Electric fence for dogs- how hot?

Ok so I know electric tape fencing for my dogs isn’t ideal but the yard fencing is on next years to do list and I need to keep them contained.

I put up three strands of tape, ran it off my horse fencing, tests at 6.2kv and my dogs walked right through it???

How hot does the damn thing have to be?

What kind of dogs? An electric fence has NEVER mad any difference to our ACD/JRT mix. She is extremely driven/strong minded and seemingly impervious to pain and discomfort. Charge would have to be so high her life would be in danger and she still probably wouldn’t care. Our BC mix is overly sensitive, she’d never leave the house again if she ever got zapped by the slightest thing. That’s what happened with my mother’s overly sensitive Brittany, he had to be driven in a car out of the yard because he would not walk out the driveway ever again after the electric fence training. Between the two of our dogs, an electric fence is just out.

Hmmm just tested it myself, its no much of a shock :frowning:

I tried tape first -it didn’t work. I went with wire and a livestock charger. I’ve successfully kept 3 Rhodesian Ridgebacks inside my fence line in the Pennsylvania woods.

Paula

The Rottie didn’t hesitate, my other dog at least hesitated, watched the rottie then went

Its on a power wizard 1000, why would wire work better then tape?

I have no idea. I speculated that there was too much resistance in the non-conducting part of the material and the woven fibers just broke too easily and not in a way you could see. I remember when I was trying it a poster on a country life forum I frequent said he tried it and hated it because of breakage of those little wires woven in.

Paula

It works for my dogs but I had to offset the lowest wire so they couldn’t just scoot under. With mine they have to to go over the first line and then under the second. It takes too much time and they would get shocked a lot. When it was just one line, they learned that they could scoot under it and avoid the shock. But then I have a rough collie and a shepherd, not a terrier!

How hot? Depends on your dog. My poodle or old Border collie? One small zap (the vibration setting on his shock collar was sufficient to scare the BC) and they’d never get within 20ft of the fence again.

Thick coated or hard headed dogs? I’d imagine no shock would deter them. I’ve known many to run through electric fences once they figured out the zap was only for a second or two.

The trick is to associate it with a visible barrier. It doesn’t have to be substantial. My friend in Michigan had a hotwire inside a split rail fence. The ridgebacks were convinced the split rail was hot. I have up heavy duty deer fencing -same effect.

Paula

Tape just doesn’t do it, wire works. It helps if the ground is wet the first time they encounter it. I just use a small livestock plug in charger. I do have it attached to 4 board fence though, so there’s a definite visual barrier as well.

Next year we’re putting up no climb, but with a hot wire around the top. I suspect my hound will be able to climb the no climb as well.

Wire works-it has more conductivity when it connects with said dog.

Anything you can do to slow down the part where they go through will help-some of ours go through so quickly they don’t even feel a shock but it very much works with my Blackmouth cur and Great Pyr. They’re suspicious and stop to sniff it or weasel through and they get zapped-now they won’t cross it At. All.

We did three wires very close at the bottom and then spaced it out more toward the top, for the dang goat we ran one wire about 12 inches high and 12 inches out from the rest of the fence so he had to touch something as he staged his getaway and that worked really well on the dogs-Pigweed figured it out though…

Ours is on an old Parmak though-no mercy!

Remember that the dog has to be in contact with the ground to get zapped on the wire otherwise it’s a bird on a wire -no shock. Keep that in mind when you’re stringing wire high -it can’t be so high that he’s already off the ground when he touches it.

I put the dogs inside, set up the wire, let the dogs out and went inside myself. That way I have nothing to do with the zap -it’s all “hand of God” and that really works.

Paula

Paula, if the dog is climbing no climb, which has contact with the ground and hits the hot wire at the top, will he still get shocked?

Thanks all some great replies!

The tape is close together so they definately have to touch it to get through.

Rottie went out today, tried to go through and got zapped…so she may have just learnt her lesson, will see.

Interesting on the wire (are you talking pure wire rather the then rope hotwire?). May have to add a couple strands to it.

I have successfully kept my dogs contained with electric fence wire for 25 yrs. The only one I could not keep inside it was our Chow X. Too much hair, he did not care.

My Dobermans have always respected the electric fence. I have four strands. I have it hooked up to my regular horse fence and fencer.

I had my pen, it is a 1/2 acre with a stream and lots of trees before I put them in it. My red Dobe made the mistake of peeing on it. That was 8 yrs ago and he never went within three feet of that fence again.

I think it works great. My vet apparantly had never seen such a set up. He was impressed with how well it worked. It is cheap, reliable and safe. It might not be pretty enough for some but it works fine for me.

i am getting electric netting fence for my gang…to keep the cats OUT of the dog yard and keep the dogs from coming too close to the physical fence barrier…is recommended for sheep dogs, goats…

My first Weim was a dedicated fence jumper when I got her at age two. Also had a horse that was tearing down the fence. Put up hot wire, put dog in pasture. She tried to jump at both gates, got zapped and never tried a fence again - even it was only a foot high.

[QUOTE=paulaedwina;6743834]
Remember that the dog has to be in contact with the ground to get zapped on the wire otherwise it’s a bird on a wire -no shock. Keep that in mind when you’re stringing wire high -it can’t be so high that he’s already off the ground when he touches it.

I put the dogs inside, set up the wire, let the dogs out and went inside myself. That way I have nothing to do with the zap -it’s all “hand of God” and that really works.

Paula[/QUOTE]

Thanks Paula, you’re absolutely right. I’m guessing I’ll have to run a second ground wire a couple of inches below the top hot wire.