PetSafe ScatMat Indoor Training Mat

I have a big window in the living room that has a 4" wide sill and my loveseat sits right in front of it. All of my dogs inevitably stand on the back of the couch and put their front paws on the sill to look out the window. This is a problem because a) they dirty up the sill (the couch is covered) and b) I have a set of sheers that are always closed and they step on them getting them dirty, tearing them or sometimes pulling them down off of the curtain rod. It's very annoying and difficult to train them from doing.This product is really useful for that. Set up is easy with a 9v battery for power and then you just lay it on the area you want to protect. There are suction cups to hold the sheet in place. On the sheet are two exposed wires running its length. When something that can conduct power crosses those wires, it creates a circuit and a mild shock is delivered. You can set the level of shock and I put it to the minimum. I tested it on myself and it was a little more painful than a static discharge from a high pile carpet. The biggest issue for me was the distance between the wires. It's wide enough that a small dog is unlikely to cover both with their paw and even a larger dog like mine (70 lbs) took a few days before she completed the circuit. When she did (the display shows how many times a shock has been delivered), the result was almost instantaneous - she no longer puts her feet on the sill. It's pretty miraculous. Getting her to do anything is usually an exercise in futility but this product definitely did the trick. Too bad you can't just rent them as it doesn't seem like reinforcement is necessary, I guess it will just go into a drawer somewhere.Highly recommended with the caveat about the spacing of the wires.

My Siamese cat Oslo has a Pica. For those who don’t know what that is, it is a strong compulsion and addiction to eating weird things. In Oslo’s case that means anything foam, latex or soft plastic. He also has a normal cat attraction to thin leaf structures, so soft pine or fir needles look somewhat interesting to him as they do to most cats. But last year, we finally splurged for a rather expensive 9-ft flocked tree. I always wanted a flocked tree, rather than a white-needle tree. The flocking - or artificial snow is essentially foam, and Oslo thought we bought him nine feet of kitty candy. He couldn’t stay away from the tree. Last year, we’d wrap the lower half of the tree with sheets - such a lovely holiday look (not!) and an ordeal we had not bargained for. And Oslo found his way underneath the sheets anyway, and munched away. We had a beautiful tree we had to cover up and barricade. What was the point of having it? We shuddered at the idea of buying a playpen type of corral fence to put around it. So this year, I bought a six-pack of these clear spikes (non-electric) scat mats because they were cheaper. They slid around, we’re not enough to secure the tree and knew I had a FAIL on my hands after I heard noise at 2 a.m. and walked out to see Oslo sitting on the “uncomfortable” deterrent, feasting away on a snowy lower limb. It was time for more drastic measures.! We bought one of these curved units and quickly saw it was not big enough, so we bit the bullet and ordered two more. You need three to go around a tree. Perhaps four if your tree is wide.So, we paid $164.85 to protect a $600 tree. We really didn’t have a choice. We made the plunge for the tree, we wanted to enjoy it, and not have it be a source of stress and frequent nighttime and early morning cat vomit episodes, which would happen soon after his flocking feast. I am happy to say the tree has not been touched since it has been electrically surrounded. No training needed. There are no cat messes to clean up and we don’t have to wrap and unwrap our tree each evening. I strongly urge the manufacturers to consider making a large, extra large and jumbo sized tree skirt especially made for Christmas trees, maybe at a better price, as I see a lot of people get them for this reason. This deterrent works. But it is a very effective, albeit expensive solution. And it’s a lot better looking than bedsheets!

this product is the ONLY thing that has helped keep our crazy kitty from various troubles. one being that he absolutely despises closed doors. we close our bedroom door at night and his response is to endlessly scratch and paw at it during the early morning hours. we had tried multiple obstacles and suggested solutions to keep him away from the door but he is persistent to keep us awake. at first i was hesitant to get something that could potentially harm him, but i tried it myself before putting it to the test and it felt just like a quick little pin-prick; more alarming than painful. lo and behold, one or two times did the trick and he has stayed away from the mat in front of the door even if it had been turned off!BONUS: this also worked during christmas time to keep him out of the tree!my reason for only 4 stars - it shorts out really quickly. we keep it on nightly and tuck it away during the day and after a few months the mat completely stopped working (both zap and chime) despite fresh batteries.

Great product, but my puppy is just too smart. I have a 4 month old Giant Schnauzer who very quickly figured out that the strip/box means that she will get shocked, so she simply avoids it. We only have one as they are too expensive to cover our counters, so we move it to various parts of the counter - if she sees it on one counter, she'll just go to a different one. I'm convinced as well that even if we did cover all parts of the counter, that as soon as we thought she was "trained" and removed them, she'd just jump right back up.She has also realized that if she does not put her entire paw up on the counter (the current flows through the two center seams but is set off a few inches from the edge) that she is fine. So, she started just putting the tips of her front paws up on the counter/on the edge of the strip and she doesn't get shocked.It works well, the lowest shock setting really isn't too bad (I tested it) and was effective at getting her off the counter the 2-3 times that she made enough contact for it to shock her. Just consider your dog's intelligence and problem-solving skills before you invest too much in these.