PetSafe ScatMat Indoor Training Mat

These are a GAME CHANGER!!! I have a 3 year old Whippet and anytime we would leave the house she would be all over the counters grabbing food, grabbing things from the dish rack, chewing up paper towels, etc. she even jumped up onto the stove and ate a whole pot of spaghetti sauce. I would crate her but she has anxiety and was wearing down her teeth chewing on her plastic kennel. I was at wits end. I bought 3 Mats and strategically placed them on the counters. I also set up cameras so I could watch. All it took was 2 shocks and now no more counter surfing. I can even leave food and stuff on the counters now and she won’t get on the counter. I can even leave the Mats turned off and my dog won’t get on the counter. Just the sight of them is a deterrent. SUPER EFFECTIVE. Highly recommended.

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!

My cats thought eating my Christmas tree was cool, so I wanted to keep them away. The shock mode is great, it’s not harmful (I tried it) but they definitely won’t step on it. My only complaint, is I had to purchase 3 to surround my tree and the cats are smart enough to jump OVER, It to still sit under the tree. It’s not 100% fix but curbed 90% of their tree destroying behavior. I wish there were more options with wider mats, longer etc especially for this reason. Other than that great product!

It seems pricey, but the dogs had torn up a couple of blinds and were clawing up the brand new window and sill every day for the first time ever. We were concerned they were going to do some very expensive damage. After 5 months of using this mat, I've told several people I'd buy this product again in a minute because it really solves the problem. Battery life is good, since I'm still on the first set. The only problems I have with it is that kids think it's hilarious to step on it and feel the shock bite... which is funny, but I'm afraid of letting them too much since they're happily hopping on it and I don't want the tiny wires to break. (However, that tells you that while the shock is effective for dog training, it's not horrible.) The other problem is that it trains dogs right away, but Husbands...not so much. My husband keeps forgetting to avoid the mat when he's opening and closing blinds, so these days he admits that most of the shock count is totally from him stepping on the it. Doesn't seem like the dogs have so much trouble remembering though.

I bought this one to anticipate having to replace the previous one I had. I had bought one before that an it did not last more than six to eight months. The next one (the one I bought this one to replace) also lasted about the same amount of time. Now this one has lasted a bit longer, but still less than one year. First, at some point, the things starts beeping incessantly and for no reason. You change the battery, reset the settings, and it still beeps. Eventually, it stops, but comes back intermittently. Second, it never unrolls completely. The tips and edges of the corners still stay up on the side where the controller is attached. Third, after about four to six months, the wires start to come detached from the mat, making it hard to clean, and if the wire breaks... that's it, game over for the mat, unless you can manage to make some sort of electrical repair. Fourth, at some point, the controller no longer receives signals from the mat. When stepped on, no beep, no electricity, nothing. Finally, why are all the models the same price, even though some are larger than the others. Also, $55 seems a little high in price for such an item that probably cost less than $10 (I'm being liberal here) to manufacture. You can buy electric muscle stimulator medical devices that are far more advanced for 2/3 of the price of these things and they last 10x longer (I have one from 20 years ago and it still works). Oh, and one more thing. I doesn't stay on. You have to constantly check it to make sure its still on, which is almost daily, and turn it back on because it resets itself (settings) and turns off. So my current one is at that last stage (fourth) I mentioned above. When I detach the controller, it seems to work on its own, but once I attach it to the mat, no go. I have tried to tape down some of the wires that have become detached from the mat but I fear there must be some sort of short circuit or break in the circuit. I have taken care of this produce as prescribed by the manufacturers instructions. It has been less than a year, let's see if they honor their one-year warrantee.

My only disappointment is it’s not rechargeable. Otherwise it does great. I only put it on hard surfaces, no furniture. The cats learned to keep off the counters with one zap!

First thing, if you buy this mat, I highly recommend that you try either the beep only mode, or lowest shock setting to start. The shock of the mat that I received was a bit stronger than the other mats I've had, with the lowest setting being similar to medium or maybe even high on other mats. Some companies recommend using a tester, but I don't like to subject my cats to something like this without knowing how it feels myself. It didn't hurt me, but it's a bit jarring. With that said, this mat worked well for awhile, but has pretty much stopped at this point about 4 months after purchase. It started having issues maybe a month or two ago. In some cases, it would trigger on its own, when nothing was touching it, and in others it just wouldn't trigger at all until removing and reinserting the battery. Now it barely triggers at all, except occasionally if I move the mat or the box, and resetting the battery doesn't seem to fix it. I've bought other training mats from another company on Amazon called "Dogness", of which I've had 4 total (2 that I bought, and 2 more that were replaced under warranty), and have had similar issues, but those only lasted 6 to 8 weeks before dying. I'm trying another brand, "Seerway" I think it is, and hoping for the best. Hopefully the third brand is the charm Frankly, I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe it's an inherent issue with the type of device this is, maybe we use them too much, or maybe it's something else. When they get dirty, I wipe them with a damp cloth as instructed, making sure not to get the control box wet. If I detach the control box, I can trigger it by touching the metal contact points where the mat snaps in (only on this PetSafe mat have I tried this), so I have to assume it's something with the wires themselves. As far as I know, I haven't damaged them. I can't help but wonder if they're not designed to be used for long periods of time, as we have to leave them on almost constantly overnight, and at least one of my cats is smart enough to test the mat and if she notices it isn't turned on, she starts scratching my bedroom door. No amount of ignoring will keep her away, and chasing her off doesn't deter her, as she just walks away from us then scratches again when we lie back down. At the end of the day, if your pet isn't too stubborn and learns quickly, this might be worth a try. Otherwise, it may cost a small fortune every year to replace these every couple months, unless I've just had bad luck so far.