Electric fence question

[Blackrose]

I've toyed with the idea of getting an invisible fence before, but now I am seriously considering it. Chloe loves running around outside in our garden so much and with all of the times she drives me nuts inside with her activity level, it would be SOOOO nice to let her outside to run without having to worry about her running off. Having her drag a leash around isn't as good as a meathod, because it hampers her running and sometimes she picks up the end of it and takes off so I can't grab it to stop her. Smart dog. And with more people building houses our here, keeping Blackie and Rose secure on our property would be wonderful too.
Chloe's a big enough weenie that a correction from a fence would be enough to stop her, and Blackie and Rose are well enough behaved that with the mix of the fence and me supervising they should stay in the yard. (Oh, for those of you who don't know, we live out in what used to be a rural area on ten acres. Now more houses are being built so while there is still a lot of land, it is now what I'd call semi-rural.)

To fence in our three acres of yard, it will cost roughly $400 dollars (I'm assuming; $200 for the kit, then $40 of aditional wire every 1/2 acre). I wanted to get a handheld game system that is $200, and to me that just seems stupid when a fence will be so much more appriciated. I was willing to shell out $200 bucks for the PSP, and my parents were willing to buy it as a gift, so I thought, "Hey, why not combine the money and wha-la! We have enough for the fencing."

I realize that an electric fence cannot always be relied on and that is has its downfalls, but this seems to be the best option for us.

I'm looking online at the fencing that Drs. Foster&Smith have and I've found these two that I like: http://http://www.drsfostersmith.com...1&pcatid=14151
http://http://www.drsfostersmith.com...2&pcatid=11102

I'm reading about them, but I don't know if one is better than the other or what not. The first one catches my eye because you start out with more wire for the same price as half as much.
The second one seems to have a tad more features, and if it wasn't on clerance at the moment it would be WAY to expensive. LOL However, it also said that it had a collar to work on a longhaired dog, which Chloe most definitally is. And it has a warranty. And it has an over correction feature, which would be nifty. Okay, so I really like the second one. What do you all think about it? Is there a brand of invisible fencing that is more trusted than others?

How hard will it be to bury the wire? There is NO way we are doing it with a shovel, as going around our three acres would take for EVER. Is there a peice of equiptment you can rent to dog a little trench for you?

I didn't read anything about how the fencing stands up to snow...we haven't had a lot of snow for a couple of years now, but being in Indiana, you never know how much snow you are going to get over the winter. It may be none, it may be four feet...who knows.

[lute]

I live in Indiana too and know how unpredictable the weather can be. Yesterday and today we had the second highest temps other than another town in TX and tomorrow it'll be in the 60's.

Anywho, I don't know much about electric fences, but I know that if you could afford the regular fencing I'd DEFINATLY go for it! there are sooo many things that can go wrong with electric fencing. For example, your dogs could ignore the shock and get stuck on the outside. We had someone call in the clinic the other day because she found a dog that had an electric fence collar on but she didn't know where she belonged. Fortinatly she had her rabies tag on and we could match her with her owner. Come to find out the dog ignored the shock and got stuck on the outside of the yard. Another thing that electric fencing does is prevent yoour dogs rom leaving but doesn't prevent people from comming into your yard and stealing your dogs. IT DOES HAPPEN! Also, as far as I know you have to burry the wire. Otherwise something could ruin it and ruin the whole system and you won't know until your dogs are gone. You could mow over it, get other animals caught in it, etc.

Good luck with your desicion. I would definatly go for the real fencing though!

[Cinder & Smoke]

Check into a Local Dealer for one of the national brands - such as the "Invisible Fence Co" -
look in the Yellow Pages for one near you and ask for an estimate.

SOME of them offer good prices; and they ALL provide installation of the system -
NOT for "free" - but they should be "reasonable". And they offer "training" -
mostly for YOU;
but they help with the dog if you're having trouble.

Once you meet the Dealer- try wheelin & dealin ... unless they have a zillion pending orders,
you may get lucky with a good price. Ask if they'd just install your wire -
or rent you their wire plow.

Also check at PetsMart - they sell some fence systems, too.

/s/ Phred

[Blackrose]

I live in Indiana too and know how unpredictable the weather can be. Yesterday and today we had the second highest temps other than another town in TX and tomorrow it'll be in the 60's.

Anywho, I don't know much about electric fences, but I know that if you could afford the regular fencing I'd DEFINATLY go for it! there are sooo many things that can go wrong with electric fencing. For example, your dogs could ignore the shock and get stuck on the outside. We had someone call in the clinic the other day because she found a dog that had an electric fence collar on but she didn't know where she belonged. Fortinatly she had her rabies tag on and we could match her with her owner. Come to find out the dog ignored the shock and got stuck on the outside of the yard. Another thing that electric fencing does is prevent yoour dogs rom leaving but doesn't prevent people from comming into your yard and stealing your dogs. IT DOES HAPPEN! Also, as far as I know you have to burry the wire. Otherwise something could ruin it and ruin the whole system and you won't know until your dogs are gone. You could mow over it, get other animals caught in it, etc.

Good luck with your desicion. I would definatly go for the real fencing though!

I know, isn't the weather just weird? I want it to cool down...this hot weather is killing me. I enjoy autumn with its 60-70 temps....summer is too hot! Ick.

I wish we could go with solid fencing, but even just fencing off a section of our yard would be too expensive. I'm talking at the very least a thousand dollars, and that isn't even covering a smidgen of our front yard.

Our neighbors have and underground fence for their two dogs, and I know about how dogs can get stuck on the outside. I was petsitting their dogs and their Beagle, Beila, would NOT come up to the house. I just thought it was because of me as she was EXTREAMLY skittish of me at the time (when her owner introduced me to Beila, she screamed and took off running in the other direction. I didn't think I was that scary), so I didn't think anything of it. The next day when I went over she still didn't come up to the house. Again, I didn't think anything of it until I tried to bribe her with food. She came up to a certain point, yelped her head off, and took off into the woods. That was when I remembered that they had an invisible fence. Duh. So I took her food dish out past the fencing and when she was chowing down I slowly walked up to her (she still didn't like me) and took the collar off of her. She loved me after that and was all kisses. I told the neighbors what had happened and they just upped the shock. It hasn't happened again as far as I know.

I'm not worried about anything coming into our yard. Some loose dogs do occasionally, but it isn't a problem.

Really, burying the wire is the only big question I have at the moment. There is no way (or, we are much to lazy to do so as it would take 10 years) we can bury it manually, but I don't need a huge trench digger that cuts down into the ground three feet. All of the smaller (and cheaper to rent!) trench diggers I've found only go to 1 1/2''. We need at least 3''. *smacks forehead*

Here is the fencing I've decided to get. I found it on sale for $200 on a different site instead of $310:
Pet-Safe Comfort Fit Deluxe

[Blackrose]

Check into a Local Dealer for one of the national brands - such as the "Invisible Fence Co" -
look in the Yellow Pages for one near you and ask for an estimate.

SOME of them offer good prices; and they ALL provide installation of the system -
NOT for "free" - but they should be "reasonable". And they offer "training" -
mostly for YOU;
but they help with the dog if you're having trouble.

Once you meet the Dealer- try wheelin & dealin ... unless they have a zillion pending orders,
you may get lucky with a good price. Ask if they'd just install your wire -
or rent you their wire plow.

Also check at PetsMart - they sell some fence systems, too.

/s/ Phred

I'll look around for a Dealer and see if they would let us rent one of their plows. I never thought of that. lol

[Glacier]

They don't hold up well to snow at all. That's how Daisy started coming over to our yard! A few inches of snow provided enough insulation that she didn't feel the shock at all and began to wander at will. My dogs chewed her collar off her and her owner has never bothered to get another one.

I wouldn't trust an invisible fence for a second with my dogs. I've never met a husky who wouldn't just walk right through the shock if there was something more interesting on the other side. I have met many who couldn't be bothered to get shocked again on their way home and ended up lost!

I never worried about things coming into my yard either. The odd loose dog wasn't a problem. Until the night a wolf came through and tried to kill my dogs. That wolf took 22 dogs out of my subdivision in four months. Took almost six months and a monsterous vet bill to get Hobo back on his paws. We fenced four acres after that, seven feet high, reinforced on the bottom to prevent digging out, double gates across the driveway--the peace of mind was and still is worth every dime.

[Freedom]

My cousin lives in NH and put in an electric fence for her spaniel. It only took 2 weeks to train him; and only another week after that for him to just ignore the shock and keep right on going. The following MONTH she had a real fence installed. That is the only experience I have with them. If the dog wants to chase a squirrel, IT WILL.

[Blackrose]

I believe that Chloe is a sensitive enough dog that she won't go through the correction area. Now if she really wanted to I'm sure she would, but there aren't enough things out here to distract a dog, except for the sparatic car that goes by, but she won't be outside long enough for unattended for that to happen. We don't have rabbits in our yard - Rose causes them to stay hidden in the field. We don't have squirrels because we have three large dogs and no large trees. We don't have feral cats running around for the same reason. No deer and coyotes except at night.
She would NOT be outside unsupervised - but it would be so nice to just let her run loose when we are outside playing in the yard instead of having to a.) keep her inside, b.) keep her in her 6'x10' kennel, or c.) chain her up to a tree with a 30' chain.
If she did get out, it wouldn't be too hard to get her back again, and seeing as how the highway is almost three miles away in one direction and even farther in the others, she isn't in danger of being hit (knock on wood as that is how a stray we found died - she was chasing one of the few and far between cars we get out here and got hit. She broke her back and died a couple of minutes later). It would be as simple as hopping in the car or bike and chasing her down - but that isn't something I want to do on a regular basis. LOL

Now, with Blackie and Rose, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to run right through if what they wanted on the other side was worth it. They both are such hard headed dogs, and Blackie could care less about being corrected. If I did end up getting collars for them (seeing as how they are $100 bucks a peice, that isn't likely), it would just be something to deter them from heading out. They've been used to having run of our 10 acres and the 40+ acres behind us for all of their lives - I don't think a little static shock is going to stop them.

I googled about whether or not the fences would be good underneath snow. What I gleaned was that if you set the feild width/whatever to the amount of snow you have then wah-la, while it makes your fence smaller it will correct over the snow.

I also found out what a trench digging tool is called that the installers use for the fencing, and you can rent them. ( Trencher )

[DrKym]

will happily give you mine.............. Had to install "real" fencing as the invisible did not work with my fosters or my 2 resident dobes.

[Seravieve]

Well My Mom bought one for her granddogs.. Aka.. our three. Right now she only has two collars ($60 for each additional, from HD).. But Eli sticks around pretty good. And he wouldnt hurt a fly, so he's not the issue. She just bought the Petsafe one from Home depot. Not sure how much the grad total was though. We buried the wire.. by hand. She has a .5 acre of grass area (4 acres of woods.. that we werent about to do!). It took us all day, 11 am until dinner time to install completely. Maybe a couple hours burying. We started out with an electric edger. Ground was too hard so that didnt work. It digs a nice trench, and if you got a bag or two of topsoil, itd probably work good.

So when we realized that wasnt going to work.. my mom got out a square shovel and started making trenches and I scooted around and buried it. Lol.. We ran the wire around the yard first.. to make sure there was enough, spliced it and everything so it was ready. Staples make it easy to hold in place. I have heard of people just laying the cable ontop of the ground and holding it in place with the staples. I dont know how long the cable will hold up though...

As far as how effective... I walked Bunny and Zeke around after it was installed, had the collar around their leash, so theyd hear the beep and then I'd pull them away from the wire. Go back, and continue, all the way around the yard. Bunny figured it out quick, but we have a remote training collar for her so she knows the drill. She's been shocked a couple times, usually once everytime we go over there. Like she has to test it, and then she remembers. Zeke hadnt ran through it or gotten shocked until two weeks ago sunday, when the neighborhood cat strolled by. And since he LOVES the taste of Kitty.. sad I know.. he ran right through it. J caught him on the other side, cat got away, and Zeke walked back in the yard, with both eyes blinking/wincing in sync with the shocks. He didnt test it again that day.. So I guess its not fool-proof.. I dont know that Bunny will run through it to get to whatever on the other side.. She seems to really dislike the shock, because she doesnt stray far once shes 'tested' it. And yes, people can come in the yard and steal the pups... But who would want my crazies?! =) And any other dog that crosses the line, is fair game in my mom's book.. Long story.. and Im winded from just this.. as Im sure youre tired of reading my ramblings.. lol. Hope something in there helps! =)

[mruffruff]

I can't trust an invisible fence. Besides a dog ignoring the little jolt or getting stuck on the wrong side of the wire, there is the good possiblility that the wire will be damaged. One squirrel gnawing and the entire system is down.

Maybe you could put in a chain link fence in part of the yard, as much as you can afford right now, and expand the size as you can find the money for a larger size. If the neighborhood is growing into your area, the problem of other animals (or people) will grow also.

I fenced my back yard of about 40'X80' with treated solid wood for about $2000. Chain link for the same size would be far less. I did the work myself and it has held up for 12 years.