About 15 years ago my mom’s dog had a barking problem, and the shock collar worked very well. She rented it from a local pet store because buying it outright was really expensive. After he seemed fairly well trained, she stopped renting it, and the barking resumed pretty quickly. The next step was to rent the shock collar and buy a cheap “decoy” collar that was just the empty shell. She alternated them for a while, and then took the shock collar back and just let Scooter wear the decoy collar all the time. Worked great until he eventually realized he could bark again, so for a time she would rent the real collar for short periods to refresh his memory. Eventually, he got to the point where as soon as she put the collar on and let him outside, he’d run to the back of the yard and immediately do a couple of test barks. If he got shocked, he was quiet after that. If not, he’d bark his head off. She finally shelled out the money for the shock collar, which she’d probably paid for in rental fees by then anyway.
Since the OP seems to have made a decision, I’d like to expand the question a little.
Does anyone know how well these work with in-laws?
Maybe not, but that would be the lesser of the two evils.
Originally posted by ntucker :
"Eventually, he got to the point where as soon as she put the collar on and let him outside, he’d run to the back of the yard and immediately do a couple of test barks. If he got shocked, he was quiet after that. If not, he’d bark his head off. "
Thank you for that story. I visualized the dog doing it and laughed.
I’ve actually worked at a dog training kennel before, and shock collars (not bark collars) were one of the tools very effectively used there.
First, I do recommend what one poster has already suggested - figure out why the dog is so insecure outside that it feels it needs to bark constantly to tell you what’s going on. Yeah, yeah, not your problem, but if your wife wanted the dogs so bad then make her deal with it. You’re not a parent with a child that doesn’t quite understand the responsibility of a pet; your wife should be perfectly capable of doing SOMETHING.
However, shock collars (again, NOT bark collars) can be extremely effective. I recommend spending the extra moolah and going through it with a good trainer - that can make all the difference. The first session will sound like the dogs are getting murdered, but after that it’ll be like you have a whole 'nother animal. I’ve seen aggressive, biting, barking jack russells turn into obedient, quiet dogs that lay calmly on their beds.
However, there is the flip side that without the collar, the behaviors come back, like the dog that does test barks to see if the collar is on.
If you’re in Southern California, check out www.absolutek9.com. The folks there are great. 
Make sure a get one of the better collars- you don’t want the $40 one. The Tritronic and other comparable collars will escalate with the dog’s insistence on barking- starting at the lowest threshold and coming up in intensity until the dog gets a correction that means something to him/her. If the dog doesn’t bark for a certain amount of time, it will re-set itself.
I cannot stress enough to make sure your dog is absolutely secure in a kennel or yard when you put the collar on the first time. A friend of mine with a kennel of border collies, had a new dog that was barking. Her mother put a bark collar on her and turned her loose in an unfenced yard- she panicked and ran off. Luckily they live in the boonies so they were able to catch up to her o.k, but had she lived in town or she had gotten a better head start, she might have been really lost.
Some dogs will panic, howl and freak out about it, but if they have at least two brain cells, they usually get it figured out pretty quick.
Furry dog collars! You might need a hair sample for matching purposes. Good luck. 
Well, if she tries that she’ll be doubly shocked, both from the shock collar and the invisible fence one!
I might end up electrocuting Fido…
I can’t imagine how using a bark collar could train a dog to bark only when it’s appropriate. Not gonna happen.
This is anecdotal, but I swear it’s true. My niece has a psychotic dog, and I won’t go into all the evidence that this is so, but the vet concurs. One of the things the dog does is bark during the night because she’s afraid of the dark. She burrows into impossibly small areas and then barks once every half hour or so, loudly, which wakes everybody up. Nothing stops her. As a last resort, my niece bought a bark collar. This worked for about a week, but the dog figured out that a “BARK!” would cause pain, so now she goes “marff” instead. It still wakes everybody up. I swear I’m not making this up.
Oh I know, but that’s the crux of the matter. I want her to bark when strangers approach, when other dogs are nearby…just not when the wind blows.
But it sounds like the good bark collars mediate the overly loud, non-stop barking as opposed to the quieter, muted woofs.
One of my coworkers had a beagle that wouldn’t stop barking. He totally ignored the electric collar. She decided to try a citronella one, which was effective for a couple days, until he figured out that if he barked enough, it would empty the collar at which point he could bark to he hearts content.
Have a friend with a psychotic Chihuahua who was the same way. Barked once, gets shocked, gets pissed off so he barks again, so he gets more pissed off…etc. Damn thing is a menace. He honestly sat there and stared at me for TWO HOURS when we watched a movie. I’m COMPLETELY STILL and he just sits there. Moved my TOE, one inch…ARHARHARHARHARHARH!!! :rolleyes:
I think the fact that she’s part Beagle is a big part of the problem. Beagles are known to be obnoxious barkers and bayers. Which is why, of course, my wife selected this particular dog over my objections.
Well I’m glad I’m working at home today since that comment nearly caused a messy monitor/coffee interaction
…it’s the fact that I can really see/hear that going on that makes me laugh so much. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, growing up as a kid we had three Saluki’s in the house. Now Saluki’s don’t typically bark much but they do ‘sing’ (for ‘sing’ read ‘howl in unison like crazy’) and one of our lots trigger to do this was when they would hear my mum coming home from work. I used to go up to my favourite out of the three and just look at her for a moment doing this, then I’d put my hand lightly around her muzzle so she couldn’t open her mouth to howl. Similarly to how you mentioned above, this didn’t stop anything…it just resulted in an aggrieved looking Saluki with cheeks blowing out on each subdued owwwwwmph howl 
My niece told us about this in a restaurant. As her story-telling abilities are unequalled (she really should be doing stand-up in comedy clubs), I laughed so hard I thought they would ask me to leave. The mental picture of this mutt trying to whisper a bark still cracks me up.
Just leave the moving Running Man on when you go out. They’ll get the idea.
This made me laugh - my sister has a worthless Dachshund who wears his citronella collar 24/7, and it seems to make no difference whatsoever - he barks continuously, at everything, and nothing, and as a result the house is filled with the scent of citronella. I really almost think that she’s doing it on purpose, since the dog tends to shit and piss pretty much anywhere in the house it wants to - the citronella covers up the smell of ground-in dog shit.
Somewhat. They should fill the goddamn things with nitrous oxide so the dog will at least get drowsy.
You wife purposely picked a dog that she knew would bark obnoxiously all the time? Why?
My Saluki does this to, but I think it’s cute. You should hear him go off when we pull up to Petsmart.
Yeah, Beagles are bred to yell. I’m sure that’s part of the problem.
If it were my dog, I’d consult a behaviorist or at least a trainer before trying the collars. Fortunately we’ve been pretty lucky with our dogs so far.