Product Review - Beaphar calming collar

This is the first part of a 6 week review on the Beaphar calming collar for dogs. I have been wanting to try out some calming products for dogs for a while now as my dog Ella is an excessive barker and gets very stressed about any change in the house. As you can imagine our pet hotel has a lot of coming and going.
I decided to start with the calming collar for a few reasons:

1. It's a great price point - The collars recommended retail price is just £7.99, so it's not going to brake the bank even if you don't get the results your looking for.
2. It's a completely natural product - a natural product is generally more gentle
3. Long coverage - This collar is effective for up to 6 weeks, the active ingredients being released over 4-5 weeks.

Below is a video on starting with the collar but you can read the product information, so here it all is directly from the packet:
Beaphar calming collar for dogs effectively reduces problem behaviour arising from stressful situations in dogs of all breeds, sizes and ages.
Using safe and natural ingredients that are slowly realsed over a period of 4-5 weeks it leaves the dog feeling calm, settled and relaxed, reducing potentially destructive problem behaviour. When dogs are more secure in their environment they are more relaxed thus making them better house companions. keeping dogs stress free will help to prevent excessive barking, chewing, inappropriate urination and can be essential in dogs that suffer separation anxiety.
Contains Valerian and lavender which are often used in human healthcare to manage stress and anxiety and have been proven to help reduce excessive barking, chewing, scent marking and other undesirable behaviours. This collar is long acting so is perfect for reducing anxiety during the introduction of new additions to the household, frequent travel or the vet/kennel stays and for use during the party season when there may be fireworks or lots of guests in the home.Once fitted, Valerian will be realsed immediately and the dog will begin to relax within approximately one hour.

Directions for use, as it appears on the box:
Do not open the sachet until you are ready to use the collar.
Fasten the collar ensuring a comfortable fit so that two fingers can be inserted between the collar and neck. If fitted to a growing dog remember to loosen the collar regularly. Cut off any excess collar and dispose of with the household rubbish.
For the collar to stay effective it is important it remains next to the skin and does not get covered by any other collar the dog may be wearing.
If the collar gets wet, it will continue to be effective once it has dried.
If you want to wash your your dog with shampoo, it is best to remove the collar and replace when the dog is dry.
Do not use on damaged or broken skin.

Week 2 update

So we've been using the calming collar for 2 weeks now. Two or three nights a week my mum takes the dogs with her to stay at my nans house. During the first week she noted a noticeable improvement in her behaviour regarding her barking.
Now don't get me wrong she does still bark but now it's for an identifiable reason.
This product has been really tested as we have had a lot of changes at home at the moment, with my brothers dog who also has two pups staying with us. Ella really doesn't like change and seems terrified of the puppies.
She also received a bite to the nose over a ball which left her feeling very sorry for herself!
We pushed it even further when we entered a community dog show for the first time.
We took all 3 dogs and entered Ella into best veteran and best trick. No luck in the veteran class she spent the whole time making her stress wine noise and a fair bit of barking. There were also 24 of us in the group! But later on in the best trick class there was only 4 of us and I was pretty sure we weren't going to get anything the other dogs were all really great, one was 14 and the other 2 were 7 and 8 so there were no young dogs. Ella did a great job balancing on her back feet holding a treat on her nose! It took a really long time for the judge to choose and we even had to do a second trick, luckily Ella can jump on command!

Week 6 and beyond

So over all I did see some improvements to her overall behavior but i didn't get as strong results as I know other people have had. Now it may be that its down to the individual dogs or the particular behavior that you're trying to manage. For us with Ella it has always been the barking and wining. After we stopped using the collar we did see an increase in her undesirable behavior so we we decide to use the collar again. Moving forward, we will continue to try out other products and see what works best for us and Ella. I'm very glad we used the collar and even though I didn't get exactly the results I wanted, we must remember that these are aids and not cures. For such a reasonable price it was well worth it!

To my utter amazement she got FIRST! I was so surprised I nearly cried, like I'd just got best in show at Crufts! Goodness me, it wasn't too hot but me and mum did catch the sun as we were out from 11am-3pm.
My Yorkie Mim got second in prettiest bitch and a second in best hair cut. She was very well behaved and even kept her bow in all the time she was in the ring!
All in all we have been really pushing this product and whilst Ella wasn't perfectly behaved, she definitely barked a lot, she did much better then I could have hoped for.
Once we got back all us, myself and mum included fell asleep on the sofa!

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