Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I should have made this purchase ages ago... Summary: Works wonderfully, even with a very stubborn dog. Highly recommended. Training and patience is required but only for the first couple of weeks. Well worth the money and time spent training. There's lots of good technical information in other reviews here (and elsewhere on the net) so I'm just going to write up my experience assuming you understand how it works. Crash is my year-old male Boxer + American bulldog mix. He is 85ish pounds. He's clumsy but tough. He hits his head on things all the time and nothing seems to hurt him. Sometimes he hits his head so hard it makes me cringe, but he just happily wags his tail and walks away... so I was worried he would just run freely and ignore the collar. I worried it would hurt him too much or be cruel. He's clumsy but very smart. As soon as he was old enough for puppy school, I took him to several months of obedience/socialization classes. He is a VERY well behaved dog except when he sees other people or animals that interest him. He nearly always gives chase. He is so friendly and happy but he's big and doesn't know he can be scary so when he runs to play with people. Sometimes when they see him running toward them, they are very afraid (I don't blame them! They don't know he's harmless). Also, I have a road which people tend to speed on in front of my house and I don't want him anywhere near that street. Even on a leash he was a REAL handful when he saw something interesting. Very skeptical, I finally purchased the Petsafe wireless containment system. I actually own a wired system (given to me as a gift) but the configuration of my home and property make it VERY difficult (expensive) to get a line around the containment area. Which reminds me of the only drawback to the wireless version I've found: I can't utilize all the area I could with a wired system (circle in a square area basically). I can get 70 percent of it though. That is simply because of the shape of my property. I found a place to install the transmitter, plugged it in and walked the property, placing flags where the alarm sounded on the collar (after some signal strength adjustments). It ended up providing a pretty good area for the dog to enjoy and gave him additional freedoms that I couldn't accomplish with a wired system. After the installation, I followed the training procedure with him. He was previously allowed in some areas of the yard which the new containment system didn't cover, so I was worried about that as well. The first time he heard the collar alarm sound he did associate it with "no" and stopped in his tracks. He happily ran somewhere else and played. The same result after the second time the alarm sounded. The third time my neighbor walked out (my dog loves him) and Crash ran full speed toward him. He ignored the alarm and my audible "no!" correction- he was in "one track to the goal" mode. When he does this, I've never been able to get his attention despite training him patiently using proven methods. The collar corrected him just where I had hoped, a few feet before the edge of my property. When he received correction (level 2 of 6) he was already aware he was doing something wrong (alarm, me yelling "no"). I could have ever hoped or wished for a better response from him: he immediately came running back to the safe zone (and yes, he cried, which made me sad... but I think it mostly scared him) and laid down. After the correction, he completely ignored my neighbor. The kicker here is that he knew why it corrected him and what he needed to do. It worked like a charm. I consoled him and praised him for coming back into the containment area. Since that time, he's been corrected only 3 times total (in around a month). He knows what the flags meant (which I have since taken down), he knows what the alarm on the collar means and he knows where he's allowed to go. It's the craziest thing, it's like he's on an invisible leash now... he runs to the edge of his zone and barks at squirrels, etc. Even if I walk outside the zone he sits patiently and waits for me to return. I was worried about him being corrected (I like that word so much better than "shocked") but it has only happened 3 times and that was in the first 5 days. Since then, the alarm is plenty to send him back to the containment area. I no longer have to leash him up when he wants to go outside, I just go outside and sit and watch while he plays happily in the yard. It's fantastic. He doesn't fear the collar; in fact he gets excited and stands still so I can put it on because he knows that means it's time to go outside. I should have made this purchase ages ago. I've never had to turn up the correction and he's a big, tough, stubborn dog. He and I both love our new freedoms! Now I can work in the yard, etc. while he plays. I don't have to concentrate completely on him. I highly recommend this product but PLEASE follow the training instructions and be patient. Letting your pup run free before he understands the boundaries isn't fair to him/her. He should know why he is being corrected BEFORE he actually receives a correction or he wont know what to do to make it stop. This product is as effective as long as you are willing to be patient and follow instructions. Heck it's more than effective, it's fantastic.