Miss Misery

I just saw a commercial where a little girl tells her mom last minute that she needs a costume for school. It was a costume for one of the presidents of the U.S. The mom then, runs around the house like crazy making this costume for her little girl. I can't remember the product to look up this commercial again.

I am not looking for the answer "Shock collars are torture for dogs!" I am an animal lover and have never considered using one until now. I feel awful enough about having to resort to this and I don't need to hear it.

We adopted Pickles last March from the humane society. He's an amazing and super smart chihuahua/fox terrier mix. He could do little more than "sit" when we brought him home, and now he can walk upright, dance, stay, lay down, we can even set treats on his paw and he'll wait until we say "okay" to take it! He's a little barker, but now we just have to show him the water spray bottle and he'll stop.

We know that he has been through many homes in many states and that his problems are probably due to abuse at one or more of them. The family who adopted him before us brought him back after only five days because of his biting. We adopted him on his last chance.

We love this little guy to pieces, but his aggressiveness comes out of nowhere. He has biten (to the point of breaking the skin through jeans) my husband and I on many occasions. He is more protective of me than my husband who can't even walk around the house without worrying if Pickles will fly off the handle and bite. We cannot have ANY guests in our house. Even if he's in his crate (which is also his safe spot and his bed that he loves) he will bark and snarl and spit in attack mode.

The changes we have already made (after hiring a very expensive trainer who he also nipped) were to always eat before him, make him wait for his food, never allow him on furniture or in our bedroom or office, enter doors before him (leader of the pack) and sadly enough, not allow him to be a lap dog anymore. The attacks are less frequent now, but still occasional. We called the humane society to ask for some last resort advice, and the professional trainer there basically said well, that they don't ever suggest using these types of collars, but this could be the last resort. If we can't get this under control, we have to take him back and they aren't able to place him with another family with his history so he would be euthanized. Both of these options break my heart, but I would rather give one of these collars a try before completely giving up on the little guy.

Most of the collars I've found on Amazon, are for dogs 15 lbs and up. Pickles is about 11-12 lbs. Any suggestions on a brand of shock collar for our little guy?