I’m a very very conscientious dog owner. My Wife used to work animal control. We are both considerate of others and take great care of our dogs (2)
But.
We live on 2 acres in the mountains. Our closest neighbor is 1/4 mile away. I have managed to fence off all of 1200 sq feet of our property for the dogs. The terrain is just too rugged to fence off any more. We walk or hike with the dogs every day.
The fence is 5 feet tall. Our one dog jumps that with ease. She figured it out when the snow starts building up. We got 30 feet of snow the winter before last. What fence? They walked right over the fence because they couldn’t even see it.
Electric fence/shock collars are out. That’s not an option.
My previous pup was a Labrador. Never had a fence for her.
I want to just take the fence down. It’s sort of pointless. My plan is to GPS the dogs and leave the gate open and see what they really do during the day. There are a number of GPS systems for dogs. Does anyone on the Dope use one?
I’m about ready to hang my Garmin on Kricket and see what happens. But it’s a bit big.
Garmin makes GPS units for runners called the Forerunner - people wear them like wristwatches. No problem attaching it to a collar.
I just bought as similar unit from Garmin for cyclists (the Edge). The only problem is that these units don’t have a map like an automotive GPS. You download the data after your run (or ride) and export the data to a map.
The list price is a bit high, but you can usually find them on sale for much less - I bought mine at Costco.
Thanks. I have a Gamin 60 map something. Great hiking tool.
I seem to be the bad guy here. When we build a higher fence, that only means that the dogs will get out in Jan and Feb.
After a bit of a disagreement with my wife. Perhaps the second one in 12 years I went online and purchased the zoombak. It’s a GPS specifically made for dogs.
I just want to try it out. And see if our dogs wander. Since we can get upwards of 30’ yes THIRTY FEET of snow in a winter there is really no practical way to fence a yard.
I agree with my wife. I don’t think that dogs should just run free. But we are doing the best we can here and a taller and taller fences mean nothing to a dog when the fence can’t even be seen. They will and do just walk right over it in winter. Kricket now pops over our 5 foot fence with ease. With no snow on the ground.
I’m worried that the dogs will try to jump the fence and hurt themselves.
How is cell phone reception in your area? Things like the zoombark dont work unless it can send a text message or EVDO/GPRS data packet with the gps data to the zoombark service.
I understand your concern, but invisible fences with the shock collar work very well, and are (imho) safer for your dogs than letting them run free through the woods (any hunters around?), near roads, etc. I won’t belabor the point, but to dismiss them out of hand seems unwise. That said, you would have to find out if they work through many feet of snow (I’m guessing they don’t).
Good luck, and I hope you find something that works!
I have a (really old) Garmin Etrex which is about the size of a cell phone and which keeps a log of where it has been and could be used for this purpose. I use it in my travels and later transfer the track log info to Google Earth.
I called ZoomBac and they assured me that even that I can’t get T-mobile, I would be OK. I looked at their coverage area again, it appears that I am in range of a shared service provider. I suspect it’s Verizon as that is it where I live.
I also thought about invisible fence. But it would be nearly as tough as a regular fence to set up. Understand that I basically live on the side of a mountain. With snow depths that may make it a bit unpredictable. I also don’t want my girls to possibly get out, and then be afraid to come back.
I am also trying to stay away from a bulky collar with a whip antenna on it.
I ordered one ZoomBak unit. We will see how it works and I will report back.
Couple cautions on the earlier units. About the time the Sirfstar III chipset came on to the scene, there was a huge leap in the sensitivity and power efficiency of GPS chips. Older units don’t track well under cover, and suck batteries more quickly than the newer generation units. If you get a hold of one of the old Garmin or Magellan units, you may find the data drops out a lot as the dog runs around under dense cover, and it will gobble batteries. I have a Garmin 60CSx, which was the first unit they brought out using the newer generation chips, and there really was a huge difference versus a couple older handheld models I had.
We live on 11 acres. Like you, it’s too rugged to fence the whole thing, or really even more than a decent-size area around the house (which we have). When we first moved in, it was in the winter, and we couldn’t get the fence up until the spring. We let our dog run, thinking he’d rather be in the woods than on the road out front (which is far enough from the house to not be visible - about a 4-5 minute walk.)
That worked great, until one day we found our dog’s footprints right next to the road. He got to go on a lead when he went outside until spring when we put the fence up as soon as we could.
Still, about a year later, he got out during a Christmas party when the front door was accidentally left open for about ten minutes. That was his undoing; he got out, and went right for the road. It was horrible - my Dad saw it happening as he left the party - nothing like a dead dog to clear out a party fast.
My advice is to use the invisible fence. There’s too much out there that can hurt the dogs if they get out. You think they’d be smart enough to stay away from the road, but that’s obviously not true. And also, there’s predators to worry about, not sure if the invisible fence does much for that, though.
RE the invisible fence…… The wire should be buried to protect it. Like I said, I live in a very rugged area. Not sure I could bury a wire. It would be very, very difficult. They don’t call it the Rocky Mountains for nuthin. I suppose I could suspend the wire on fence posts. Not sure. The way our ‘yard’ set up, I just don’t see how it will work.
And, if there is 5 feet of packed snow on top of the wire, will it work? Will the dogs be afraid to return?
I’m gonna GPS them. And see if I really have anything to worry about. For all I know they may be homebodies like my last dog.
Perhaps you could teach your dog to avoid road. I live in the city and a lot of dog are walked leashless and they can be taught not to go into the street. Of course there are dogs that get hit but I’ve seen dogs chase balls in the park and stop abruptly if the ball rolls into the street.
But let’s get real for a minute, why don’t you just admit the REAL reason you want to GPS your dog. You’re nosy aren’t you. It kills you that your dog is having fun and you don’t know what he’s up to.
