Underground fences

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
Just got a dog. Boxer-lab mix, adolescent so he still has a lot of energy. Unfortunately he's going to need some training/time with use to learn obedience and staying around... seems POs used to just let him run around the back yard and did little w/ him trianing-wise.

But anyway, we don't have a fence and I have no interest in putting one up. He'll need the running room for exercise so I'm considering an underground fence. Our back yard backs against several neighbors, none/ w fences or tree lines so the property lines aren't clear (mental note, I need a survey, too).

What is there to know about electric fences... good and bad, what to look for etc.
Occasionally we go over to our neighbor's house, and I could see wanting to let him go with us out past the "fence" line, how does that work?

Any rules of thumb on how close to run them to the property line?
 
We considered underground fence for our first set of dogs 20 years ago, but decided it was too labor intensive to DIY, and bit the bullet for privacy fence.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, someone was telling me about a wifi based invisible fence for dogs. I meant to google it, sounds like a great idea.
 
Here is the rule of thumb. They don't contain the dog. They are a training aid. If you a spend a month or so or you have a dog with a very low pain tolerance or a beta personality they work without extensive training.

Never never never walk him across his line. Ever. It teaches him to disobey. Physically you can unplug the box before crossing a line but it ruins the leason. Take him out the safe door and around never through.
 
They also have the setup where you put the receiver in the yard and it has a halo where they can get x far away from the receiver no wires needed
 
I've had an invisible fence before and, for my two dogs, it was a waste of time. My Jack Russell Terrorist would go through it, walking while staring at me, whenever he decided something was worth investigating. Once he was through, my Pitbull would run through it to be with him.

Like Ron and someone else said, they are good as a training aid for submissive dogs but will not keep other animals out. After a month of that (them getting through and other animals coming in), I sucked it up and put in a privacy fence. Definitely a better option in my situation.
 
My wife had a dog when we met and she moved in with me. We had an electric fence installed. The dog was scared shitless of the fence and would hardly walk 10ft from the wall of the house for the first couple of months. he eventually learned his area and it worked great.
 
We got the wifi version or whatever it is about 3 weeks ago. I would never leave her out without me but I no longer use a leash to take her out.
I liked not having to dig and being able to take it if we bring the dog on vacation.
 
If you get a fence that needs wire around your yard you can use yard spikes? What they use to hold down the gardening cloth about every 2-3 feet let the grass grow up and mow your yard with a high deck 3-4 times and it will disappear. But wireless is the way to go
 
My dog took the invisible fence as a challenge to see how many times he could go thru it when we were not around. If we were home he would stay inside the fence but as soon as we would leave he was out doing whatever the hell he felt like. We would get home and he would be a few hundred feet away from the boundary waiting for us to turn it off. Ended up building a chain link fence in the back yard and a doggie door so he comes in and out when he feels like it now. He is a Olde English Bulldog and stubborn as shit and tuff as nails. With the Boxer mix you could have good luck if his temperament is more like a Lab but who knows. I would go with some kind of fence unless you wanted to try the wireless fence and take it back for a refund if it doesn't work.
 
We have two large dogs, our youngest is a boxer and would always jump our fence. We bought an invisible fence as a secondary measure. Even after training her to the beeps and her getting zapped a few times, if she seen something on the other side that she wanted (rabbits, kids, etc) she was gone! They make a stubborn dog collar that uses a 9 volt battery. It has 3 stages of corrections. A beep, it vibrates, then it has a helluva zap! (Trust me on this) she no longer jumps the fence but is stubborn enough to test the collars limits to this day. My dogs aren't obedience trained but listen when I call. She's just stubborn as hell.
 
A friend had 2 Beagle/Cur mixes who liked to roam. The invisible fence worked OK to keep them in the yard till one day the battery in ones collar went out and the dog was hit and killed by a car 1/4 mile from the house.
 
I forgot to mention one thing. I cut the wire at our old twice when I was aerating the lawn with my core plugger.
 
We've had our underground fence for over 5yrs. Less than half of the 3k feet or so of wire is currently underground due to the wire getting cut for one reason or another. If my males' collar stops working he will know it in a matter of minutes and be gone. This has happened a few times and I've always gave him a firm reminder what the collar feels like when working. If their ball rolls within 3' of the wire they just look at me like I'm stupid because they sure as shit aren't going to get near that boundary. I love it.

I had to have a talk with a neighbor because one of their mutts would run up to the line to tease our dogs every time they let it out. Sometimes it would come into their domain if they weren't around. I warned them that the dog would most likely be torn to shreds and it wasn't going to be my problem if it did happen. They now have an underground fence, far from mine.
 
Back
Top