Anyone have experience with an underground electric fence to contain a Dog ?

[bhostasa]

I installed the Innotek Ultra-Smart 4100 system a couple of years ago. We have a beagle/lab mix that would take off for hours. She was really bad about it and I had my doubts but she is completely trained now.

I used a single plow to trench about 3-5 inches and had my wife go behind me and kick the wire in the ditch. Then we went around a turned the sod back over. In a month you couldn't even tell where we had dug. We did about a 3 acre area in a day and saved about $1700 versus the invisible fence quote.

We have another dog (beagle/yorkie) who is in training now. I hope he ends up as good as his older sis .

In my opinion, a couple of things that really helped: having an adjustable shock field (we can go from 2' to 10', I believe) so the dog can't just blow right through it, waterproof/rechargeable collar (we encompassed the pond in the area), and being able to adjust the strength of the shock. The old dog is 50 lbs. and the new one is 14 lbs. They definitely need different training levels.

 

[stev703]

I also have an Innotek fence, the 5100 Ultrasmart contain n train system. It will work on up to 25 acres. I have two Brittanys. I spent about 10 minutes training the oldest one, then she got away and ran thru the fence at full speed. It gives an very soft audible warning and then increasing shock up to the max. She got a full charge. Fortunately the system has an automatic "off" after a max shock for 10 seconds or so. My Brittany ran back thru the fence to me, and has never tried the fence again. No more training was required. The one year old Brittany took about 15 minutes of training, and to my knowledge has never tried the fence enough to get more than a very mild shock... the tone is apparently enough warning.
I cant recommend this product highly enough.
It was very easy to install....dont even consider paying someone thousands for the "Invisible Fence". I am not very handy AT ALL and I did it by myself.

 

[arrow]

I also have an Innotek fence, the 5100 Ultrasmart contain n train system. It will work on up to 25 acres. I have two Brittanys. I spent about 10 minutes training the oldest one, then she got away and ran thru the fence at full speed. It gives an very soft audible warning and then increasing shock up to the max. She got a full charge. Fortunately the system has an automatic "off" after a max shock for 10 seconds or so. My Brittany ran back thru the fence to me, and has never tried the fence again. No more training was required. The one year old Brittany took about 15 minutes of training, and to my knowledge has never tried the fence enough to get more than a very mild shock... the tone is apparently enough warning.
I cant recommend this product highly enough.
It was very easy to install....dont even consider paying someone thousands for the "Invisible Fence". I am not very handy AT ALL and I did it by myself.

I also have the Innotek system and trained my dogs with the same method. Great system and training happened in 15 seconds. Much depends on the dog and the quality of the system. Innotek seems to make good stuff. Only problem I have had with them is that the battery paks they were using failed and would then take out the control box. My solution was to eliminate the control box and just put in their dial control. When the pak failed, the dial controll was still good. Hopefully, Innotek has straightened this problem out by now.

 

[schmism]

My underground fence isnt so underground (infact non of it is except a small 50' section out of the 1500 feet i put up) as a result there are a couple of places that are prone to breaks. It stopped working just before the holidays but with us out of town so much (with the dogs) we didnt worry about it.

well it took a few weeks of being back before the boys decided to start venturing off again .

the other day the wife and i spent about a half hour tracking down the break in the underground dog fence with the AM radio trick (tune a transistor radio to ~600 am, put some headphones on and youll hear a similar type of pulse to what the unit audibly puts out) After we fiddled with it some we figured out what works best and was easly able to track down the break. (a deer or coyote had run through it back in the section that heads through a real thick woolly section.)

 

[dieselsmoke1]

I put a Radio Fence cheapo in by tilting the box blade with 1 scarifer dropped on the end. Made a nice little 2" deep trench. My Aussie would run through it occasionally until i reconfigured with 2 lines 8 ft apart and got the high output collar. After one hit I guess he decided it just ain't worth the pain.

My bro has the wireless type with a very large lab, has always worked fine as well.

 

[om21braz]

IMHO, they are kinda like dog training, what works for one dog might not for another.

 

[kidr]

You have a great dog there. Just the kind a professional trainer looks for as a working dog. I hate shock training because it's negative and doesn't reenforce good behavior. How would you like a smack in the head every time you did something wrong? I think your dog will need some serious obedience training and some kind of job. Maybe agility or tracking or retrieving........By the way realize that you will never be able to walk the dog past the perimeter. You'll have to put him in a vehickle and drive over the wire.My neighbor's dog crossed his wire and wouldn't come home because he was afraid of being shocked.So if your's gets out you may have a worse problem than before. You may never find him if he gets out.

 

[Sigarms]

Plus with a physical fence, the dog will constantly test it until he finds a weak spot.

Run an electricfied line in the interior of the fence line and mark the electrified wire, and you should never have an isssue with having the dog try to get out. People who don't know dogs very well usually make the mistake of only putting up a 4' tall fence which a "mid size" motivated dog can usually get around (usually over top). The electrified wire and where it's place will usually solve this issue.

These fences only work ALONG with training. Without training they do not work and are cruel, not as bad as a shock collar though.

I agree 100% with the training part, however, I would take a "shock collar" anyday over an invisible fence.

1. With an IF, dogs have been known to take a "hit", cross the fence line, and then become afraid to come back because they'll get zapped again.
2. Does not keep other animals off your property
3. Depending on the system and dog, you could have an adverse reaction by the animal to the shock and training can become more difficult (I've seen this more than a couple of times).

I do however use "shock collars" though, but only for recall, usually never for training.

Collars I use have a good 1000 yard range (which I've tested). Collars also have "shock settings" from 0 to 127 which allows you to fine tune the
"electro shock stimulous" to enable you to use a minimal setting to be most effective. Collars also have a "nick" and "continuous" mode which again lets you be more versatile with the electro stimulous that you need to apply to your animal. Collars also have a vibrate mode which allows you to not even have to use the "shock mode" at all for recall (and usually works).

Don't get me wrong, an inivisible fence is better than nothing at all, just seems to be a roll of the dice as far as the negatives perhaps outweighing the negatives depending on the animal.

With the "training collars" I can take the dogs ANYWHERE and feel comfortable in recalling them no matter what the enviroment is. You can't do that with a invisible fence.

By chance if I want to put the dogs outside and leave them unsupervised, I have no doubts that no matter what dog you find to put in the fenced in area, they will not be able to get out having both the physical fence AND elctrified fence set up. With an invisible fence, as others have mentioned, it can still be a roll of the dice.

I hate shock training because it's negative and doesn't reenforce good behavior

I agree, one reason why the collars I use are only used for recall. However, with better collars, keep in mind...

How would you like a smack in the head every time you did something wrong?

That "smack" only becomes a "tap" to remind the animal if need be.

As far as keep my dogs on my property, with some of the prey drive some of my animals have, I know an invisible fence would never keep them in a "confined area" (particularly if they saw a rabbit take off). That said, if I have to push the collar up over 100 on "continuous" to bring and animal of mine back, I have no qualms on applying some short term intensive discomfort to my animal to ensure their safety (by bringing them back).

People also tend to forget that the average dog is not dumb. There are "tactics" to be used so the dog dosen't become "collar smart"

 

[D33r3 6r33N]

I installed IF around most of two acres. We have a beagle mix and a min. Schnazer. The beagle was fine with it for a while then he realized that he could make it through to the other side if he really wanted to. Of course when he realizes that he is loose he is quicker than greased lighting.
After chasing him down the road in 30 degree temps we decided that that was enough of that and purchased the bigger collar with 9 volt battery.
Hank says inside the fence now.

 

[TigerfaninAR]

We put the Invisible Fence around our acre home year and half ago. Was pricey but after a few training sessions with our lab it was good to go. That dog could be at full speed chasing the ball and he would come to a complete stop before he would get shocked.

Sold the house in October and it was a feature that helped the house sell.