  Citronella can be very distressing to some dogs (think of how sensitive their noses are) and the "punishment" does not fade immediately, the aroma remains for some time.

Therefore, as Lindsay has correctly pointed out, your dog may associate the presence of other dogs with the rather unpleasant consequence of being sprayed and the behaviour may INCREASE rather than decrease as he might wish to remove the presence of other dogs even more! The use of these collars and others can have unforseen side effects and IMHO you would be better off taking the longer but more effective route of counter conditioning and desensitisation rather than relying on gadgets.

For some dogs the spray is irrelevant too, and some will continue the behaviour to empty the reservoir quickly, so that they continue.

Using any sort of collar such as this is not always as straightforward as the retailers may wish it to appear.

Collars will not teach your dog anything other than to stop his behaviour, whereas counter conditioning and desensitisation can help to change his emotional response to other dogs and be better in the long run.

Point well made and taken on board.
I think we had already decided anyway the spray collar would only be a last resort and something to consider if all else failed. Hopefully it won't come to that.
We are happy to keep an open mind and will certainly be doing some research on counter conditioning and desensitisation, as don't know alot about it.
Thanks very much for your comments.