We’re looking into buying a new house. It has a beautifully landscaped backyard, 4 story deck, lots of big trees, everything we could possibly want, except a fence! The covenent prevents us from putting a fence up, and even if it didn’t, we wouldn’t want to because it would detract from the landscaping. We do, however, have a dog. Our real estate agent mentioned those radio fences - basically a wire you bury around the perimiter of the yard, and the dog wears a transmitter on his collar. When he gets close to the perimeter, it beeps. If he gets closer, it delivers a mild shock.
Does anyone have any experience with these? Do they work? It seems like a wonderful solution, but I want to hear some actual stories about 'em before I trust it.
Yes they work. My sister has them at her house and she’s never had any trouble with either of her dogs.
The wire goes around your yard, and gives off a radio signal. The collar picks up the signal and when the dog gets too close to the wire, the collar gives the dog a warning. Usually a tone. If the dog gets too close zap. (Like you said.)
If you have a big chuckle-haed dog you have to turn the “zap” up. Sometimes to the “bacon” setting. Sometimes the dog is so intent on getting whatever it is on the other side of the wire, they’ll take the zap and keep going. Then the fence will keep them from coming back into the yard.
Sometimes the collar will pick up the signal from outside while your dog is inside. Especially along the outside walls.
It’s a trial and error process to find the ballance you and your dog need. But once you do (and you have you dog trained to the fence) they work very well. Most dogs get to know their bondaries and you never have to change the batteries in the collar again. (The dog just will not go to the edge anymore, shock or no. My sister’s dogs are like that.)
The down-side to invisible fences is they don’t keep anything out of your yard. Kids, other dogs, there’s no fence to stop them. Usually no big deal.
They also have a new fence that the collar is kept from zapping as long as your dog is within a set distance from the transmitter. Like the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, if they get too far away, their heads explode. Not really, it’s just a zap like the other fence.
I’ve seen the fence used a lot. If you have a normally intelligent dog they get trained quickly. If your dog is just dumb or will take the jolt and keep going they can be a real headache.
-Rue.
When my friends and i go for walks or runs, it’s often through a fairly wealthy part of Baltimore, with lots of big old houses and manicured lawns. Quite a few of them have electronic dog fences, and they always seem to work. The dogs appear to have a very clear sense of where they can and cannot go. I don’t think i’d like to test it too closely by standing outside someones place and teasing the dog, but if you are pretty confident that you don’t have a wild or particularly savage dog, i would think that it would be fine.
On the other hand, I’ve seen dogs frantically running around the outside of their yard (complete with Invisible Fence signs), trying desperately to get back in. I don’t think that it’s a matter so much of the intelligence of the dog (the average planarian is smart enough to be trained that way) as it is of how much the dog wants out.
A well-behaved dog, on the other hand, can be trained to respect any arbitrary boundaries, with or without a fence.
I found out the hard way that these things work. For whatever reason, perhaps I was feeling a bit bored or adventurous when I visited my upstate relatives, I took the dog collar in hand and walked away from the house. Eventually I felt the zap and it wasn’t a nice sensation. I’m quite a nimrod sometimes.
Back when I was doing actual manual landscaping gigs (before my cushy landscaping deskjob), we were planting a flower bed and the owner’s dog kept wanting to dig it up. They had an electric fence complete with some little flags around the perimeter of the yard. Taking a couple flags and setting them around the garden was enough to make the dog decide that the garden was not to be messed with, despite the lack of a threat of actual shock.
Check with your city, though. Some cities require a physical barrier between a dog and the outside world (fence, wall, leash…). Although usually you won’t get in trouble unless the dog gets out or is really noisy and the neighbors complain.
They do work, but it depends on the breed. The people across the street have kept two successive Labs confined with one of them. On the other hand, a few years ago there was an incident with a Rottweiler in the next town over, where she decided to go for a kid and went across the fence like it wasn’t there. After the attack, they discovered that the collar was working and the system was on high output. It had successfully kept the dog confined for two or three years, but when the dog decided she had to cross the line, it didn’t phase her. (The boy and two companions admitted to “playing” with her, but I never heard whether it was genuine play or taunting.)
When I was living in Florida these were very popular but even the companies that produce the fences will say the work SUFFICIANTLY.
Companies quickly tell you that if a dog is in heat or SEXED UP so to speak or very hungry. The fences will not deter them.
Most importantly even if they keep your dog in and safe they DO NOT keep other dogs from coming in and harming your dog.
I currently live in Chicago where few people leash their dogs. I can’t tell you the number of dogs I’ve seen hit by cars as owners THINK they control their dogs.
One situation I saw a dog was being walked by the owner and it ran an cornered a mangy old street cat. This cat tore into this dog and left him clawed and bleeding. This would not have happened if he was properly leased. It is sad a dog suffers because the owner THINKS they aren’t animals.
I’ve had good results with my last two dogs on a buried wire system. I have one made by Innotek. Here are some cautions, though. You’ll need to train your pooch to the system; otherwise, he won’t know why his collar is biting him. It’s not for every dog. Greyhounds, for example, reach top speed in four or five strides. At that speed, he won’t even notice the beep or the zap. The size of the pooch doesn’t matter much. My brother’s St.Bernard and Newfoundland are restrained nicely. A really hairy dog may need to have a patch trimmed so the zapper can touch the skin.
And, finally, ALWAYS remember to remove the collar when you take the dog somewhere in the car!