Customer Reviews

PetSafe Deluxe Little-Dog Remote Trainer for Pets Under 40 Pounds, PDLDT-305

5 star:		(107)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

We bought this for our Rat Terrier. He's very smart and was learning all his basic commands but not "Come". When he got lose he refused to come when you called him. I worried about his safety. With the kids in and out of the house all summer, something needed to be done. As a animal lover I was really torn about the idea of a "shock" collar. What sold me was that this one could be set low and could also be used with a "beep". It only took him three times before he got it. The first time he left the yard I called him, he did the typical "Ha-yeah right", and took off! I gave him the command "Come Cosmo!" and then zapped him. He did yelp, I won't lie:-( He stopped and started to take off again, I repeated. He came running to me. I praised him and gave him treats. Next time I "beeped" him first with the command, followed by a second beep (still didn't come) then a zap, then he came...more praise. Last time I just "beeped" him and he came instantly!!. Now he wears it and we don't even have it turned on! It comes with a book on training for other bad habits like chasing cars, trash raiding, and digging. Along with basic training. It was worth the money. He got out the other day without the collar on, I panicked but opened the front door and called him. He came running to the door!! Also we have neighbors walk their dogs by our house, we just tell him to "sit" and "stay". They just walk right by without any trouble. Perfect! In less then a week he was trained. We could have spent a couple hundred dollars and a month or more on classes for basic training. All of which we didn't have the time or money for. This was easy and worth it!

I have owned dogs and been with dogs since birth. The majority of these wonderful animals have been pets, but I have also spent years working with hunting dogs; raising, training and working with. Until recently I have always been rather smug, and must admit to having done a bit of bragging that I have never had a dog or known a dog that I could not train. Now of the literally hundreds of animals I have been in contact with and worked with over the years this has been true. In addition I can truthfully say I have never hit a dog, lost my temper with a dog, and other than firm voice command and gentle authoritarian use of a leash, used any other training aid. I had very mixed emotions and must admit to have had strong reservations in using such a device as being reviewed here. I have had friend who have had excellent results with their hunting animals with the use of "shock collars," and swear by them, but still and all.....

Well enter Ivan (as in Ivan the Terrible) who is a small terrier who may be 13 pounds soaking wet, although I am convinced he thinks he is the size of a timber wolf. Ivan is about one year old and was "dumped" at our place and was in horrid condition when he came to our door. Being the stern fellow I am, and already in possession of three house dogs, I did the only thing I could do...yup, took the little fellow in. After several trips to the groomer, healthy diet, being checked out an neutered by the vet, given lots and lots of love, he is doing just great. That has been eight months ago.

Ivan is actually a very good little dog. It took two days to house train him, he is well mannered in the house, and is a perfect lap dog. He sleeps in my lap while I read and lies across the top of my head when I go to bed. He gets long with the other animals perfectly. Ivan though has a typical terrier attitude. i.e. a hard head. No method I tried could keep him from bolting from the door, giving a "you and the horse you road in on" look over his shoulder when called, and just keep on going. Now we live in the woods and about 200 yards from the road. Ivan was in great risk of being run over as he loved to chase cars, or being eaten by coyotes as he loved to chase the feral cats who inhabit the woods surrounding us. He would spend hours, day and night, in the pursuit of his feline "enemies." I spent many late nights tromping the bush trying to catch this little critter and bring him home. What to do? The cats are able to avoid (or sometimes not) the coyotes by climbing trees...Ivan does not posses that skill.

Well, as a last resort I ordered one of these wonderful PetSafe trainers for small dogs. I began by testing it on myself...several times, by fastening it to my arm and allowing my wife to zap me...using the high mode....I actually suspicion she enjoyed it...go figure. Anyway, I can promise you that the pain is not all that bad. It does instantly get your attention and is very uncomfortable, but the actual pain is not really all that bad.

Well we then put the devise on Ivan. To make a not so long story even shorter, this thing worked perfectly and it only took three days and about six zaps. Ivan no longer heads for the woods, has stopped chasing cars and stays within his five or more acre area. He comes instantly when called. I can truly say that this thing has probably saved him from being squashed or eaten.

The device is very easy to use. It has 10 settings, 10 being the most powerful. It has been through rain, ice and snow and keeps on working. It is easy to fasten it on the dog. The antenna is buried in the actual collar so there is little chance of it breaking. The batteries seem to have a very long life.

There are two modes on this collar. There is a "beep" button and there is a "zapper" button. It does, as advertised, reach for at least 100 yards. We found that by giving Ivan warning (two) with the beeper before we actually gave him the mild shock worked out quite well. He now instantly returns when he hears the beeping noise. Actually, at this point, he instantly responds and returns at a verbal command.

Some things to note:

Ivan is a bright dog and it did not take him long to associate the collar with the shock. After three times of being hit he behaved well but the first time we let him out without the device in place he headed for the tall timber....back on the collar went. We did this a few times and finally purchased a regular collar, a cheap collar, and when it is on Ivan thinks it is the "bad" collar and behaves perfectly. We are in the process of weaning him from the non-shock collar as I write this and all is working out quite well.

Second: I read at least one review here that stated the collar burned holes in their dogs' fur and skin. This is an absolute blatant untruth...there is no way this device is capable of doing such a thing. The people who wrote those reviews either left the collar on too long and the studs wore a hole in the fur of the dog, or they are misguided individuals trying to "save" the dogs from these "dreadful devices." Hey folks, better startle your dog a bit than have him killed. I am a bit surprised that Amazon has allowed these untruthful reviews to stand. These misguided "do-gooder" reviews could cost many pets their lives and the people who wrote them should be ashamed of their selves.

Third: Even if you get overly enthusiastic with your zapping, the device will automatically stop the shock after eight seconds. This is important when dealing with over zealous children using the device.

Forth: If there are buildings, large trees and shrubs and such in the way, the collar is less effective.

Fifth: the device on the collar should be turned off when the dog is in the house our training time is over as it will prolong the battery life. Also, the collar should not be left on the dog for over eight hours per instructions.

Sixth: These devices should never ever be used as a form of punishment for your pet; a pox on your house if you do so.

I could not be happier with a product than I am this one. It was with every penny I spent and it is much less expensive than many of these devices I have seen.

Now I have a grandson, 17 years old, who is having problems staying focused on his German lessons and British Literature assignments,...I wonder......????

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

We have a 2.5 year old jack russell mix who weighs 25 pounds. Some of the behavioral problems we have with her are whining for no reason, barking at every little thing that moves outside, jumping on people, and not understanding the boundaries of our yard. (We normally have her tied up if she is outside or take her on a leash, but sometimes it's nice to have her loose in the yard if she would stay there).

It took us a little bit to get used to the sensitivity (or lack thereof) of the buttons on the remote. You have to push them in all the way for them to do what they are supposed to; otherwise, the light on the remote may light up, but nothing happens. We maybe use the electric button twice a week. After the first time or two, she understood what the beep meant. Now, when she hears the beep, she immediately stops what she's doing 99% of the time. The other 1%, the beep will get followed by the electric button. Definitely read the directions; you do not need to hurt your dog to get a response. Our dog will actually freeze in confusion, which is how we now she felt the shock. She doesn't yelp or jump. Once she processes it, she comes out of her freeze mode and goes completely back to normal, but she stops whatever it was that she had been doing.We also find that it's helpful to combine a verbal command with the beep, such as "Stop." She's a little slower to catch on to it, but she's starting to understand that Stop and the beep are the same thing. Hopefully, in time, we will get to a point where the collar is no longer needed at all. The barking and whining have decreased significantly. We have been using the collar for 2-3 months, but we just started taking her out in the yard once in awhile without a leash last week. She is doing amazing! The neighbors have even commented on how well behaved she is getting. It took a few beeps and shocks, but she is doing great at not leaving the yard.

I think there are a couple of things to remember about the collar. First of all, it's not a replacement for good dog training or spending time working with your dog. It's a tool to aid in the training. By itself, it is not going to transform your dog...it will take time, work, and patience. Second, as I mentioned, you don't have to hurt your dog for it to get the message. I saw someone once who shocked their lab so badly, it squealed in pain...and the only thing the dog had done was approached another person in a very friendly manner. All that did was teach the dog to be afraid of approaching strange people. Level 6 on this collar is the lowest level our dog responds to, so we always have it at 6. Once in awhile, if the collar is situated oddly, she doesn't feel 6, so we will turn it up at the moment we are using it until she goes into freeze mode. Then, as soon as that instance is over, it goes back to 6. Use the lowest level you can to get a response.

I am only rating this a 4 because of the batteries - they do die frequently as we often forget to turn the collar off when we leave, but we just replace them. It's a little costly after awhile, but we have found the benefits to outweight the monetary cost.

This collar worked well for our dog for several months, but then the wire antenna inside the collar broke off where it attaches to the receiver. We tried soldering it back on, but it broke again. It is just a bad design, not meant to last. it only works within about 10 feet without the antenna, and our dog figured this out.

We just bought one of the Innotek units after a friend highly recommended it - no antenna to break, and is rechargeable.

This product was a god send. It arrived super fast. It has really worked fantastic. My dog is a full grown dog and boy is he stuborn. He only took less than a week before he started obeying commands (not too bad for a full grown hard headed dog huh). I would recommend getting this collar and espically from this shipper and seller. Because it was here so fast and in perfect condition.

Works well, but you better hope nothing happens to it. However, chances are, as it is a dog collar used outside, something will happen to it. The company customer service reps are trained to say "I can't help you," and they will not let you replace either the collar or remote, even if you offer to pay for it. So, if something happens to the remote, you have to buy the whole system again. That's a very expensive remote! Overall, in this day and age, to have a company so opposed to customer service is unbelievable. I will not buy any of their products ever again.

For anyone who has lived in an apartment building with a dog (your own or a neighbor's), you can understand the need for extensive bark control training. With people coming in and out of their apartments all day and night, our 7 month old Irish Terrier (Seamus) was having a field day growling and barking at out neighbors. Our treat and scratchy training was proving effective in teaching Seamus basic commands like sit and come, but would not derail him when he got into a barking fit. The last straw was when one of our neighbors politely placed a note on our door complaining about the barking. Enter the Petsafe Remote Trainer (#PDLDT-305).

Like any responsible parent, I absolutely had to try the trainer for myself so I could gauge what kind of correction I was giving my dog. I placed the electrodes on, you guessed it, my neck, and started with level 1, in which I couldn't feel anything. 2 offered a slight tingle, but nothing really attention grabbing. 3 is where I could start to really get a sense of the "shock" the trainer gave. Petsafe describes it as "the same static shock you get from carpet" but I have to disagree. Whereas that shock is more of like an external jolt, this shock is more of an internal stabbing sensation, almost like getting pricked with a needle. Level 4 is quite uncomfortable, and level 5 is as far as I wanted to take my little experiment. Of course, your dog will have a different tolerance than you, so be sure to use the directions in the manual for finding your dog's tolerance. Level 4 is where we keep it for our pup.

But before setting the tolerance you have to actually get the collar on and situated where the electrodes make contact with your dog's skin and not just the hair. There are 2 sets of electrodes included, a shorter and longer set, for dogs of shorter and longer fur respectively. Seeing as our dog is still a pup, and not a large breed to begin with, we had to make the collar quite small before the electrodes would actually sit securely on his skin. This is a minor issue, seeing as how the receiver antenna for the remote trainer actually extends a considerable length throughout the collar. We exhausted the "antenna-less" portion of the collar and had to actually feed the antenna portion through the collar tightener. I'm not sure if this does damage to that area of the antenna, but it certainly doesn't make for easy adjustments. Also, the collar is a buckle style rather than our preferred "belt" style for collars. Overall, the collar quality is quite low. In fact, it is partially the reason why this product does not receive 5 stars from me.

However, the quality of the collar isn't so much a concern as the quality of the training aspect. With the collar fitted, the tolerance found, and a bustling downtown apartment building, we were ready to do some bark control training. It was a little after 5pm, so it didn't take long before our next door neighbor returned from work for the day. As usual, this set Seamus into a barking fit. I promptly engaged the shock and firmly told him "Quiet" as I held the button down. With 2 seconds he had recognized the shock, ceased barking, and walked away from the door. As soon as he did this, I released the shock and gave him scratchy praise. 10 minutes later, a neighbor down the hall came home and at this point Seamus began to growl. Without even engaging the shock, I firmly told him "Quiet" and that was the last peep he made about the whole situation. Amazing! The next day he was back to barking again, but we just continued the training as same as the day before. By the end of the week, we didn't even have the collar on and he didn't so much as growl as our neighbors came home. Success it would seem!

It's now been about 3 weeks since we began and we still don't have a need to continue the training. He will growl every so often when he hears a neighbor, but it has never escalated to barking, even without us telling him "Quiet" (such as in the middle of the night). To be honest, I have no way of knowing if he barks when we are not home, but we haven't received any more notes or calls about him, so I just have to assume he's as good alone as he is with us present. Like I mentioned earlier, treat and scratchy praise has been working fine for his other training so we haven't had a need for the remote trainer in those instances. But for the bark control training alone, this trainer was well worth the price. There are cheaper trainers that are automatic for bark control only, but we decided to spend the little extra so we have full control of when he gets corrected, as well as the option of using this trainer in the future for other training issues we face besides bark control. On the subject of extended use, the manual indicates that "if the remote trainer is left on 24/7, the batteries will last about 2 weeks". That would be about 335 hours. Petsafe recommends not leaving the trainer on more than 8 hours a day, so by that standard you can get about 40 days of use before you need to change the batteries. During the week we used our trainer, we only needed to leave it on about 2 hours. At our rate, that gives us about 6 months of use.

So there you have my own limited perspective on this product. I hope some find it helpful, as I couldn't find too many reviews on how this trainer worked for people seeking bark control. It seems like most users purchase this product to help with "come" and "down" commands, and I can see how this product could be quite effective for that type of training as well. In conclusion, I must say the Petsafe PDLDT-305 is well worth the $76 paid here on Amazon, if not just for our sanity but the sanity of our neighbors.

This was the best investment we ever made for our little dog! Worked great even in the lake, and have had no problem with it for over two years. At this point, all we have to do is show our dog the collar and she will stop whatever she's doing! She used to run away but now stays right at our side. I can't recommend this more highly!

I really really love this product, but I must give it only 2 stars because it was not built very well.

First let me address the ethics of using a "shock collar". Whenever I tell people I got a shock collar for my dog, some of them become livid. I have an Italian greyhound that is a total spaz - I love him to death but sometimes he is too much. He is too smart for his own good. I have had other breeds that were much more obedient and train well. Rather than losing my patience and getting angry, I merely use the collar and he responds immediately.

In regards to the shock part - I have tested it on myself and found that it does not hurt but it is rather a "jolt". It has an adjustable zap setting. You start with the lowest and dial it up just until your dog feels it. Mine is set at 3 (my dog has very short hair). This felt like someone was flicking my arm. Do not test on your fingertips as they are very sensitive, and the shock sensation is amplified. My dog never cried, yelped, or whined in pain - it was just enough to cause him to stop what he was doing. The unit has an audible tone feature. I would always use the tone before the zap, so now he associates the two and I don't have to shock him. Now, just reaching for the remote is enough to get him to respond.

The collar worked in 5 min what I could not get him to do for weeks!

I have had to order replacements, twice. I am on my third one. here are some of the major flaws:
- very short battery life (a couple of days)
- tone and shock vary collar to collar. The weaker ones have longer battery lives
- casing that houses battery is very flimsy and difficult to change out. the first unit I heard something snap inside when I tried to change the battery and discovered it was the contact.
- the second unit just stopped working after I changed the battery even though the remote light indicator worked and the collar light indicator worked.
-batteries are expensive, so I had to buy mine in packs of 25.

The advantage is that this really really works. I was willing to order 2 additional replacements. I thought my dog would not know that the collar had broken, but he does. I am a bit frustrated with the reliability factor and if it breaks again, I don't think that I'll be ordering another one.

We have the wildest dog ever but this product worked. NO JOKE. He hears the beep now and he'll stop where he is running to and come back. We've shocked him a few times but now he knows not to run off. I never write reviews so you know this must mean something. Great product. Batteries last a few weeks.