Very effective, except even Level 1 is too much ...
581818
Very effective, except even Level 1 is too much, it has 99 levels.  I feel guilty using even level 1 on my 4 month old German shepperd.
But, truth be told, I only buzzed him twice and he never dug up the grass again!!
4030103
I have a mixed breed Jack Russell/Queensland heeler puppy who is very high energy, very stubborn, and very interested in chasing after people who might walk by our property. Once installed this product was very effective in correcting his behavior in leaving our property border, I did have to turn it up to 4 before he started responding properly, the lower settings just weren't enough to keep him from wandering.

Once he got the message he completely stopped testing the borders, he hear's the beeping and backs off quick and never chases after people (or birds, or squirells, or whatever) who might go walking by anymore.

One tip, I had problems "closing the loop" after running my line. I live on a fairly large property at around .5 acres and found the loop wouldn't close unless the sensitivity on the base unit was turned up to 7 or higher. I can only presume this is due to the small gauge wire and overall resistance in carrying the signal for such a long distance. If you're like me, you are more likely to have read a review than the manual so here's another tip, the sensitivity knob is under the front plate of the base unit. You have to pop it off to get to it.

All in all, this was highly effective at keeping my pooch where he belongs. I would recommend this solution.
1820181
This book gives very clear instructions on how to progressively increase distractions and reduce rewards. If you use negative reinforcement or positive punishment in your training, you may find some of the author's comments rather silly (e.g., when comparing food rewards to e-collar training she claims an e-collar only works when the dog is wearing it (which is not really true due to the "habit of cooperation" she talks about in a later chapter), but says "Access to those cookies in your fridge? Yep, you have access to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.") I would have been interested in more discussion about why the author doesn't believe corrections work, but what there is is trite.  My personal experience is that using all the learning quadrants is more effective than what she describes and makes things clearer and easier for the dog.
4046105
This program is a very well thought out program for the intermediate to advanced exerciser. It maximizes your workout in a limited amount of time. All of these workouts clock in at 30 minutes except the ab workout which is 10 minutes. I am not a big "sweater" during most cardio routines, but this one truly causes me to be sweaty. I get my heart rate up in no time. I will say that beginners can follow the modifier, with success. Unfortunately, if you have joint or back issues, I would not recommend this workout or any of the insanity workouts (unless maybe you follow the lower-impact modifier). The other major draw back is the lack of a stretching segment at the end of the workout. There is a 2 minute cool down after each workout (not included in the 30 minutes), but this is not a stretching segment. You will need to stretch on your own after each workout. Overall, the music is good, the workout is tough, and the instructor (Shaun T) is exceptional!
3276913
Stott Pilates with Props Vol 1 is a fun yet very effective Level 1 workout.  After using it for just a few short months, I watched my lower body become streamlined, and I didn't have to struggle with sweating and doing a million reps.  That's the beauty of this simple, varied 30-minute workout. If you think it's too easy, try using 3 lb toning balls with it, or use a higher intensity flex band and fitness circle. I own Volume 2 as well, which is a great companion DVD, that has similar but more challenging exercises.  I highly recommend this workout when you want maximum results but you don't want to knock yourself out.
640721
I liked this training collar, until I added the other collars (I now have three).  There is no way to issue a correction to multiple dogs at once.  it becomes a bit tedious to have to remember who is wearing which collar and how that corresponds with the controller.  Dogtra makes a different model, and since they are not cheap, I contacted the seller and asked about sending these back and swapping (paying the difference or losing money, I didn't care).  I was told that was not an option.  so now, I am stuck using this mess.  I have three Great Danes and the training company I used to do my training prefers this brand of collar.  I wish I had not purchased the RT but the plain Edge.  :/  I guess at some point when I have $1200 to piss away I will get the correct model.

the use... if you have one dog.. this is great.. I like the low, medium and high choices for short-nick-type correction.  it really gets his attention.  The continuous is powerful.  Luckily, it is not something I have to do often :) The static .... where there is an interesting concept.  the black collar that came with the set is powerful and effective to get my girl's attention, but as I added the other two collars (and will rate when I do their reviews) the static effect got less.  I think if you sell additional receivers, they should all be as effective as the first.  I am not sure if it has anything to do with the pairing as I didn't try a different pairing order.  You also cannot set a different level for each dog, if you are using 7 it is 7 for everyone unless you, not only change the receiver number, but also the strength level :)  I have one very sensitive girl who requires me to turn the level all the way back to 2 or 3 if she is not listening to commands...so help us all if we encounter an incident for which I need to correct her and someone else.  :)

All in all, this multi dog solution is probably good for someone who wants to be constantly thinking ... who is 1, who is 2... etc.
4463815
Every kid is different, but my opinion is that this program would work well at a Kindergarten level where a student has little or no exposure to math and needs practice learning and counting numbers and doing very basic things to start out with.  My son is a 5 year old kindergarten student needed to skip almost halfway through the book because he was bored with the extra practice, however.  The great thing is, the extra practice is there if he would have needed it.  There were also many things he had trouble grasping for weeks, like how a calendar worked and how symbols can represent things in graphs. However, I find the meeting book and instructions very unclear on the hows and whys of some of the things they ask you to do such as patterns and coin cups, etc.  You have to remember as a teacher/ parent that there are MANY activities with the manipulatives that do not come with this set that are very important.  So, if you just do the worksheets and not the hands on activities you might miss a few things that some students might not understand any other way.
275185
It is an effective tool but having your TV talk back at you can get annoying.  Having said that, it is a good workout, even at beginner level.
3558194
Exceptionally effective unit. The only way to make this better is to have the controls closer to the handle. As it is, the on/off and the level settings are located closer to the bottom of the unit than the top. Also, leaning the unit against the wall will not be stable as the handle will fall in all directions. I think these are solvable issues, but as for effectiveness, this is second to none.
4010489
I have been trying to learn Italian for many years now - self training, mostly from books. So my experience with Pimsleur I is not from the point of view of someone who's never been exposed to the Italian language before. Having said that, my level of comprehension before starting this product was not much above "beginner".

Having read various "Teach Yourself Italian" books prior, I can confidently say I have not felt as pleased with my learning progress as I have now I've been through this course.

The pace starts off slow but steadily progresses at a comfortable pace. Hearing and speaking Italian is 1000% better than reading it in your mind, and so the result is a smile on your face! No need to guess which syllable of a word is the one to stress when you are constantly hearing it (compared to reading).

Because I had a mild exposure to the Italian language through my books, it was natural for me to picture the word being spoken in my mind. I'm sure that's not what the intention of the course is, but that's what worked for me - even to the point of hearing a new word and having to look it up so I could know with confidence I was pronouncing it correctly.

The speed of which the native speakers talk is very fast and somewhat annoying at first. However, I'm currently up to Italian III and am now accustomed to this pace of speech (which is entirely the point).

Lastly, Italian has a formal style of speaking and an informal way. As well as this, pronouns are normally only used when requiring emphasis. Level I uses only the formal style of speaking throughout and expresses all sentences using pronouns. For a complete beginner, this is probably a good thing, but for someone starting at my level, or someone repeating the course, it was a little frustrating. This disappears in Italian II.
3223023
I loved this book! My son was 2 when we trained. Every child is different, but the methods in this book are very effective. It's important to remain positive, happy, enthusiastic, accepting and confident throughout the training day, no matter what. Btw, ours didn't go exactly according to plan. First off--my child was afraid of the doll. Would NOT go near it. So we had to skip that whole section & move right to direct instruction. Then at the end of the day, he refused to use the potty. So I shrugged and said "ok" & put him back in diapers. A few weeks later, he developed a mild diaper rash. I told him that's it, "you have to quit diapers." From then on, he used the potty, exactly as we'd practiced.
I consider the method a complete success. We did potty "train" in less than a day. We just took longer to implement the practice.
39469
When we agreed to foster a rescue dachsund/terrier mix that had just had a leg amputation, we were unprepared for how well this boy could recover, get around, and go absolutely ape**** with cats and squirrels. This strong prey instinct combined with stubbornness (I joked that his name should be Eeyore!) and an utter lack of street smarts has been challenging, especially for the 3 resident cats and one permanent stray cat who live here, a house located on a busy road. The dog seemed determined to find out how far he could push things. I have never thought about getting a shock collar as a training aid before, but after doing some research I determined this method, used judiciously, could work quickly and was not cruel. My husband disagreed but I refuse to put up with a disobedient dog that an entire household must revolve around; so, I ordered this PetSafe PDT00-12470. Like another reviewer I tried it on myself several times on 1 and 2 settings, and even on my husband to prove it would do no harm.

So far it appears to be working - it immediately gets the dog's attention and breaks the hyperfocused state when seeing a cat, the desire to lunge and burst out the door, or dominating behavior. Actually, I use the reward tone much more often for training than the warning tone, and have only used the shock a few times. Because he's a smallish dog around 25 lbs., just the setting of 1 seems enough. Once when I had the dial set on 2 by mistake, all four paws left the ground for a second when I pushed the button, but he didn't yelp. I know if he needs a strong correction, 2 will probably be appropriate. We have not used the collar anywhere but around the house, so I can't evaluate its range beyond 50 ft.

One of the reasons I got the collar was because I don't know how long we'll be fostering this dog. If he were our dog and we had all the time in the world for training, this kind of device might not be necessary. Yet now I can see how valuable this method is, helping to put our foster on the fast track to showcasing his good, sweet side, which will make him even more adoptable despite his handicap. I feel it could help most dogs quickly understand and learn good behavior.

The only drawback I've found is that the collar and remote take an extraordinarily long time to charge. Although I don't turn off the collar once it's on and have yet to run out of juice, every night when I plug both devices in to recharge, they both still have red lights on, at least 11 hours later. Faster recharging and greater battery capacity would definitely make this a 5-star product.
2713777
I love this flip chart, but for first graders, once you reach 50, the tasks get a little out of reach for whole-group use.  My "high" learners love the challenge, but I found that I don't do it everyday like I did in the beginning...
1670354
Generally, this machine does what it says it will, but with one significant annoyance. Getting the balls to land in the right spot is a combination of elevation, speed and -- if you use it -- the topspin/backspin control. If the elevation is a notch too high and speed setting just a touch too fast, the balls fly to the baseline or beyond. You wind up hitting from six feet behind the baseline.

The adjustments are very fine. If you lower the elevation and drop the speed just a touch, the ball may barely dribble over the nest and will land right around the service line. The process involves a lot of fine tuning to get the balls to land in the right spot for productive practice, and the only way to do it is have one person at the controls firing a few test balls, then making the adjustments. If you are by yourself and don't have a remote, you'll be running back and forth making the adjustments.

The speed control in particular seems inconsistent. You can set it and think you have it right, but as you progress through a batch of balls the speed seems to pick up, which then has you backing up to take the ball, and then drops back a little. At first I thought it was because I was using used pressureless balls, but then a guy right next to me (a really good player) was using brand new pressureless balls and he had the same problem.

It's a good machine but requires a lot of patience to get the settings right. And I wish that once they were set right they'd stay consistent. Practicing without a partner would be very frustrating, I would imagine.

An upside: The tech support at Lobster is very accessible, personalized and helpful
4721310
I've been self-studying Japanese off-and-on for a number of years now.
As compared to other products, "podcasts", etc., this one has an exceedingly high signal-to-noise ratio.
In some of the other introductory courses, you barely hear any Japanese, in my opinion.
Once you have mastered all 30 lessons here (plus, preferably, the 30 of Part 2 and 30 of Part 3), you WILL be quite well understood by native speakers regarding the topics the taught phrases cover.
In fact, in my experience, when using these phrases in Japan, it is quite likely you will hear a response in rapid Japanese, which, regrettably, this series is often unable to help you decode, let alone respond to.  That next level of skill requires substantial additional study beyond the scope of this course.  As I have found this method to be superior to the other Japanese self-study products, I find it unfortunate only 90 lessons total appear to exist.

-1 star for some of the exceedingly formal phrases that are taught in this course, which, while not inaccurate, when spoken, can result in a slightly puzzled look from a native-speaking listener, who typically may be expecting more casual speech from a visitor.
2428092
Just to be clear - as far as effectiveness goes, this is a five-star product.  My two dogs stop barking after one or two barks when we have this on and we've seen a dramatic decrease in barking in general even without the machine on.  (Small note - one of our dogs is a 6 lb. chihuahua and it seems as though the machine occasionally can't pick up his bark, but this is only about a quarter of the time).

However, our dogs are so terrified of it that I feel guilty using it! After it goes off one of our dogs will walk around with his tail between his legs whimpering for hours (not an exaggeration).  He's kind of a nervous guy in general so maybe this isn't a normal response, but it's enough to make me hesitant to turn it on unless absolutely necessary.
775474
I find this very useful, but the tool has limitations.  first, the sliding "locators" are too easily moved.  They need to more tightly fit so that once you place them, they stay put.  Having the built in level is brilliant, of course.  Silly me, I didn't stop to consider this tool really only works well when you are hanging items in a large wall space.  The very length of the level (3 ft) prevents you from being able to use it  on partial walls or recesses.  Lesson learned.  I still find it helpful in large wall spaces.  B&D - you need some improvements to make this a 5 star tool.  1.  Tighter fitting locators (as mentioned before). A smaller overall length with the ability to expand would be ideal because then it would be applicable in many more situations.