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...

This will be the 4th Pet Zoom i have ordered. my son took my first one for his barking dog. then my sister has little yappers and she tried on them and it works great. so needless to say i won't be getting those back. i bought mine for the 4 cats that live next door and are allowed to roam free. when i catch them on my porch this thing makes them scram!!!! they now are never on my porch or expensive deck furniture. they do walk along side the deck sometimes and when i can catch them and use Pet Zoom they scamper...fast! the other day i saw one of the cats cross the street to walk past my house. :) LOVE THIS THING!! I have caught them coming over the wood fence in my back yard, and when i point Pet Zoom at them they scamper right back over the fence. it doesnt seem to work that well on older dogs, as i think they are deaf or hard of hearing and might not be able to hear that high of frequency. but for the price its worth a try for sure. I keep one in my living room, MBR, and in my pocket whenever i am outside. Love to watch them run off !

In a quiet, non-stressful situation such as sitting in the house, our two dogs will acknowledge the sound. However, when walking outside and encountering another dog, which gets them exited, they completely ignore any sound this device might make. Another example of its ineffectiveness is when we were taking our dogs for a walk one evening. We were approached by an unchained, mixed lab. He was across the street and headed toward us. I immediately gave him a quick "zap". He hesitated for just a second, and then continued toward us. I then pushed the button several more times before continuously holding it down. The dog no longer hesitated and kept coming toward us. He was halfway across the street when his owner finally came out of the house and called him back. If you decide to give one of these devices a try, find out what the return policy is. The company we purchased ours from is charging a 25% restocking fee. By the time we pay the fee and the return shipping costs, it's probably not worth the effort. Update: As noted at the beginning of my original review, in a quiet, non-stressful situation our dogs will respond to this sound this device makes. And yes, it can be and has been used to help train them. However, as noted by others in the comments, it's advertised that it can keep dogs away, which is completely false. Our experience is that it will sometimes work on passive strays. But they normally stay away by just yelling at them. Time and again, aggressive and even overly friendly dogs just won't respond to this device and will come right up to us when we are walking our dogs. If properly advertised only as a training device, then I would rate this as maybe 4 stars. But we bought this specifically because it said it would keep away dogs. IT DOES NOT! ONE STAR!

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.

This item is awesome. I gave the 3 stars because the used item sent to me was defective; LED not working. Item description says minor blemishes etc. It also says on the box that it was tested. The item does however work, except for the red LED light. I did by this item used but expected it to work properly. I would have given 5 stars had it worked. I had one of these in the past and I use it to train my dogs with. It emits a high frequency tone which is irritating to dogs, they don't like the sound. This is why it works so well. You can use it to get there attention, to stop doing things you don't want them to do or use it when they bark or to come to you. I use it when my dogs are out in the back yard and I want them to come in. Just press the button a couple of times and here they all come running. I have had a dog that did not respond to this item, not sure why, maybe the dog couldn't hear well but for the most part, it is a good training devise. I would definitely start early in your pets life. This is better then the shock collars. I would recommend this item.

I bought this item for the sole purpose of breaking my Sheltie of recreational barking. We have a big fenced in yard in the country and he is an indoor dog but while outside playing or going to the bathroom whenever he heard another dog bark or saw another dog he would cheerfully bark his head off. My neighbors on their own acreage never complained (bless them) but I was embarrassed and it was really bad when I'd let him out for a bathroom break at 5am and he'd just get every dog within a mile barking back at him, that is a lot of people to give a rude awakening to. I recently rescued an Australian Shepherd puppy and she is so sweet and docile, I was terrified that he was going to bring he over to the dark side and teach her his barky ways. I tried a lot of methods and gadgets and was down to considering bark collars (then I saw pictures of a dog that was wounded when a device short circuited while being used according to instructions, no thanks) when I decided to give one last gadget a try. This was that gadget, it works. When he goes off into a barking daze I just hold down the button until he stops which usually takes no more than 5 seconds. If I catch him while he's revving up for a bark-a-thon it only takes a press to calm him down. In addition to the barking being curbed he has become more agreeable and loving, he isn't associating the noise with fear of being outdoors (something I was worried about) and he still runs and plays with our new puppy as much as ever. He is also much less likely to begin barking and when the neighbor dogs start and he looks antsy to start up all I'll have to do is caution him in a very sweet manner verbally, which is a world away from trying to reign him in when he got going before. If you're at your wits end and have tried everything else try this, I've tried many other sonic devices (that cost a lot more) and they didn't work, this one does.

I had a similar looking item years ago and it was highly effective for our Sheltie and then after she passed away it continued to work on our poodle, who passed away last year. We now have a four month old Shih Tzu/Wheaton Terrier mix. He has started barking incessantly when he sees other dogs or people, even on our walks. I was hoping this would work as well as our previous one. The first couple of times when I used it he stopped but now he just seems to ignore it. I thought maybe it had stopped working, but I could hear it when I held it up to my ear (as I could with my old one). Either this one isn't as strong, or our new puppy is just more willful. But in either case, it is not working for me.

It's nice to buy a product and have it exceed your expectations. I knew before I bought the sonic pet trainer that it would probably work for my dog because he's really sensitive to high-pitched noises. Be warned, that it most likely won't work for EVERY dog. It doesn't mean that the product is a scam or defective. Some dogs are just more sensitive to the noise than others. I've had Kirby since late 2008 and I've been dealing with his spazzy behavior on the leash ever since. If he saw a dog, squirrel, rabbit, truck, stroller, kid on a skateboard, or pretty much anything that moved, he'd bark like a maniac and run around in circles. I got the trainer, and immediately took him for a walk. At the first sign of bad behavior, I said 'Kirby, NO!' and I'd press the button. He stopped the behavior IMMEDIATELY. After the first week, he started to just react to 'Kirby, NO!', and I didn't even have to press the button. After about 2 weeks, I rarely even had to correct him verbally. We can walk up to other dogs now with no issues. It's amazing! I wish I got this product YEARS ago. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Kirby says thank you too, because now he gets a lot more walks!

I received it quickly and it works quite fine! I thought it would have been some kind of cheap toy but, seriously, it worked rapidly. My dog was quite a challenge. But, I pressed the button once and now, whenever he seems to react a certain way that I don't want him to, I just have to mention him "I'll get the remote" and, he understand and cools down. He always reacted to thunder. He was really afraid. So, I guess that certain dogs will hear the sound more than others.

This item arrived broken. When I try to request a replacement I get "This item isn't eligible for return" and then the run-around begins. I am more than disappointed. I am angry AND out $30.00+. (More, if you include the cost of another training device.) I've owned Pet Zoom trainer before so I know the product works if the device is operational. And this no return policy is total BS. They sold me something that does not work. I should get a replacement at the very least, but nope. Be warned .

It works on my cat but my dog mostly ignores it. A little disappointing...

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.

IT DID WORK AT FIRST. PAYS VERY LITTLE ATTENTION TO IT NOW...