Underground dog fence

[J F]

Sounds good, Jay. It would seem, that a wired unit like the ones with underground cables would work the best but, in this case, the one that's easiest to set up seems to be more reliable.
Stuck

We would have definitely gone the "underground" route if finances allowed, but I've been surprisingly happy with what we went with.

 

[hawkeye08]

You might consider another direction that has the added benefit of being a negative visual barrier.

Just go to a farm store and buy an electric fence charger. It doesn't have to be expensive to be effective. Then run two strands of yellow poly fence where you want the dogs contained. One at 12" the other at 24". Once they get snapped a time or two they won't go near it.

I've used it on my farm for over 30 years with at least a dozen dogs without a single mishap. It also keeps other dogs and most critters out.

If you take the dogs somewhere else to visit or run you can put up a single strand, not even charge it, and the dogs won't cross it.

The cost for the charger, fence wire, stand-offs, and posts (rebar or such) will run less than $100. Advantages beside the above: no collar necessary, virtually unlimited size (just string the wire), after a month it can be left off. The chance of a breakdown is very, very small.

It also works with pigs but they will try to test the wire every once in a while. Guess the zap is worth it to them. But if they find it is off you will be in for some pig chasing.

Sort of defeats the invisible or underground part of the equation... but seems to be effective.

 

[murphy1244]

Jay, How big of a perimeter can you go and how do you do a driveway?

 

[J F]

We use the max (180' from "sending unit") perimeter setting. We do have a front and side fence. Basically the "invisible" fence controls our dogs from leaving our property and going into the neighboring woods.

Our driveway and front fence go just beyond the "beep/shock" area.

 

[stuckmotor]

WG,
I had intended to ask about a simple electric fence but got caught up with the underground fence and forgot about it. Is any training needed or do the dogs train themselves?
Stuck

 

[gwdixon]

WG,
I had intended to ask about a simple electric fence but got caught up with the underground fence and forgot about it. Is any training needed or do the dogs train themselves?
Stuck

No training needed. The visual reinforcement of the fence is the avoidance device. The dogs will put their noses on the fence to investigate and training takes place immediately. You would be surprised at how dogs will absolutely avoid getting that zap again.

A test would be to put their favorite toy or favorite snack on the other side of the wire. That will convince you of its effectiveness. Of course, give them the toy or treat afterwards to show your reward for them respecting and avoiding the fence.

Once again, the fence works both ways...your dogs stay in, other dogs and critters stay out.

 

[stuckmotor]

GW,
This sounds really good. For the time being, it's at the top of my list.
Thank you,
Stuck

 

[bcp]

Underground dog fence

Every time I see that phrase I think of a fence for underground dogs.

Bruce

 

[troutsqueezer]

We bought the radio transmitter fence for our two big dogs. They were trained in just a couple of days. Completely trained in a couple of weeks. After a few months we sold it on Craigslist almost for what we paid for it. Best money we ever spent. The dogs never left the yard area again on their own the entire twelve years we had them. RIP Max and Niki.

 

[schweizer]

We use a PetSafe fence for our Australian Shepherd (about 60 lbs). It's great -- best animal-related purchase I've made. Our dog was chewing up fruit tree and garden irrigation lines, peeing on the deck, etc. It was super easy to setup: you just unroll the wire, hook up the wire to the energizer box, plug in the wall-wart, and set the sensitivity. Put a fresh 9V battery in the collar and it's all set. I didn't do any training with our dog and he learned **real** fast -- within a day he had figured out where he was allowed to go, how it would beep before shocking, and how close he could get before getting zapped. He will test its limits, though, and knows that he can get on the deck and play w/ the kids when the collar is not around his neck. My parents use the PetSafe fence w/ their hound dog and German shepherd to keep them at home, and they're quite happy with it also.

Marcus

Edit: I don't remember paying more than around $150 for the setup at the local farm store.