Electric Fences ???

[PicOlio]

For those who read my vent ... you already know that one of my dogs hopped a five foot fence to get into the neighbor's yard and terrorize a wild armadillo that was over there this morning.

The fence he hopped is also covered in shrubbery and has trees that have grown "into" the fence so replacing it would be extremely expensive I have an acre yard so it's a pretty long fence to boot

I'm nervous, however, now that my dog has figured out that he not only can get over there but also that "it's fun" (afterall he got a treat and then a nice walk around the block to get home) that he'll try to explore beyond the fences again (his own acre wasn't good enough I guess).

The dog in question falls into the "Dumb Lug" category though. I've never had a dog so dense before lol so I'm not even sure if an electric fence would bother him. I've NEVER had one before so am not really familiar with how exactly they work or which kind are better than others...

Do any of you have them for larger dogs that a train would struggle to mow down? Would you recommend trying one? Any particular kind?

Thanks for any feedback on the electric fence idea or any other ideas you may have for securing this fence w/o actually having to uproot the plant life to replace it.

[Chrisanne]

I've had to have an electric fence before Deb. We had a Siberian that would get out at any costs. That fence kept him in. Sadly, he escaped one day while the power was out. GO figure!!!

They make them just for pets, but my neighbor picked mine up for me since i wasn't sure what to get. He got the regular cattle kind. It hurt like a sob, but i survived. (yep, i was dumb enough to touch it.. accidentally of course)

They seem to learn quickly that they don't like it and won't touch it. I don't have one now, because i don't have any escape artists. Might be worth a try though.

[Deja]

I've been training dogs on "invisible" or "electric" fencing for about 7 years. I think they are a great way to contain dogs of all temperaments. It does take time to train them though.

It's not just a matter of installing the fence, putting the collar (reciever) on the dog and letting him find the boundaries by trial and error. Once the system is installed, flags will be placed every 2 feet or so in the ground following the burried wire.

Basically you will introduce the dog to the "warning beep" by walking the dog on a leash with the reciever collar in your hand and by passing your hand over the boundary near the flag you will trigger the warnig tone. As you do this you will tell the dog "NOOO!!" - training proceeds from there...

What I like to look for in invisible fencing is a system with a collar that will deliver a warning tone to the dog before it delivers a correction. Should the dog break out you want the correction to stop after a few second. You also want the system to be able to adjust the strength of the correction to match the need of the dog. The correction is not cruel - dogs do not percieve pain in the same way we do. It is however - unpleasant! It does get their attention. It does deter them from "breaking out". They usually learn to obey that warning beep and back right up - quickly!

Innotek makes the best containment systems in my opinion. Google Innotek Invisible Fencing and you will find many sources of information.

I have an acre of my yard wired. I set it up so that it surrounds my entire house so that they can be anywhere in the house wearing the "collar" and not be corrected. You might decide to set yours up so that you need to take the collar off when they enter the house. There are endless ways to configure the burried wire boundary.

The process usually takes a few weeks and after about 2 months you can start removing the flags. My dogs don't "break out". My Golden used to love to wander off, chase deer and roll in dead things My Brittany is a field trainined bird dog and he loves to find birds, mice, gophers- whatever- in our yard and go on point, he even goes on point when he finds the cat - the goofball Not even his prey drive has ever driven him to break out of the boundary.

Sorry this was so long Good Luck, if you have any questions please let me know!

[Rocheal]

We had an electric fence back in '98, I guess before they got strong enough for bigger dogs. We had a pitbull that ran right through it with our little weeny dog who would just yipe the whole way through . Luckily for them it stops buzzing them after they get so far

I of course had to test it before I put those things around my dogs... After I tried it, I knew if it was around MY neck, I wouldn't have run through it! Some dogs are just nuts!!

Why don't you just run it under the fence you have un your yard, now?

[purpzey]

We had an invisible fence at our old place. It worked wonders. Our dog never got out.

I don't know much about standard electric fences, but I'd think since the invisible is designed for dogs they might be better.

[Deja]

Rocheal I did the same thing!! Only more than once!

The most recent was last summer when we installed a brand new system and I was training Max. He was just old enough to start being trained on it. I had the reciever collar in my right hand and I was bending over passing it across the burried electric wire near a flag. I was bent so far over talking to Max that my cheek brushed the collar prongs at the right (or wrong?) moment!! OMG It got my cheek

It feels like a really strong static shock. I yelped and dropped the collar - and Max tilted his head in response to the beeping... that darn dog has never gotten close enough to the boundary to even get a warning beep! Yet - me the human? ahhhh
I've been zapped a couple of times