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"Invisible fencing" for big dogs?

The Menagerie
#1

We have recently added a Dobie mix puppy (well, he’s about 7 months old, so I guess he’s still a puppy, despite being nearly 60 pounds! :eek:) to our menagerie. We have a 13 year old border collie cross bitch and they share a kennel and small fenced area outside. We bring both dogs in at night. The “puppy” however, needs room to run - big pup with long legs and likes to stretch them. Our property is heavily wooded and it would take a lot of time and money to put up adequate traditional fencing.

Anyone have experience with invisible fencing being adequate for bigger dogs? I wouldn’t leave him out in it for long, but it would be nice for him to have a place where he could stretch his legs for an hour or two, and not have it cost us a fortune or require us to fence in 3/4 of an acre.

#2

I have the wireless unit from petsafe and it works well. We even have the worlds most stubborn Basset Hounds on it and it works just fine. The only complaint that I have is the metal siding on my house creates some interference and the collars will randomly go off if the dogs wear them in the house. So, they have to go on and off when they come in and out. Annoying, but not a deal breaker. Now, the dogs know the boundary so if I do let them out without the collar, I don’t worry too much. Not a habit I want to get in, but still nice to know that I won’t have a dog doing a mad dash into the busy highway I live on in the event they sneak out the door.

My friends have the petsafe professionally installed unit at their house and they love it! Lots more adjustability with that. And they have two stupid coonhounds. If their dogs can do it, your trainable puppy can too.

#3

We use a radio fence for our australian shepherd. It works differently than an in-line fence in that if the dog goes through the perimeter he continues to be stimmed for a bit of time. Also, dog does not get zapped if he left the area and then comes back in. It is very affordable and can cover up to half an acre. Our only complaint is that we have already had to replace the collar once. But it should work on a large dog, it certainly works for our very opinionated aussie:lol:

#4

I’m a huge IF fan; first got it 11 years ago w/ a property that was two acres of yard and woods; fenced the whole thing and had the shepherd/coonhound trained in no time. Added a chow/shep mix a year or so later, no problem. And when the old hound died (:cry:) added a retriever/chow mix. No problem there either. The dogs who can be the biggest training problem are the sight hounds- they run first, think later. Also knew someone who had a problem w/ their Newfie because the prongs did not hit her skin due to quantity of hair!

The dobie mix should do just fine, they are smart. Be sure that you spend the $$ and time to train the dog properly. Mine never cross the line unless they are on a leash or in the car.
What is interesting is that each dog makes its own barrier eventually; one of mine goes much closer to the line than the other.

When mine was run thru the woods, it was mostly above ground, held down w/ little prongs. I left the flags there for a long time so I would know where the line was in case of a break.

#5

[QUOTE=Snowflake;6131053]
I have the wireless unit from petsafe and it works well. We even have the worlds most stubborn Basset Hounds on it and it works just fine. The only complaint that I have is the metal siding on my house creates some interference and the collars will randomly go off if the dogs wear them in the house. So, they have to go on and off when they come in and out. Annoying, but not a deal breaker. Now, the dogs know the boundary so if I do let them out without the collar, I don’t worry too much. Not a habit I want to get in, but still nice to know that I won’t have a dog doing a mad dash into the busy highway I live on in the event they sneak out the door.

My friends have the petsafe professionally installed unit at their house and they love it! Lots more adjustability with that. And they have two stupid coonhounds. If their dogs can do it, your trainable puppy can too.[/QUOTE]

That’s the unit we use.

#6

I have a 70 lb Ridgeback that respects invisible fence. The MOST IMPORTANT thing with it is the training. You can’t just put on a collar and turn the dog out–you have to spend time teaching them the boundary and how to respond to the warning beep.

#7

everyone in my area has invisible fencing- it contains goldens, labs, malamutes, bernese, etc.
If you do the training correctly most dogs will stay in under most circumstances. I personally would not leave a dog confined by an invisible fence out there for hours on end without someone occasionally checking the dog is still there.

However, warning: having a fenced area isn’t an adequate subsitute for walking and formally exercising your dog. If you put a dog out in a fenced area by itself it almost certainly won’t “run around” for more than a few minutes.

We often get “backyard dogs” in for training and the owners fondly imagine that the dog “self exercises” out in the yard, but it’s usually obvious from working with the dog that it never gets any exercise at all (namely, it’s incredibly physically unfit). On average the non-walked “yard” dog will present as less fit than an average “often walked” apartment dog.
.

#8

I don’t have any experience with the invisible fencing but when I put my two Dobes out in their fenced yard they do like two laps and then sit at the gate and whine & stare at me (or at the barn/house if I’m inside). Dobes are velcro dogs…they want to be WITH you!

#9

I live in a wooded place too and I used Benner’s Deer Fencing http://bennersgardens.com/deer-fencing-info.asp

Use the trees as posts. It’s brilliant. It disappears into the background so you’ll be hardpressed to see it. Mine has been up since 2003. Here’s a picture from 2003 -the fence is behind me. http://www.flickr.com/photos/52967336@N00/570549540/in/photostream

Paula

#10

paula, that is WAY COOL FENCING! We have anywhere between 75-100 deer coming through our property on any given day, and that stuff would ROCK!

And velcro Dobie pup would have plenty of room to run. I couldn’t access your photo so don’t know what you’d use as a gate, but if you could tell me, that would be cool.

Thanks, y’all. You’ve given me a lot to work with. :smiley:

“Puppy” is wicked smart, so shouldn’t be difficult to get him to respect whatever we put up, but I’m really loving that deerproof fencing. It’ll protect my garden, too! :smiley:

#11

It is way cool fencing.

  1. The mesh is 7 ft. You finish it with a 1ft skirt that you tack to the ground with staples so you’ll have a six ft fence.

  2. It’s got great tensile strength; I’ve had tree limbs come down in storms and not break the fence, just stretch it.

  3. The posts fit into sleeves you pound into the ground with a slug and a sledge hammer.

  4. The gates are like the posts -hollow. They come in kits that fit together. You cover it with mesh and add a tensioner (cord). I don’t have a picture, but I’ll take one with my cell phone and post it tomorrow.

  5. It blends in so well that you actually have to flag it for the deer in the beginning. They don’t jump the fence because they can’t see how high it is. I have not had any deer in my yard and I’ve been here since 2003 (the house was finished in 2004).

  6. I do have problems with gnawers -sometimes you’ll get gnawers go through the mesh near the bottom, but you can patch it with more mesh! I had one foster who was so bent on getting out that she would grab the skirt in her teeth and rip it out of the ground! For her I added a hot wire on the inside. But before her my ridgebacks (3 at one time) never got through the fence -I think it’s because it has such high tensile strength. And remember, I live in the woods, surrounded by deer, and keep sighthounds.

In this picture down in the corner by the trees, where you see white tape (hot wire) there is a 6 foot fence. http://www.flickr.com/photos/52967336@N00/1127732821/in/photostream/

I’d do it again in a minute.

Paula

#12

ESG - I put up some deer fencing around a big garden area that looked similar to that discussed above. I found the deer jumping sort of over it, and sometimes thru it, and it was torn w/ some regularity. Would not count on that to keep the dog in.

Note that there are probably different strength deer fencing products and maybe deer in your area are not as persistent as the ones where I was, but I would be very careful going this route…

#13

There are definitely different strengths (see the website). This is not the garden variety deer fencing you find all over the place. This is heavy duty stuff. Like I said; I’ve had tree limbs fall on it and stretch it not break it. So 2tempe and I are certainly not discussing the same stuff. So OP if you go this route I’m talking about Benner’s high impact heavy perimeter fencing -don’t just go out to your local home depot and pick up “deer fencing” right?

Remember I live in rural PA -deer country. No deer has jumped my fence ever. No dog has broken the fence ever. No deer has ever broken the fence. And keep in mind I have a very prey driven breed.

From Benners;

"Heavy Perimeter Fencing has been designed to provide added strength for enclosures that are large enough that the deer don’t easily realize that they can just walk around the protected area. For these larger enclosures, the concept of re-directing or “training” the animals to keep them out of the protected area is by itself insufficient, and our Heavy Perimeter barrier is required. The larger the area you are enclosing, the more you are changing the deer travel patterns, thus the greater the risk of them inadvertently running into the virtually invisible wire-like plastic deer fence.

We have had reports of large bucks bouncing off our Heavy Perimeter Fencing when accidentally colliding with the newly installed deer fence system at full speed. Virtually all enclosures over 1/4 acre are now being protected with Heavy Perimeter Fencing with two black nylon tension cables (at the top and 3’ off the ground - the “impact zone”)."

http://bennersgardens.com/deer-fencing-info.asp

Paula

#14

Not to hijack, but my husband and I just bought a house and will be needing an invisible fence for our Pointer. Do you guys have preference of a wire vs. wireless fence? Also what brands are the best?

(PS he’s not a typical pointer, critters can run past him and he just looks at them like ???. He’s a big baby, so we don’t worry about him testing the fence. We had to use a shock collar once since he took to jumping our 6’+ fence… from a standstill!)

Thanks!

#15

I have a breed with a ridiculous prey drive. I would not depend on an invisible fence to keep them in. The other thing of course is that invisible fences don’t keep anybody out.

Paula

#16

When we lived in town we tried invisible fence. Worked fine on my two girl Corgis. However, my male was an entirely different story. Evidently the neighbor’s cat food left on the porch was too much of a temptation. He’d hesitate, clearly acknowledging the shock that was coming, then charge over the property line. He wouldn’t cross over trying to get back in, however. He’d just sit at the edge of the lawn and wait for one of us to come get him.

The girls would watch him take off and get pretty freaked out. It’s like they knew what was coming.

We ended up just installing a fence. Thankfully, Corgis aren’t diggers.

I agree with others…it’s a pretty good deterent but you should never leave dogs unattended, assuming that they won’t “cross the line.”

#17

GoFish, this scenario is exactly why I wouldn’t use invisible fencing for my sighthounds. I figure they’d be through the barrier after prey way before they thought of the consequence or registered the pain. Then they won’t come back in because they dread the consequence.

The other reason I wouldn’t use it is that I live in the woods with dogs that look like deer. I need a passing hunter to realize they’re inside a fence.

Paula

#18

[QUOTE=Go Fish;6133008]
When we lived in town we tried invisible fence. Worked fine on my two girl Corgis. However, my male was an entirely different story. Evidently the neighbor’s cat food left on the porch was too much of a temptation. He’d hesitate, clearly acknowledging the shock that was coming, then charge over the property line. He wouldn’t cross over trying to get back in, however. He’d just sit at the edge of the lawn and wait for one of us to come get him.

The girls would watch him take off and get pretty freaked out. It’s like they knew what was coming.

We ended up just installing a fence. Thankfully, Corgis aren’t diggers.

I agree with others…it’s a pretty good deterent but you should never leave dogs unattended, assuming that they won’t “cross the line.”[/QUOTE]

That is the difference between the in-line fence and the radio fence. The in-line fence delivers a zap as the dog crosses the boundary and then it is over. The radio fence delivers a series of zaps because it is no longer receiving the signal that tells it not to zap. Many dogs will take the one zap because then it’s done. A series of zaps is very different. If they do go through at least when they come home they are not punished for crossing the boundary. The wireless radio fence is much less expensive and no installation is necessary. And I think you can probably return it if you try it out and are not satisfied with it. We love ours because we own 2 homes (well, one home and one summer cottage) and we just pack up the wireless unit and bring it with us when we go to the cottage. We adjust the perimeter and we have “fencing” at our summer place.
Paula is correct however, these types of fences do not keep other critters out, so if that is an issue, one of these will not work for you.

#19

Love, love, LOVE my underground fence! We’ve had it for about 3 1/2 years. We got it for a young foxhound who adopted us. But she would get on a scent and be gone. She was NOT good at finding her way back home. We have a Dog-guard/Out-of-sight package and had it professionally installed by the local dealer, since he came highly recommended. He also did the primary training, I just did the reinforcement work.

We never bothered to get a collar for our old dog at the time, since she never strayed anyway. Since we lost her, we’ve added two more. The first, a setter from a local rescue - and her professionally trained too (I did NOT want to be the “bad guy” for her, as she is very (very) sensitive and a worrier). The last one was an older beagle mix I found on the road. I trained him myself and he did fine.

My only complaint about this particular brand is that the collars are very expensive and only available full price from dealers. I did find one on ebay once, but that’s rare.

They don’t keep other dogs out, but I don’t know of anything other than 10 foot chain-link buried 2 feet in the ground that would keep my diggers and climbers in. We are also WELL off the road. Our fence runs just inside the 4 board horse fencing, so there is also a visible barrier, which our installer thought was optimal for training. Now the dogs are so conditioned to the fence, they don’t really need the collars all the time.

It’s true that this fencing doesn’t keep other dogs or critters out. But it works for our situation. Our dogs do self exercise out here quit a bit. There are always things to bark at, they play with each other a lot, and do the whole barn routine with us twice a day.

We decided against the wireless system since we had a lot of ground to cover (about 4 acres around the house and barn) - so it was too much for wireless. Also, at the time those systems would shock the dogs when the signal was lost. We lose power too often out here to deal with that! Poor dogs would be shocked way too randomly!

SCFarm

#20

[QUOTE=wendy;6131083]
everyone in my area has invisible fencing- it contains goldens, labs, malamutes, bernese, etc.
If you do the training correctly most dogs will stay in under most circumstances. I personally would not leave a dog confined by an invisible fence out there for hours on end without someone occasionally checking the dog is still there.

However, warning: having a fenced area isn’t an adequate subsitute for walking and formally exercising your dog. If you put a dog out in a fenced area by itself it almost certainly won’t “run around” for more than a few minutes. [/QUOTE]

This. We have had the DogWatch Invisible Fence ever since we had our first dog in Massachusetts. We had about a 3 acre yard with some woods in the back (6 acres total, but we “fenced” about 3). I had 3 rescue dogs that I left outside all day while I was at work. Cannot believe I did that at the time - would not now. I eventually started working from home (still do), and they all went out as much as they wanted.
1st dog was a tri-colored Rough Collie that I got from the pound on her last day before she was to be put to sleep - she was about 1.5 years old and was a confirmed wanderer (why she was there most likely as she was BEAUTIFUL!). She was the toughest to contain due to the deep ruff of hair on her neck - got the longer prongs on the collar, did extra training and turned it all the way up. That said, she did get lose 2 or 3 times over the years and thankfully was found right away and was never injured.
2nd dog was a 7 year old Redbone Coonhound and possibly Beagle mix - super easy to train and never even attempted to leave the yard in spite of her Coonhound nose!
3rd dog is my Chesapeake Bay Retriever - was a year old when we got her. EASY to train, but could be aggressive in the yard. She and the other 2 dogs would chase people along the fenceline - must have made them very nervous, but the dogs never crossed that line.

Since then (that was 12 years ago), we have moved to Ocala FL and have a 10 acre farm. We “fenced” about 8 acres of it and still have the Chessie. Also got a 3 year old (now 7) Hound/Lab mix from the pound who seemed to already be trained to it when we got her, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi who was super easy to train and never challenges the fence, and now a Chihuahua who was also super easy to train and stays right in the yard.

I no longer leave them outside if I am not home, even though we are perimeter fenced with 3 rail and no-climb. Can’t believe I used to - not because they would leave the yard, but because something else can get in the yard and also people can be stupid and I don’t want my dogs stolen or for them to bite someone stupid enough to come in the yard.

So, long winded answer - you should be fine with the Doby. Congratulations on him and I totally agree that the initial training is KEY. Either have the fence company or a dog trainer who uses that brand train the first dog for you (that’s what we did) and then you can train the rest, or really pay attention and make sure you do it right. It takes 4 days to do it right, although most dogs “get it” with the first correction if done right. The keys to training them are:

  • make sure to have the collar fitting tight enough that the prongs have contact with the skin
  • make sure to wave the flag at them and go “no, no, no, no, NO!” as you wave it while someone holds the dog beyond the beep area
  • make sure to not force the dog over the line - they need to wander into that zone and hear the beep on thier own.
  • when they DO wander past the beep zone and into the zap zone you need to be on the other side of them in the yard so that you can immediately pull them back into the “safe zone” in the yard and praise and pat them. This is so key - they need to associate the yard itself as safe so that they run INTO the yard when zapped and don’t try to run out of the yard.
  • don’t skimp on the number of flags and the time that you take to walk them around the yard and familiarize them with where the boundaries are
  • don’t forget to take the collar off when you put the dog in the car to leave! Ask me how I know this. Same thing if the dog does get loose - shut eh fence off so the dog can come back and not get zapped trying to get back in the yard, especially if you are driving and find the dog and bring it back.
  • if the dog won’t leave the doorstep, you really need to leash the dog and walk the yard to re-assure them and continue the training. They will eventually leave the doorstep.
  • check the collar out in the house and around the yard and especially your car doors - sometimes there are issues where certain things will set off the collar and zap your dog - happens to mine at the car door, and happens to my poor chihuahua near the well pump in the yard for some reason. Was able to adjust it, but best to take the collar around with no dog in it first to make sure nothing in the house or yard sets it off!
  • get on the regular battery replacement plan so you don’t forget. Batteries last about 6 months for us.

I know this is a lot to tell you, but really, we love ours. Our friends have gotten the same fence and were even able to stop their dog from digging by putting the fence around the flowers to keep them out.

I could not resist - here are some pictures of my dogs with thier collars on:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i245/wtryan/Our%20Pets/Northbridge%20pets/dogs10-02.jpg?t=1288281214

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i245/wtryan/Our%20Pets/Shadow/100_3352.jpg

my chihuahua
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i245/wtryan/Badger%20the%20Chihuahua/091.jpg?t=1280586467

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