need help.. Dogs and electric fences..

[thatguy]

My sister has two small dogs that figured out they can get out of her backyard by going under her chainlink fence.. Before one of them figured this out, she had not had any problems with this - now its a daily occurence of playing the 'lets go find the dogs' game..

Both dogs are terrier mixes that love root/dig..

Her neighbor mentioned putting in an electric fence (cattle type, not underground) around the bottom of the fence.. it would need to be 4" or so off the ground..

The fence is chain link about 300' long with one 'double gate' opening. the fence starts and stops againt the house..

Thoughts, ideas, comments, other suggestions?

how would you connect the electric wire to the fence? Im assuming it would need to be insulated from the fence..

Would you have to run a double strand of wire so it is in a circuit since the house is between the ends of the fence?

Do they make quick connect ends so you can still use the gate?

thanks

Brian

 

[SPYDERLK]

They make 1/2" plastic weave ribbon interlaced with fine steel wire for conduction. Check temporary horse fencing products. I think there is probably enuf variety that you can find something to use to provide a small stand off from the chain link. Quick connects are done with insulated handle with spring inside holding the ribbon tensioned
larry

 

[randy41]

you just need to use an insulator made for chain link fences and run a wire on it a few inches from the ground. i would think that like most dogs these dogs would get shocked but once and will never try it again. a small ac fence charger would probably to the job very well. there should be no need for more than one strand. don't put the charged line by the gate so you can get access easily. you also need a fence tester so you know its working. and a grounding rod.

 

[Coyote machine]

You could do the same thing with the wire used for underground dog fence systems. You can find all the components online and do the installation ABOVE ground by just cable tying it to the fence at various parts and then going underground near the gate for the several feet the gate takes up. The reason they run it underground is without something like a chain link fence protecting it, it will get cut.
You would get some flags for marking where the wire was and once you show the dogs using the collars designed for the fence where the 3' perimeter is they will not likely venture near the fence as long as they are alive:thumbsup:
How big is the fenced in yard? You can tune the collars to their size/and temperament and they will learn quickly. Chances are they won't even need the collars once they have been introduced to the 'shock' initially.

Just a thought as to what else you could do for possibly less effort/$$.

 

[CurlyDave]

Just a thought as to what else you could do for possibly less effort/$$.

I have had very good success with the "Invisible Fence" although other brands are also available.

Even though the hardware seemed pricey, it was much less expensive than dog proofing a fence. Dogs learn much faster if there is a physical barrier as well as the electric one, and this seems like an ideal situation.

 

[Soundguy]

they make quick connects as well as chain link insulated stand offs.

everything you need is at most farm stores. from lil 6v solare pulse, high impeadance ones to house power low impeadance steady current models for 10 miles of dirty fence that will light up a brama bull and make a terrier glow in the dark for a week..


soundguy

 

[Fred Barbour]

Beware of electric fences in this application! If the animal gets hung up it is a nasty death! I've seen horses and deer caught up in fences that subsequently died because they couldn't get out before getting shocked to death.

There are better and safer ways and as stated previously, an invisible fence designed for this purpose.

Fred

 

[whistlepig]

Beware of electric fences in this application! If the animal gets hung up it is a nasty death! I've seen horses and deer caught up in fences that subsequently died because they couldn't get out before getting shocked to death.

There are better and safer ways and as stated previously, an invisible fence designed for this purpose.

Fred

My goodness. What kind of electric fence are you folks using?

 

[whistlepig]

Putting electric fence around the bottom of the chain link would work but it would be a real pain to trim around and keep weeds out. If you are thinking electric then invisible fence would be the best choice. When I put my horse fence up I also wanted it dog proof. No-Climb horse fence stretched tightly deters my digging dogs on 99% of my 10 acre pasture. But there are small dips and valleys in the land that allowed some gaps for my dogs to dig under. I cut small sections of pig panel about 12" high with the bottom 4" cut so just the vertical legs of the fence gets hammered in to the ground. Pig panel is good for stopping hogs rooting their way under a fence and works very well for dogs digging their way under a fence also.

 

[Soundguy]

Beware of electric fences in this application! If the animal gets hung up it is a nasty death! I've seen horses and deer caught up in fences that subsequently died because they couldn't get out before getting shocked to death.

There are better and safer ways and as stated previously, an invisible fence designed for this purpose.

Fred

uh.. I've never seen anything bigger than a bird or lizard 'killed' by an electric fence...

what are you running? house current?!?!?!

the standard off the shelf fencers are animal safe unless maybee you got an old dog with a heart condition or pace maker or something..

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Putting electric fence around the bottom of the chain link would work but it would be a real pain to trim around and keep weeds out. If you are thinking electric then invisible fence would be the best choice. When I put my horse fence up I also wanted it dog proof. No-Climb horse fence stretched tightly deters my digging dogs on 99% of my 10 acre pasture. But there are small dips and valleys in the land that allowed some gaps for my dogs to dig under. I cut small sections of pig panel about 12" high with the bottom 4" cut so just the vertical legs of the fence gets hammered in to the ground. Pig panel is good for stopping hogs rooting their way under a fence and works very well for dogs digging their way under a fence also.

just get a clipper fencer, or use a chemical to treat the fence line.

soundguy

 

[Carykong]

Electrified fences for dogs is really not necessary. Even a buried wire that trips a shock collar is a poor substitude for good training. I finally resorted to a shock collar that I can activate with a transmitter from 1/2 mile away. My dog quickly learned her limits after frequent walks around my property lines. I have not had to use the shock collar in months.

 

[whistlepig]

Electrified fences for dogs is really not necessary. Even a buried wire that trips a shock collar is a poor substitude for good training. I finally resorted to a shock collar that I can activate with a transmitter from 1/2 mile away. My dog quickly learned her limits after frequent walks around my property lines. I have not had to use the shock collar in months.

We keep shock collars on our dogs anytime they are outside of a fence. And this is every day for a short time each day. Shock collars work extremely well and are an excellent training tool if used wisely. To sit and watch for a dog in the back yard all day and wait for the opportunity to shock it when it starts digging is simply something neither my wife or myself have time to do.

 

[MicroPilot]

....Chances are they won't even need the collars once they have been introduced to the 'shock' initially...

Had a Samoyed named Titan that was always getting out. First he was going under the chain link fence. So I made some U's out of rebar and tacked the bottom of the fence to the ground. So then he started going over the fence. This was dealt with by chaining him to a ground anchor. He broke the first 3 standard wire type dog chains. Went and got a welded link chain. He dug the anchor up. After coming home from work and finding him outside the fence with chain tangled in it I was afraid he would hang himself. So we got an invisible fence setup. On this particular model the collar would emit a tone to warn the dog before the shock. It worked well for the first couple of weeks. Then Titan got out again. The battery in the collar was dead. Now this battery was a high output photo flash type. About $6.00 each. So I put a new battery in the collar. This kept him in the yard about 1 week, then out again! Checked the battery and it was dead. Another 6 bucks for another new battery. This one lasted less than a week. It thought the collar was defective, but then I noticed Titan sitting near the fence one day. I watched carefully and he would patrol the fence staying about 3 feet away. He had figured out that when the collar stopped making noise, because the battery was dead, it was OK to jump the fence!!!

 

[Fred Barbour]

An electrical fencer will kill an animal if it gets caught in the wire and cannot release itself.

I have a properly installed horse fencer and I can tell you when a horse accidently touches it you can here a snap, the horse jumps up, craps itself and takes off runninng. Metal horseshoes make for a good connection!

If a horse or wild animal gets caught it is lights out.

If you don't believe me, take your shoes off (get rid of your rubber soles), grab hold of an electric fencer and see what happens!

Fred

 

[Soundguy]

i've been shocked by a fencer dozens of times. heck.. before I had a fence checker tha's what we did was band the back of our hands against the wires.

I live in ag areas.. been around animals all my life.

I've never.. ever.. ever once heard of a large animal being killed by a fencer.

I've seen plenty lightning struck animals, I've seen plenty of animals run thru fences, and I've seen horses and cattle hung in fences so bad they had to be euthanized.

i would be inclined to believe the concept of a large animal killed by a fencer to be a myth, or if it has happened.. it is/ was on such a limited basis / scope as to be statistically negligible when compaired to the amount of animals contained with an electric fence. ( population size vs incedent ).

I've have to see repeated, verifiable hard data to think otherwise.

I'd also be inclined to believe that an animal could become entrapped in a wire fence and wear itself out struggling to free itself and then die from the struggle or the entrapment, and the fact that it was electrified was simply an aggraviting factor. IE.. cow trappe din field fence hoplessly, and unable to get to water for a week in a remote area, and died eventualy.. and oh yeah.. it was an electric fence.. so that must have killed it.. not the 7 days of struggling in the heat down on the ground with no water.. IE.. skewed data..

soudnguy

 

[MicroPilot]

There simply isn't enough current in an electric fence to kill any animal. It'll hurt them, possibly even burn them, but it can't kill.

 

[Soundguy]

for the heck of it I googled it.

I even got a hit talking about animals entangled (firmly) in electrified fences that were found dead and it was concluded they died from secondary stresses.. like.. being entangled in ANY fence and permanently unable to move untill death occured.

say a hit about a small chicken that died later.. AFTER contacting an electric fence. it was concluded that it was an anxiety issue that kille dthe chicken afterwards.

just as I though.. little to no data on the subject with multiple wordings of a google and bing search..and of the small ancedotal evidence I found in the 2 hits I did get one wasconcluded to be a secondary issue other than the electrics, ie, the confinement.. etc.

clearly this is a onging global issue that is killing millions of dogs and wild animals every minute... if we can't find a single good incedent on the internet.. where most data nowadays lives in perpituity.. :|

ps.. i have 7 dogs, cattle, hogs, and poultry.. have had all types.. game birds, quail, dove, ducks.. have turkey and chickens now.. some small breeds some large. i use both a solar pulsed charger and a steady current one rated for 10m of fence.. that one charger hits a 3 ac paddock perimeter fence.. so.. it's a huge fencer for a lil run of wire..

ive never lost a chicken, dog.. etc... nor the 'wild animals' that try to come in and eat them like possum, coons and cyotee.

I have.. ONCE seen a lizard dead.. was either a green or brown anole.. small one. it was stretched between t he fence hot let and the uninsulted portion of the stand off.. only reason I found it was cuz it was causing a fault on the fence and I walked the line looking for a stick or something laying over on the line..

soundguy

 

[toy]

I have a Pet Safe wireless fence for my Border Collie and it has did pretty good at keeping him in. The collar has a red blinking light that comes on when you need to change the battery. If I neglect to change the battery he will wander out of his perimeter. Some times the area for his boundery will increase or decrease I guess it is because of the atmospheric conditions affecting the radio signal. By the way the audible sound that warns him he is close to the perimeter stops him before the shocking starts.nearly all the time after he learned his boundry.

 

[SPYDERLK]

He had figured out that when the collar stopped making noise, because the battery was dead, it was OK to jump the fence!!!

Impressive. :confused3: It isnt a game. Use one that gives no warning, shocking based on only a proximity cue, and escalates with frequency. A battery warning light would be good too.