Vet suggesting citronella collar?

[saffronwblue]

Took Daisy for her one year vacc and check up today. The vet was very complimentary [proud].
I asked him for advice about her barking. She does not bark all the time but has a very loud bark and a strong reflex to bark when someone goes past our house. She also stands in our back garden barking at another dog 2 streets away. Worst of all she uses a loud bark to us to get attention when she wants a ball thrown etc. We try to ignore her but it is hard as I am conscious of baleful looks over the fence from the neighbours.
Anyway the vet suggested a citronella collar. Something tells me that the doghouse collective wisdom will have a view on these. Please let me know your thoughts.

here

I think it depends on the dog , it didnt work for mine and someone offered to lend me an electric collar but i just couldnt do it . I now have an almost perfect dog and tbh that will do for me

at the electric collar. Evil things.

Beware with the citronella collar that if you're dog is half smart she will quickly work out that if she barks for long enough the citronella will run out so it will lose its effect. I think your best option would be to teach a bark command. There are some very knowledgable people on here who I'm sure will give you some tips.

However it is important to remember that for dogs, barking is a very important part of communication and you can't expect your dog not to bark at all - it just isn't fair. So long as your dog isn't barking incessantly and you can make sure it's not at unsocialable times (i.e. too late or too early) I think most people are accepting of it and it just gets mixed up with all the other noises that come from living somewhere that isn't completely remote.

"You're dog"?! Your obviously

This is why you go to a vet for information on the health of animals and not behaviour.

You can if you like buy a collar, but it will not teach your dog not to bark. Your dog may stop barking to start with, it will then either learn to bark so it does not set off the collar, it may turn to alternative behaviours which are often worse than the original behaviour or it may turn you already anxious dog into a nervous wreck. If another dog barks nearby your dog will get sprayed by the collar and have no idea why. When it runs out of spray your dog will still bark. Waste of time and money.

If you do have £40.00 to throw away then you might as well give it to your local dog rescue.

Change vets. Very cruel IMHO.

Yet another vet spouting nonsense

Honestly, why can't they resist the temptation to advise on things they know nothing about?

Anyway - what everyone else has said.

My mate's BMD, despite being thick as mince, very quickly learned to bark his way through the squirty collar until it stopped being squirty.

Interested in this thread, as we have one terrible barker (our sheltie who is a very vocal specimen of a known to be vocal breed) and one young JRTx who was initially very quiet but has started copying our older dog. She's usually fine without him.

I have never got anywhere with teaching sheltie not to bark - he's very stubborn, very sensitive to noise, and now old into the bargain, but I have managed to teach our young JRTx a stop bark command. I say "stop" and make a hand gesture llike a mouth closing. She stops immediately. However, I did it at first by treating her and she has quickly learnt that to get a treat, she barks, then stops on command, or barks again a second time to get another treat (horrible way-too-bright dog )

What else can I do?

As a vet I am ashamed that you've been given such poor advice. :(