First- great experience with the company. Fast shipping!
Now for the collar.
The remote control feels extremely cheap. The light button and the whistle are a waste. If you aren't careful, the buttons can get stuck.
BUT this has become my new favorite dog training tool! We adopted our dog a few months ago from people who didn't pay attention to her at all, never mind discipline. She killed chickens, was constantly running off our property (endangering the neighbor's livestock), stole constantly, and even though she is far from my first dog to train, she is the first one I've ever had who didn't seem to care if I was happy with her behavior or not. In just 48hrs the change is remarkable!
I'm not sure how powerful the shock feature is on this, to be honest, since our medium sized dog never yelps or acts horribly distressed. She will dance back, though, which is good enough for me. The vibrate feature works great for low-level bad behaviors (getting in the trash, etc), while the shock feature is great for our dog's more focused stares (chickens, cat chasing). I do have to catch her BEFORE she actually lunges at something, though, or she doesn't even notice. For that reason, it gets 4 stars instead of 5.
This remote is wonderful for hiding because it is small enough to put in my sweatshirt pocket. That means my dog thinks I'm MAGIC, and obeyes much better even when I don't have the collar on her, and even when there would be no followup correction from this device. And it isn't just the behaviors I'm working on eliminating: she hasn't counter-surfed since we put it on her, even though she hasn't gotten the correction for that behavior. She is following obedience commands quicker, is more attentive to us, and responds to verbal corrections faster- even though I'm ONLY using the collar for running off, animal chasing/killing, and stealing. Today she was pulling back rather than cross the property boundaries, and although the chicken killing is a work in progress, I've seen more progress in 48hrs with this device than I have in the 2 months I've been working with her on-lead around them (and after which she was still killing my birds).
Instructions aren't so great, so I share this: If you are dealing with an... intellectually challenged dog like I am, be prepared to show your dog what to do to stop the correction. For example: the first few times, our dog would just stand there like a statue and take it. I had to physically show her where to move so the correction would stop. She honestly had no clue the correction was related to her behavior.
I hated the idea of adding this particular tool, but when the choices were give her away (where she would be sent on and on and on again for her frustrating attitude and lack of manners) or try this, I'm glad we gave it a chance.