Pros: Keeps dog out of garbage and off sofa cushions when alarm is set.
Cons: not 100% effective with my dog.
The Bottom Line: Not 100% effective with Shadow, keeps him out of the garbage, off the sofa when alarm set on Lo. Shadow is stubborn and set in his ways.
nortos's Full Review: Tattle Tale Vibration Pet Trainer
Tattle Tale Vibration Pet Trainer
We purchased the Tattle Tale Pet Trainer about 9 months ago because our dog, Shadow suffers from severe allergies and had made it a habit of stealing “leftovers” from the kitchen garbage. He’s on a very restricted diet and can only have the special diet we purchase from the vet and the carrots we give him as treats. Eating anything else causes him to develop a severe reaction on his skin that ends up infected and then months worth of antibiotics, sometimes hospital stays and medicated baths several times per week. We had tried everything we could to keep him from eating out of the garbage can, which has a hinged lid and a pedal to step on to open it up. Shadow figured out how to get his big nose at the right spot on the lid and was opening it that way and eating “everything” including paper towels, candy wrappers and and in a case or two used brillo pads, which needless to say are really bad for a dog to eat - and yes, they made him sick to his stomach! Before we purchased the Tattle Tale, we had tried putting a motion sensor on it (grated it was a toy one for a kids bedroom door), but it also emitted a short beep. However, the frequency of the beep was different and Shadow would go into the garbage while it was beeping.
We purchased the Tattle Tale, which emits a short high frequency beep from the slightest vibration near the object it is placed on – it beeeeeeeeeeps and then resets itself. In this case we stuck a piece of Velcro on the bottom of it and attached it to the top of the garbage can - all Shadow has to do is touch the can with his nose and the Tattle Tale goes off – he walks away – it works. The Tattle Tale has a switch on the side with three settings. Lo, High and Off. We only have had to set it on the Lo setting as this works all the time for us. The high setting would pick up anything walking within 5 feet of the garbage. When we leave it off, we are in the kitchen at the same time. If we leave it off and leave the kitchen, Shadow knows it and is in the garbage. So in our case it hasn’t “trained” him to stay out of the garbage. I don’t think we will ever be able to not have the Tattle Tale on the garbage can because Shadow still will go in it when the alarm is in the off position and we are not around.
We purchased 3 of the Tattle Tales figuring we would put one on each couch in the tv room so we wouldn’t have to keep lifting the cushions when we weren’t in there. Again, with our dog if the alarm is on – he won’t go on the couch, actually, if he sees the Tattle Tale on the cushion he wants to sit on and it is in the off position – he won’t go on the sofa. If we forget to put the Tattle Tale on the spot where the 2 cushions meet and it is off, he’ll lie on the sofa cushion without the alarm. So, again, the alarm hasn’t “trained” Shadow to stay off the sofas and we will always have them on the furniture as well.
The Tattle Tale Pet Trainer is about 4 ½ inches long by just over 2 inches wide and 1 inch high - they are somewhat stylish looking – not ugly and I have only seen them in white, which works fine for me because my kitchen garbage can is white and it kind of blends into our sofas as well. The Tattle Tale on low is sensitive enough that if we step on a certain floor board in our tv room, the alarm on one of the couches always goes off. Just a light touch of the couch would make it activate.
I do believe these Tattle Tales could actually work with most dogs, I believe Shadow is either extremely smart and not to be outwitted by such a small device, or just very stubborn and doesn’t want to be “trained” not to do certain things. We paid $20 for each of these online at amazon.com where they can still be purchased – I suggest comparison shopping for them.
So for my experience with the Tattle Tale Pet Trainer, it doesn’t quite “train” my pet to not go in the garbage or on the sofas, but it has acted as a deterrent when it is set on Lo to stay out of the garbage can and off the sofa cushions where the Tattle Tale is sitting. Since we only purchased 3 at the time, on our love seat we put the Tattle Tale in the center where the 2 cushions meet. On the full length sofa which has 3 cushions, we put it where 2 of the cushions meet and the 3rd cushion we still put in the up position. I would not purchase any more of them because then I would need them for each garbage can outside and the large comfy chairs in my living room. I am glad we made the purchase because it has definitely kept him out of the kitchen garbage and has helped reduce the number of allergic reactions he has had to eating different things these past 9 months.
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