EMSON DIV. OF E. MISHON PetZoom 8140 Sonic Pet Trainer

This Pet Zoom Sonic Pet Trainer is a handy dandy device. It is helping me curb excessive barking by my dogs and train them not to deviate from our walking path. My cat hates it and stops scratching and kneading immediately. For around $10, it is the least expensive, effective dog training tool I've ever seen, and I do recommend it. Here's how it works for me:I live in the country and I have two neighbors who have a combined dozen or so dogs. I love to spend time outside, but when one dog barks it seems like they all bark. Add in a coyote or two out in the distance, and the myth of quiet country solitude grows even dimmer. One night recently, there must have been coyotes out a distance from our house (I couldn't hear them from in the house) and my dogs literally barked all night. RIGHT OUTSIDE MY BEDROOM WINDOW...I woke up to one or the other of them barking. This is not a regular or normal occurrence but it does happen a couple of times per year. I then began to research options that weren't in the hundreds of dollars and ordered this product. I've been sitting outside with them at night and whenever one of them hears a noise that they run to investigate and bark at, I press the button on the Pet Zoom. Ideally, one will do this before the dog is more than a few feet away, and definitely within the 20 foot radius. I've had pretty good results with the dogs stopping and coming back to lay at my feet. I had my concerns about whether it was my command to "Stop" at the same time I pressed the button, or the product but it seemed to be doing some good. When I hear the dogs barking out back toward the creek when I'm heading to bed, I carry the Pet Zoom with me and stick my head out the door and give them the "Stop" command while pressing the button. Again, who knows? But it "seems" to be working.Now today, I took my dogs for our usual walk out behind my place on an old oil and gas well gravel road that is full of long, dead grasses. Usually, Baxter (my smaller dog) is so excited to go walk that he jumps on me repeatedly and occasionally clips me from behind. It's cute to a point. I carried the Pet Zoom and when he moved to jump I simply pressed the button and he immediately cowed down and turned and went on to walk. I did this repeatedly until he no longer attempted to jump on me. it was wonderful and removed one of the most unpleasant parts of my walk. For this alone the product was worth ten dollars.At the end of our walk we come to a fenced enclosure of some kind of water reservoir where a lot of small game make their home. We've even seen wild turkeys making nests. It is fenced in but Baxter can squeeze through the gate and run inside to check out any rustling noises. Today, we heard a rabbit or something and I tried the Pet Zoom as Baxter bolted toward the gate. The first time he stopped and came back to me immediately. Then the thing rustled again and we could see movement in the grass and Baxter ran through the gate. I continued to press the button, walking closer to him and commanding him to "stop" as a I walked (trying to stay within the 20 feet). He looked longingly toward the rustling grass but finally came to me and lay down at my feet as he enjoyed the lavish praise I heaped upon him. Fun times!My cat (she's a diva Persian) likes to lay on my bed ALL the time. In fact, it quite inconveniences her when I crawl into it at night to sleep, except then she remembers she can come swish her royal fluffy tail in my face and I will pet her just to get her to move. Sometimes she just sits near my head and kneads the pillow purring loudly as I wish she would move so I can get some sleep. Last night, a simple pulse of the Pet Zoom and she was off like a flash, later returning to sleep daintily upon the corner of the bed, but never more to get her furry self up in my eyelashes. More good sleep. At this rate, I won't need the plethora of under eye creams and concealers I've been ordering!Well, in a nutshell, this product does basically what it says it will do, with varying degrees of effectiveness on different animals. My teenage son stuck it to his ear and screamed, so maybe I can use it to get him to put the seat down...I recommend this product. For $10 you don't have much to lose...

After reading a lot of the reviews, I came to the conclusion that the reason for most peoples failure with this device is they simply don't know how to use it. This device is called a 'Negative Reinforcer'. What that means is, is this is a tool you use to reinforce to the dog your displeasure over bad behavior. The dog must be taught what this sound means, which requires some time, patience, and of course, training. Since this is harmless, you can't expect a dog to react to this without some training. They may tilt their head at it, but without the training to acknowledge the noise as what it is, most dogs will ignore it.I adopted a 5 year old Border/Aussie, who is a certified SAR dog, and this device was used for a lot of his training. After adopting him, one of his bad habits quickly came to light, and that is crying and yipping quite terribly when separated from me. A couple calls, and some useful info later, I was told this was used for his training. Boy, was it ever. He knew exactly what it was, and the results were amazing. Was I hurting him? No. It's merely a trained response. Now, if this gets too close to the dogs ear, you can hurt their hearing. You should definitely follow the safe operating distance from the dog, or whatever pet you're using this on.If this device wasn't the answers to my prayers over the barking, I'd deduct more stars for the lack of a on/off button. As with all reinforcers, you must be VERY, VERY careful as to when the sound is deployed. Accidentally clicking the button can be very detrimental to training, and care should be taken. Using this on more than one dog poses problems, and people should take great care when using this. This in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they're doing can really mess up a dogs training, and cause a myriad of other problems.Example:You have two dogs, Betty and CeCe. Both are trained using this device. Betty does something bad; If you click this at Betty, but CeCe can hear it, and reacts the same way Betty does, that's detrimental. CeCe wasn't doing anything wrong, Betty was. But CeCe was trained that when she did something wrong, this sound was made. That's highly detrimental, and will only confuse, and possibly agitate your dog. Remember, the range on this is about 20', but it could be less, or it could be more. Imagine being in your dog shoes in this situation; Always, if there is a sudden behavior change, or mood shift in your dog, evaluate yourself first. Is there something new in the dogs life? Have you changed anything? What could be causing this aggression/sudden barking/etc...Dogs only have a few ways to communicate with us, and we need to listen. Most dogs aren't willfully being bad; they react to environment and training.This is marketed as a "fix all" for dogs, and with the right techniques and training, it is. But please, before buying, do research on products. You may be better off using a "Positive Reinforcer" such as clicker training, which is easier to manage with multiple dogs, and on the whole, is considered easier. Do you, and your dog, a favor. Do your research. Read up on what you're buying. Dogs require training, and no "fix all" device can change that.

Didnt do much to stop my dogs. Might work on someone elses tho.

I have a 4 lbs yorkie who loves to bark at anything that moves too quickly. Although he doesn't have a loud bark, I do find it annoying and didn't want it to be equally annoying for my neighbours. I've tried a number of behavioural techniques in the past with no lasting success. I received this item on time and in excellent shape. I only needed to insert a 9-volt alkaline battery and it was ready to go. I was amazed when on the first try it worked. When Trace barked, I depressed the button for only one second and released it with the command "no bark" and he immediately ceased barking. I know he heard the gadget's frequency because he looked back at me startled as if to say, "what was that?" Now if you follow Cesar Millan's training techniques, you know that in order to break bad habits, you have to break their focus but that can be near impossible with a very small dog because they can be quicker than their alpha master, but this device is getting Trace's attention immediately. It's early days yet so I'll come back in a week or so and let you know what progress, if any, we've made in correcting his excessive barking. The reason for the 4 stars review today is that in order for this device to work, the device has to be between 6 to 20 feet from the dog or cat which means that you need to be around at the time of the bad behaviour you want to correct. The device has to be handy to you at all times but unfortunately there is no way to connect a lanyard to it to hang from a belt or neck so it must be in your pocket or hand in order for you to have access to it when need be. Fingers crossed that in a week or two Trace will be hardly barking and listening to the "no bark" command!

This was the second Pet Zoom we bought. The first one worked really well to stop our anoying cats from being annoying first thing in the morning. I only had to reach for it and they scattered. It even stopped the annoying dog next door from barking!! We had that one for 4 years before it stopped working. The second one we bought is still working but after a month it now makes a loud annoying sound when we press it, as opposed to the quiet annoying sound it's supposed to make. I have just ordered a third, lol. I hope the second one was just a fluke.

At first my dog would stop doing what he was doing when I would sound this but after a short time he would continue. I know the sound works as I can hear it myself when I put it by my ear. I know for some it works and for some it doesn`t. I will continue trying to train him with it. I`m indifferent on this product. You take your chances that it will work for your dog.

It took 1 day then she was looking over her (Silky Terrier) shoulder once I said the command to see if I was going to use it. It took a few more situations for her understand all the behaviours I would use this on. Her favourite thing is to get out of her harness and run. The last time she did it she had the harness in her mouth rubbing me she got out and did not run. We have gone through 3 harnesses. she is 15 months old and even though the pet store sizes them to her she is Houdini. Since I got this product I have referred it and 3 people have bought it for their dog issues. Great product.

I’m not sure if it’s just my dog or if it’s the product, my dog was good with listening with it for a couple weeks or so, but then it started to not have any effect on her.