By Chad Love

Ideally, we'd all like to have acres and acres of land for our dogs to roam and play in without fear of them wandering off and getting lost, hit by a car or stolen. Unfortunately for most of us, it rarely works out that way, and owning a dog generally means conforming to the often inconvenient or difficult realities of our lives.

Such is the case with me. Although I live on a couple acres in a semi-rural environment, I cannot, for aesthetic, topographical and financial reasons, build a fence around my entire property. It's not a problem most of the time. The dogs are always with me when I'm outside. They know not to chase the neighborhood deer and they generally stick close to the house. But when I'm inside for any length of time, whichever dogs aren't on house rotation must be kenneled. I know many people do it, but I'm just not comfortable letting my dogs roam free when I'm not out with them.

Still, I prefer to have my dogs in the yard as much as possible rather than being kenneled. I needed a way to keep them close to the house and from roaming while we were home. And I decided on an underground electric fence; in this case, SportDOG's highly-rated and popular model.

The basic premise of an underground or invisible fence is simple: An buried electrified wire runs around the perimeter of wherever you want your dog(s) to stay, and when a collared dog gets too close to that perimeter, they receive a warning and then a correction if they continue. By training your dog to recognize those boundaries and to stay within them, you theoretically don't have to worry as much about them wandering off and getting lost.

Of course, an underground fence is not a real fence, nor it it designed to replace one, if that's what you truly need. Like virtually anything, an underground fence is not failsafe, and you obviously can't keep other dogs, people and predators out. I also certainly wouldn't go off and leave my dogs home alone outside the kennel. When I'm gone, the dogs are either with me or kenneled. Sill, for what I needed for my situation, the SportDOG in-ground fence seemed ideal. It's capable of fencing up to 100 acres of ground, so it should have no trouble keeping the dogs within my tiny homestead. The unit comes with 1,000 feet of wire, 100 flags, one waterproof collar (but the unit is expandable to an unlimited number of dogs) and a really good set of instructions, which, if you know me, will be needed, often.

SportDOG's in-ground fence retails for around $239.95 and the 1,000 feet of supplied wire will cover a little an area less than two acres. Over the next week or two I will be installing it and training the dogs, so expect a full review and chronicle of my experiences soon. In the meantime, does anyone else use an in-ground fence for their dogs? Any installation or training tips (or warnings) you'd like to pass along?

Comments (6)

from Ontario Honker ... wrote 12 weeks 23 hours ago

I happily live in town with my dogs so a fenced back yard is a must have both legally and for other reasons. An underground fence would not keep other dogs from running into the yard and that is more of a concern for their safety than them getting out (which is definitely not a concern because none of them will leave the yard even if the gate does accidentally get left open).

Nevertheless, I'm certainly interested in seeing how this turns out. I know these systems have been out there for a while but haven't known anybody who has tried it. Looking forward to hearing more. Thanks, Chad.

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from hawndog wrote 12 weeks 21 hours ago

I have one and it works great. I have two hounds for deer hunting, and I live on a three acre plot. I fenced in the entire yard, and they stay inside of it well. Deer will walk through my yard, but they do not chase them beyond the line.
I started with a cheaper innotec system, they learned that they could run through that one; when I upgraded to the "Stubbern dog" system by Pet safe, they decided it was not worth it anymore. They stay penned up when I am not home.

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from tl5676 wrote 11 weeks 6 days ago

I have had the "invisible fence" brand invisible fence for 12 years now. It kept our Lab in the yard and so far has kept our Vizsla pup in the yard for a year. Our neighbors dog comes over to get chased around almost daily and is in and out of our yard. Our dog never chases past the boundary line. We live in a subdivision so there are numerous distractions that draw her attention but she hasn't felt the need to leave. There was one time friends stopped with their dog right on the line and excitement got the best of her and she got a correction, her first movement was back to the middle of the yard. She will creep up to the boundary line every so often to check the battery in her collar, so we need to change the battery in her collar BEFORE it goes dead but you can find replacements online for really cheap. We just change it out monthly now.

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from Ontario Honker ... wrote 11 weeks 6 days ago

Changing battery every month? That's still gotta be expensive!

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from spentcartridge wrote 11 weeks 2 days ago

When we bought our house a Dogwatch fence had already been installed. I had my doubts, but since it was paid for I figured I'd give it a try before I spent the money on kennels. In short, it works like a charm.

It takes about a week to get a dog reliably trained. Suggestion: follow the the instructions that come with the unit, don't try to take shortcuts or use things you've learned while training the dogs to hunt.

The only real problems I've had come with the double-whammy of a snowstorm when we lose power. Snow tends to confuse the dogs about the boundaries, at least in my yard, and if the power's out there's nothing to keep them from wandering. A dog that doesn't hear well can be hard to train, too, since the process relies on a beep warning before the stim hits.

All in all I'd highly recommend one if it's an option in your neighborhood. My dogs stay outside all day while we're at work and I don't worry about them. I leave a side door to the garage open so they can get out of the weather and I've even left them outside over night without worry.

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from Cameron_Lockard... wrote 9 weeks 3 days ago

I would like to add a word of warning. The use of a conditioned aversive (beep or tone) before the aversive (shock) is applied is the most humane and efficient method for learning using punishment. However its also important to remember that aversives and conditioned aversives are easily generalized to similar situations. From personal experience I can say that the beep of these collars is similar enough to other warning beeps(low battery on fire alarm, microwave buttons, stove top buttons, too name a few) that dogs may experience unnecessary stress when they hear them. Because of the potential behavioral fall out of training with aversives I think it is important to exhaust all other possibilities for teaching the appropiate behavior before resorting to a punishment based training method. Please don't get me wrong I feel that the safety of the dog is the most important consideration and if a positive alternative can't be determined this may be the only course of action. Please check out a video by a fellow trainer on boundary training this may be an appropriate technique for some of you considering the underground fence as an option. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuTh47i3hOY

Thanks for your time,
Cameron Lockard
www.cameronlockardsdogtraining.com

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from Cameron_Lockard... wrote 9 weeks 3 days ago

I would like to add a word of warning. The use of a conditioned aversive (beep or tone) before the aversive (shock) is applied is the most humane and efficient method for learning using punishment. However its also important to remember that aversives and conditioned aversives are easily generalized to similar situations. From personal experience I can say that the beep of these collars is similar enough to other warning beeps(low battery on fire alarm, microwave buttons, stove top buttons, too name a few) that dogs may experience unnecessary stress when they hear them. Because of the potential behavioral fall out of training with aversives I think it is important to exhaust all other possibilities for teaching the appropiate behavior before resorting to a punishment based training method. Please don't get me wrong I feel that the safety of the dog is the most important consideration and if a positive alternative can't be determined this may be the only course of action. Please check out a video by a fellow trainer on boundary training this may be an appropriate technique for some of you considering the underground fence as an option. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuTh47i3hOY

Thanks for your time,
Cameron Lockard
www.cameronlockardsdogtraining.com

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from Ontario Honker ... wrote 12 weeks 23 hours ago

I happily live in town with my dogs so a fenced back yard is a must have both legally and for other reasons. An underground fence would not keep other dogs from running into the yard and that is more of a concern for their safety than them getting out (which is definitely not a concern because none of them will leave the yard even if the gate does accidentally get left open).

Nevertheless, I'm certainly interested in seeing how this turns out. I know these systems have been out there for a while but haven't known anybody who has tried it. Looking forward to hearing more. Thanks, Chad.

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from hawndog wrote 12 weeks 21 hours ago

I have one and it works great. I have two hounds for deer hunting, and I live on a three acre plot. I fenced in the entire yard, and they stay inside of it well. Deer will walk through my yard, but they do not chase them beyond the line.
I started with a cheaper innotec system, they learned that they could run through that one; when I upgraded to the "Stubbern dog" system by Pet safe, they decided it was not worth it anymore. They stay penned up when I am not home.

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from tl5676 wrote 11 weeks 6 days ago

I have had the "invisible fence" brand invisible fence for 12 years now. It kept our Lab in the yard and so far has kept our Vizsla pup in the yard for a year. Our neighbors dog comes over to get chased around almost daily and is in and out of our yard. Our dog never chases past the boundary line. We live in a subdivision so there are numerous distractions that draw her attention but she hasn't felt the need to leave. There was one time friends stopped with their dog right on the line and excitement got the best of her and she got a correction, her first movement was back to the middle of the yard. She will creep up to the boundary line every so often to check the battery in her collar, so we need to change the battery in her collar BEFORE it goes dead but you can find replacements online for really cheap. We just change it out monthly now.

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from Ontario Honker ... wrote 11 weeks 6 days ago

Changing battery every month? That's still gotta be expensive!

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from spentcartridge wrote 11 weeks 2 days ago

When we bought our house a Dogwatch fence had already been installed. I had my doubts, but since it was paid for I figured I'd give it a try before I spent the money on kennels. In short, it works like a charm.

It takes about a week to get a dog reliably trained. Suggestion: follow the the instructions that come with the unit, don't try to take shortcuts or use things you've learned while training the dogs to hunt.

The only real problems I've had come with the double-whammy of a snowstorm when we lose power. Snow tends to confuse the dogs about the boundaries, at least in my yard, and if the power's out there's nothing to keep them from wandering. A dog that doesn't hear well can be hard to train, too, since the process relies on a beep warning before the stim hits.

All in all I'd highly recommend one if it's an option in your neighborhood. My dogs stay outside all day while we're at work and I don't worry about them. I leave a side door to the garage open so they can get out of the weather and I've even left them outside over night without worry.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

Post a Comment

 

All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.