Anyone know the inner workings of the dog collar? AC or DC voltage and what would be a good way to check it other then strap it to my neck.

 

Don't know the inners. I have seen a test device using a Neon lamp. It's a plastic pad with the lamp in the middle. You touch it to the contact points of the collar and bark.

 

what would be a good way to check it other then strap it to my neck.

you clearly understand that this is not going to be pleasant so you don't want to take any risk even once.
but ... you are ok with having your dog endure it as long as you press the button and as often as you deem it necessary?

 

I've held them in my hand when activated. It's not pleasant but it's not horrible either. It's more of a distraction. My neighbor has one that is self adjusting. If the dog barks it gives a mild shock. If the dog continues to bark it gives a moderate shock. If it still is barking it gives a strong shock. If the dog hasn't learned by now - the dog is just dumb. It's better to train your dog than use negative reinforcement to an unpleasant behavior.

 

I had a dog that barked incessantly and would go on for extended periods of time and about anything -- if she saw people out walking several blocks away, she barked. When I would go out for a walk, she would be out of the deck (lived in townhome at the time) and bark constantly until I was finally out of earshot. Racked up a few complaints from neighbors. I finally resorted to a bark collar and at first it had no effect because the prongs that came with it were too short to get through her think coat, so I bought a set of longer prongs. Forgetting that I had progressively turned up the level to the max, thinking initially that that was the issue, I put it on her and pretty soon she barked and yelped. Then immediately barked and yelped again. After that she never barked again except when someone came to the door or we were horseplaying. Pretty amazing. Fifty bucks for something that ended up getting used for less than a minute, but was well worth every penny.

 

2 different types of collars. The "training" collar which delivers a pulse either by sound triggering (bark), approaching a buried signal wire, or by the remote operator pushing a button. The "wireless fence" which delivers a pulse on loss of signal i.e. going out of range of the home transmitter. Only one pulse of settable strength for either collar and does not emit a pulse on regaining the signal i.e. returning home for the wireless. Both very effective training methods for young pups. I've known older dogs who were not trained as pups to ignore the shock from a wireless fence to cross the "dead-line" to go roaming about the neighborhood. Kinda a "hard to teach an old dog new tricks" behavior. The manually activated training collars are highly susceptible to misuse by ignorant owners. Training animals takes a lot of patience and very judicious usage of shock collars to prevent misuse. After being raised from a pup on a wireless fence collar the older dogs can be released into the yard without a collar and instinctively know just where the "dead-line" is and will not cross it. Operating the collars at the highest level setting is not advised and reserved for very very stubborn dogs. Most also emit a high frequency signal (above human hearing but heard by dogs) before the shock as a warning signal as well that can prevent being shocked if heeded. The American Psychiatric Association has deemed their use on human patients as being unethical and likely to put you in danger of being arrested for abuse.

 

Sometimes they can backfire, too. We had a large yellow lab (large as in 120 lb) that loved to have his neck scratched. I had gotten two remote-controlled collars trying to train them (we also had a 60 lb black lab) to stay with me as we went walking on the mountain -- with very little success as wasn't diligent enough in the training. He would get into barking fits when the deer were hanging about, so I put that on him (it had an anti-bark mode) and his barking got worse! It didn't take long to realize that he was intentionally barking to set it off because he liked the way it felt on his neck! As with children, the message we are trying to send and the message they are receiving are not always as well aligned as we might think would be obvious.

 

My neighbor trained his dog not to bark when wearing the collar. And that it was OK to bark when not wearing the collar. The dog more often did not wear the collar. And barked all the more because it was OK to do so.

 

but ... you are ok with having your dog endure it as long as you press the button and as often as you deem it necessary?

He never said who it is for. He could be a school teacher.

 

He never said who it is for. He could be a school teacher.

First, made me laugh.
Second, if a teacher ever put a shock collar on one of my kids there'd be something hot and firry to pay.

 

We mistakenly adopted two lab mixed dogs a few months old. They got along kinda. One could be very aggressive, both barked all the time.

Once we put a shock collar on the tough guy. When it eventually went off I saw this poor dog in such a state of fear I immediately tried to get it off of him... despite his brother barking setting off that collar over and over.

I hate those things.