Barry the Boston Terrier barked and barked when he was left alone. Neighbours complained and his carers felt at a loss of what to do. After an amazon search they purchased a bark collar in an attempt to get the barking to stop, and get the neighbours to stop complaining. The citronella spray collar exhibited a big spray of lemon in Barry’s face and it worked for a while but then stopped working altogether.



Someone may have recommended these to you and I wanted to talk about their use and my thoughts on them.

Let’s start with separation anxiety/separation distress

If a dog has separation anxiety they are really petrified at being left alone. They are not being spiteful by getting their own back for leaving us, by peeing on the carpet or chewing a shoe. They are genuinely scared of being left. Chewing is a stress relieving activity and loosing control of bowels, so they urinate or defecate, well this is real fear.

It can be stressful and distressing when we worry about dogs chewing sometime dangerous that will make them poorly. Also if we are constantly getting complaints, this can make us worry.

How do spray collars work?

Everytime a dog barks a some spray is released this often goes up the dogs nose or their mouth. It can feel unpleasant. For a time this may work and stop the barking. I remember when I was a teenager there was a nail bite preventer pot. You put your fingers in it and if you ever put your hands in your mouth you’d experience a disgusting taste. The idea was it would prevent you from biting your nails. However, as you’ll know, this would not get to the root cause of why you are biting your nails. It could be because of anxiety or another reason. This could result you engaging in another stress relieving activity, or even carrying on regardless of the taste. The same thing can occur with dogs. They can get used to the sensation and simply carry on barking. You may, then consider increasing the spray or moving to a collar that is more intense. Again this is compromises the dogs welfare as it doesn’t get to the root cause of the behaviour. Moreover the pain, in combination with the panic, is another added stressor and means a dog is even more overwhelmed.

What can I do instead?

For some dogs, they may need pharmacological support in combination with desensitisation. Desensitisation is when you do departures within the dogs tolerance level, gradually increasing it.

If you need support, you may be interested in finding out more about my separation programme.