Dog Containment Fence

[patrickg]

Brian, Dog training is not all science. I had an aquaintance who raised a few labs to sell to trainers for hunting dogs. He decided to pick a pup for a companion dog for the family as the "buisness dogs" were off limits. He put the pup on his enclosed back porch to paper train it and in case of an accident/miss the carpet would not be involved. When he noticed the pup using the paper he would praise it and if it missed he would rub its nose in it and toss the pup out the window. Labs are real smart and quick learners. After about three of these incidents, the pup, while whining with its tail tucked between its legs and head hanging low would slowly approch the mess, stick his nose in a bit, and then jump out the window.

Now then, about Capt. Kirk's surplus pain collars... I know of a couple folks who "missed" their opportunity to train their dog to a collar-fence as a pup and had penetration problems where the dog would "Crash" the barrier, withstanding a zap or two to get freedom and as has been commented previously and not be motivated to endure it again to get back. In both cases what was successful was the addition of the other type of "Pain" collar in addition to the invisible fence type. Although exact methodology varied, the basic idea was to "manually" zap the dog while he was outside the "fence" so there was no rewarding payoff for "breaking out". The dog learned rather quickly that "busting out" was more uncomfortable than the fence reinforcement shock. The owners had of course turned the manual controlled unit up way higher than the level of the unit that worked in conjunction with the fence. One major difference between the two instances is that one guy turned the fence off while using the manual zapper to punish the dog for being out of bounds to ease getting him back across the line. In the end it worked for both. One was a black lab and the other weimeraner(sp?) The lab was also a barker and ended up with an anti barking electronic pain collar that punished continued barking but not a single bark. That too was highly successful. I'm glad the guy had a large robust dog, some small breeds would have to pull a little wagon to haul all the electronics with batteries.

Patrick

 

[OverlyRun]

For those of you who have put fence in over large areas:

Does the wire have to actually be buried, or can it be simply snaked through the woods or along the bottom board of a fence? I've got about a 5 acre area I'd like to fence to keep a coonhound in, and it would get done a lot faster if I only had to bury it where I might be mowing or driving.

Thanks for any advice or experience.

Chas

 

[rmorgan]

Chas--

We have a few acres in invisible fence and it is laid on top of the ground through the woods and trenched in a few inches where we mow. No problem. Bear in mind though that a tracking dog may be a little harder to train to the wire than a working dog because of its ramblin' ways.

 

[RMEADOWS]

It's best to bury it as it is a trip hazzard... and little furry rodents chew on it (don't ask me how I know).

I used an edger to trench a line aboue 1/2" deep. It hasn't come up, even inthe sandy soil in Florida.

 

[OverlyRun]

Rick, Roger,

Thanks for the feedback. Laziness will probably lead me to lay it along in the woods at the first...and if it gets chewed the pickax will come out and it will be blister time (tractor and an implement won't fit through the woods. Darn!) Will be a few weeks before I can get out to the property. My goal is to reduce the number of times we have to go through the trauma of handling young daughters and rambling dogs at the same time we're trying to get in the car to go home. If the dog gets going, she can go for 20 miles without crossing a road. So among 1) lots of training on the whistle, 2) the fence and 3) a companion dog that is a retriever who stays close to home, I have ambitions that I hope are not foolish. Stay tuned for updates.

Chas