I recently purchased a three-dog system from one of the MANY sellers on eBay who are importing these from Hong Kong and China for $29.95 plus $34.95 shipping and handling.

I have previously owned and regularly used the Innotek two-dog system on daily walks for the past three years but after replacing their collars twice at my expense because they stopped working shortly after the 1-year warranty expired, I decided to try another brand.

They shipped the item very quickly from Hong Kong, taking less than 7 calendar days to deliver (at less than a pound and $34.95 for shipping the turnaround was about right).

When I took this 8-Level 3-Dog shock collar system out of the package, all seemed OK except the fact that the seller had advertised three different color collars (red, blue and yellow) with three different transmitter selection buttons to match.

Instead, the seller shipped the item with three red collars and a transmitter with three red transmitter selection buttons. Thus, there was no differentiating between dogs by visual / color cue so you simply have to remember who is who and hopefully be able to match up the collars to the right dog when you put them on. THIS WAS THE LEAST OF MY CONCERNS.

To my dismay, one of the collars had loose parts inside and wasn't working properly. One of the batteries supplied was already dead. That was a bit irritating but again, it came from Hong Kong, is a cheap import item and you kind of roll with the punches with these kinds of things so I wasn't too concerned.

That's where the real story begins.

First, the four "tones" on buttons one through four are almost identical. If you press the button quickly after selecting which dog you want to correct, the collar does not respond. If you hold it down for about a half-second, the tone then rings out very loudly for FOUR SECONDS. This is the case NO MATTER HOW LONG YOU HOLD DOWN THE BUTTON.

Second, the four "shock" settings on buttons five through eight are incremental shocks as advertised. However, the same is true with the "shock" mechanism as it was with the "tones." Sit back and watch helplessly as your dog gets SHOCKED into submission for four seconds NO MATTER HOW LONG YOU HOLD DOWN THE BUTTON.

After watching one of my dog's legs involuntarily lift off the ground toward his face as he twitched from the extended (and inadvertant) shock treatment, I decided that these things belonged in a trash can, not part of my training routine.

Finally, as I was walking home, one of the collars was going on and off intermittently WITHOUT me touching the buttons and it took me quite some time to figure it out because it wasn't sending out "tones" but was actually SHOCKING my dog, who kept cowering and I couldn't figure out why.

I had to physically remove it from this dog (who I thought had been spared the extended shock treatment my other dog had endured).

DON'T BUY THESE!!!!!! They are a waste of money, time and should be banned from eBay.