I've used citronella based bark collars on my young dogs before (to keep them from barking hysterically in the crate during class while the other one was being worked). Works great on Sass - one spritz of citronella and as soon as she saw the collar she would stay quiet. Cookie wasn't as responsive, but it did work for her (she was willing to risk a spritz to see what level of noise she could make without setting it off). My trainer and another friend tried it on their young border collies for the same reasons and they both barked right through it until the collar was empty.
I guess different dogs have different levels of distaste for it. My only experience is with the collars though, not with the owner actively using it in combination with a command. We chose to use the collars specifically because it was a situation where we couldn't directly interact with the dog (other side of the room with another dog).