First Alert Bark Genie Handheld Bark Control Device (FABCU2G)

Very well made First Alert hand held bark control. My 4yr old Jack Russell has turned into a man now! He believes our back yard IS HIS! Last Summer, after puberty, I started noticing him lift the back leg and "mark" every bush near our back 6ft solid cedar fence. Cedar has knot holes where he can peep thru and look for the dog on other side. Then they both race back and fourth along the fence, never seeing each other. My Jack (the Man) is now the instigator. Our dining room slider (2nd floor) has a outside deck where he can see when the other dogs are in their yard. After making obnoxious winey sounds, I get put out and eventually let him out. He runs down the decks stairs and to the fence. I can hear either dog barking and sometimes, little (the Man Jack Russell stands in middle of back yard and barks at nothing. Macho Man Jack is apparently telling the World he is the King of his domain. That is fine and all except I taught him the "stop barking" command which pre-puberty worked 100%. Now he stops until he hears the slider to the deck close, then starts barking again. I have to yell the stop barking command and sometimes I throw in "what the hell are you barking at Boy? Stop It." Then he will sit in the yard and just look at me like I am a fool who will do nothing. So I purchased this compact First Alert handheld unit and took it for a test run. First thing was to install the batteries, then I hit the button and green light and audible beep. Not thinking ahead, the Boy, I mean the Man was knapping next to me on the couch, sound asleep. That is until I hit the button to test green light. He definitely heard it and about jumped straight up into the air!! I felt bad for him but good that he heard it. This item has a straight line, unobstructed 15ft range. Next time he was running & barking along the fence, I went out onto my deck, pointed device in his direction and hit the button. Green light came on and I heard the beep. It is a good 40ft from the deck rail to the back fence. Same as why tv or radio towers are on mountain tops or tall buildings, longer range. My 15ft First Alert hit his ear, dead bang, at 40ft. He immediately stopped barking and came out from behind the bushes and looked up at me. I then pointed it at him, hit button and verbal stop barking command. Then rewarded him with his fav snack and doggie show "Bad Dogs". So far, 2 weeks later, works every time! I hit button, he stops, comes out into plain view and looks at me with one paw up. I then give the "come" command and hit it 2nd time. He advances 1/2 way towards the house. Then I say "Bad Dog" and "treat" and he runs 90mph to house, up stairs onto deck. Then I show him device, let him see and sniff it so he remembers who the "real" man is! This morning, it was cold and snowing. I was on the couch and heard him barking. I never thought a 15ft range would work like this but it did! I didn't even open the glass slider or go out onto deck. I pointed device towards back fence, which from inside is another 10ft or total of 50ft (downhill) to back fence. Hit the button, saw green and heard beep. Watched and Little Man Jack definitely heard it and came out from bushes and looked up at me standing inside my dining room. Same reaction = same rewards. I was amazed, since our deck has an aluminum cover with thick posts. Rails, a Trager Smoker, a big square post all block the direct line of sight. Plus the refraction or signal bounce from the covered patio being aluminum. Perhaps the aluminum intensifies the signal. Whatever the case, this product works on Little Man Jack every time and I no longer have to go outside. To our right is an obnoxious Black Lab 2yr old who barks at me if he is outside and I go out onto MY OWN DECK! No matter how many times I tell the dog to stop barking, the lazy owner NEVER calls dog in or tells it to stop! So I tried the device and bad luck for me, does not effect this Black Lab. I hit the button several times and said stop barking and unfortunately, any of these devices do not work on all breeds. Unlucky that it does not work on this Black Lab! Not even a flinch, but works 100% on my Jack at 50ft. Dog next door is only 20ft downhill with zero obstructions when he is standing in plain view and looking and barking at me. I am looking for a 2nd device that works on stupid dog owners that matches their hearing frequency. They say that these dog bark devices are similar to our hearing ability of a close range air horn! Wait a minute, maybe that's what I will do. I will purchase a small hand held boat distress horn. When the dog next door barks for no reason, I will yell stop barking and hit the distress horn. Hoping the lazy dog owner comes outside and puts 2 and 2 together. He knows the barking drives us crazy when trying to enjoy peace and quiet on our own deck and does nothing. Yeah, boat distress horn?? Or maybe I can find a portable authentic train horn?? Great product, made well and works with Jack the Man Dog...

While it is true that this device doesn't work for ALL dogs, it works well for our two dogs and also a pair of neighbor dogs. One very large neighbor dog seems to care less. But honestly, for the money, it is worth a try. We love it. We use it for our own to stop incessant barking, barking at inappropriate times (like when the paper is delivered early in the morning) and during our walks when barking gets out of control. It is well worth the money. We own several, keeping a device nearby on several levels of our home. It easily fits into my pocket when I am walking and I can even use it without anyone seeing by reaching into my pocket and simply pressing the button. Presto! Barking halts (at least for our dogs!). When our dogs see us grab it now, they immediately stop, which is the reaction that I really want. We find this device, and our benign water-squirt bottle, to be the best training devices found to date. I don't believe that whether a dog recognizes it is breed-specific, it just depends upon the dog. We have one large dog and one medium dog and both respond very well. It certainly gets their attention.

Well when it works it works but it only lasts about a year. I just went to look at my orders and realized that I bought in 2021 and then again in 2022. And this one is no good anymore. Either be advised you'll get about a year of use out of this.

This was a replacement purchase since I dropped the first one and broke the battery cover off. The first one I had was perfect it worked well and was easy to use. This one had a stiff button - it did not press easy and the sound was not the full beep it would normally give. After continued use over time the button did loosen up and it now works perfectly and the same as the first one but those first few months of use were irritating.

Update: It didn't really seem to affect my Boston in stopping his barking, however he also goes crazy for anything that makes a noise. So he took the first opportunity he had to get his revenge. XD Needless to say, I probably won't be replacing it as it wasn't all that effective. Original review: This works great for one of my dogs, a Miniature Pincher, but doesn't seem to affect the other one, a Boston Terrier, at all, or maybe only at a very close distance, which the instructions say not to use closer than 24", I think (I don't have the instructions on hand). In any case, I was hoping it would work at like more than 5' or 6', which it doesn't. The Boston was my main reason for getting this, so it was kind of a waste of money for me.

I purchased this product to deter my neighbors two dogs who bark relentlessly at any movement and are annoying because they have not been trained. My first experience was very positive in that both dogs immediately stopped barking when I used the device for about 40 feet. They both started barking again and the younger of the two ran away when I used it again, the older dog was a little more stubborn but a few more applications dissuaded him. Can't account for the different reactions other than assuming the older dogs hearing was impaired and it needed more than one try. As an aside I used it on another neighbors dog at about 60 feet and it also stopped barking. Appears to be well built also.

I’m afraid I’ve bought several of these barking aids but they don’t seem to work on my dog

Fixed our dog’s anxiety-driven behaviour problems within about a week. After only a handful of times, I only had to show it to her to get the desired effect. Breed= border collie.

Das Gerät funktioniert (technisch) nicht immer... Oft geht leider nur die LED an aber das Geräusch was der Hund hören soll kommt nicht. Wir haben schon mehrfach die Batterie gewechselt. Wenn das Gerät dann mal funktioniert reagiert unser Hund sehr stark darauf und hört sofort mit allem auf was er gerade macht (dafür 5 Sterne) Leider ist das Gerät aber so unzuverlässig das wir es nicht mehr nutzen (daher nur 2 Sterne).

No use