Lauren I agree that the dog run your mother made is very attractive. She did an excellent job.

As far as underground fences goes, Invisible Fence is a company that does a lot of them around here. In fact, my neighbors on both side of me use it for their labs. It works very well for them, but I tried it for Hannah and I didn't like it. It completely spooked her and she didn't want to go outside at all. When forced to go out, she would go out one door and cling to the side of the house and try to get in the other door. The other thing I didn't like was that the shock would kick in quite a ways from the boundry where the wire was buried, hence the amount of space that could be used for running and playing (if she would have used it) was reduced considerably.

My boss has the Invisible Fence too only he has little dogs. They very frequently *go through* it. There is upkeep, with purchasing the batteries for the collars and if the wire ever gets broken by someone digging that has to be repaired.