Need advise on electronic pet fence

[dieselsmoke1]

Seems this is my week for pet issues /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

My Aussie usually stays home very well, however he rambled thru the woods to a neighbors house and discovered their cat today /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Fortunately no harm done other than an irritated neighbor's wife /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I'm considering an electronic fence, preferably a broadcast type as the terrain doesn't lend itself well to a buried version. Any advice or experiences from users?

Thanks

 

[leaddog]

I use the buried wire one and it is the greatest. You have to work with them when you first put it in but when they learn they WON'T go accross it. I live by a major highway and there is no way that I could let my dog run loose. I can tell when the batteries go bad because he will start slowly going past where the wire is and when I see that he is past the wire I'll put in new bat. I have even given him a bath and forgot to put his collar on and he won't go past the wire. You can't even call him over it. I have the wire over about 2 acres so he has lots of room to run. Oh yes he is a yellow lab.
leaddog

 

[Junkman]

My experiences with them are limited, but I do know that you replace the battery every 3 months whether it needs it or not. Some dogs will be chasing a cat of squirrel and will ignore the beep and shock and wind up on the other side of the wire and not be able to get back into their own yard afterwords. They definitely are not for the strong willed or aggressive dogs. I know of many people that are very satisfied with them and others that don't think that they work well because of the above reasons. The Invisible Fence brand is the best. There are others on the market, but they don't work as well and after getting many complaints, we stopped selling them in our stores. The brand that we had the biggest amount of complaints and complements about was Radio Fence. They make products for all segments of the market from the most expensive to the least expensive. Don't know what their present offerings are like, because we stopped selling them about 6 years ago...

 

[rmorgan]

Smoke--

I don't know about the broadcast fences, but may be able to help on your concern re. terrain and wired sytems. We have about 3 acres inside an Invisible Fence system. About half the wire is not buried at all--just tucked back into the tree line. It's been like that for years and works fine. Our Aussies, by the way, have proven to be highly trainable to the IF.

 

[dieselsmoke1]

Thanks for the advise guys.

In my situation the yard is bordered by water on 2 sides and i don't want to block that off. If I could bridge a "safe zone" of about 100' non twisted (maybe shielded coax?) it would save having to bury a couple thousand extra feet of wire to close the system loop. Anyone know if this can be done? I've sent emails to the fence folks with that question, hope someone there or here will have a solution.

 

[GregJ]

I have a golden retriever and a black lab. We installed a containment system about 5 years ago and it was the best thing we ever did. We started with the basic system and progressed to the "stubborn dog" system. It works well. I don't know if it was the bigger collar or the threat that the next step was a car battery around their neck, but they have never strayed since. We have waterfront property and there is no way that we can let them down to the water unsupervised, so we are fenced around a large portion of our property. I installed about 1500 feet of wire. It is really easy to install and you can configure it any way that you want. The wire is cheap and easy to install. I used a gas powered lawn edger to cut a trench about an inch deep to cover the wire. I cut and my son followed with the wire. 1500 feet in about 2 hours as I remember. It helps to do it with 2 people. We have since added to it. We landscaped the area inside our circular driveway and pulled the wire through that as well, so you can have protected zones within the free zones. One thing, if you install, make sure you keep an extra spool of wire on hand for troubleshooting. It helps to have a long piece of wire for testing continuity, because you will get breaks. My wife cuts it all the time with a shovel while gardening. We have also had it break with a large truck driving over it. Here is the link to the system that I have: Stubborn Dog System

On a side note... They are powerful. Whenever I change the batteries, I test them by walking over the line carrying the collars. One morning I was doing this in my bathrobe.... 2 collars.... I tested the first one and it worked, then I held it behind me while I held the next one in front of me to test it. Well... the one behind me swung up and hit me in the butt, then discharged.... It just about launched me into my neighbors yard. YUP, they work.

Greg

 

[Junkman]

now we know who the really stubborn dog is..... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[dmccarty]

DieselSmoke1,

I have never had an electric fence but I pass by lots of dogs
contained by them so they seem to work.

But, there has to be a but, be careful if you have a really smart
dog and the collar makes noise as it gets closer to the wire.
My wife had one of these pet fences years ago to contain her
two dogs. One of which was very smart. She kept coming
home from work and the dog went be outside the fence. The
battery would be dead so the dog would not get shocked. She
could not figure how the battery was being discharded since
she kept putting in new batteries.

Then one day she was home and saw what Chase was doing.
Chase would run around the yard parallel to the fence line.
She would get close enough for the collar to sound off but not
close enough to get shocked. She would run like this until the
collar was quiet at which point the dog had figured out that
she would not get shocked so off she would go to vist the
neighborhood....

Smart Dog. I wish she was still with us.

Later,
Dan McCarty

 

[GregJ]

We had the same problem with the earlier collars. I'd like to say our dogs are smart, but...... they just lay along the line with their collars going beep-beep-beep and it doesn't even phase them. To be honest, I don't think they have even associated the noise with the shock. With the new collars, the battery life is way longer. Mine use a basic 9 volt battery and they last about 3 months, even with them lying for hours with the collar serenading them to sleep. They don't even get close to where they know they'll get shocked. They are smart enough to remember that unpleasant experience.

Greg

 

[Currmudgeon]

The electric collar fences vary a lot. It depends a lot on your dog and your situation. I have heard of smart and persistent dogs "working" the collar warning signal until the batteries are dead, and then waltzing off. Some newer collars have a circuit to defend against that.

In my case, I have a really high drive German Shepherd *****. I'm afraid I could set the thing on "Buffalo Stun" and she'd blow through it chasing a squirrel, then fence herself out.

Finally, they do nothing to keep stuff out, like vermin that could cause a problem with your dog, strays, and two legged vermin.

It does take a while to train a dog to respect the fence.