e-Fence Thought

In some cases yes....and in some cases no....

Why did you say so?

It's difficult to say.

Some experiences here. Seems like some dogs just ignore it, others are smart enough to work out how to run down the batteries.

Now there's a picture you can't easily get out of your head: a cat training a dog.

I might not have read the full description, but I think I see a problem here:

• Boundary Distance - Set Boundary from a 10 - 200 ft. Radius

Most peoples gardens aren't round.

We had an RF fence for our dog, a Labrador, some years ago to keep her out of a muddy zone in the backyard. It worked pretty good. I was never a fan of the shock method, but the collar beeps before that happens. Eventually the dog learns the beep proceeds the 'discomfort' and shocks almost never happen.

My brother in law has a WiFi fence for his hound mix. Same basic premise as the above. It works really well to contain the dog on a very large plot of land.

As another user said, there is no excuse for training. (Not saying that's what you are trying to do!) You still need to spend the time to get the dog to understand the system and the invisible boundary.

It also depends in the individual dog in some cases. Some dogs will take the brief shock for the freedom.

The majority of the time and for most dogs, they work well.

We've had a wired invisible fence for over 15 years. We're happy with it, as are the other Welsh terrier owners I know who use invisible fence (IF). That said, I only endorse IF under specific conditions. (Please note I'm not endorsing the brand-name Invisible Fence, just the technology.)

• ONLY in the country or on a property with several acres. NEVER EVER in a suburban neighborhood or other densely-populated areas.
• NEVER use IF where you have a high likelihood of intruders like coyotes. If coyotes ever turn up near us I'll stop using the IF.
• You have to be able to see 100% of the area you enclose 100% of the time.
• TRAIN YOUR DOG CAREFULLY. Most of the success I've had with five different Welsh terriers comes from the excellent training the fence vendor provided. I am skeptical of do-it-yourself fences because they don't come with expert training.
• Stick to a battery-replacement schedule for fence collars.

Send me a PM if you want to discuss further. I get on my soapbox when the topic of IF comes up.

I agree with not using an IF fence in the front yard.

Years ago we had an IF for our dog. When we took him for walks with his collar on, he would occasionally get shocked by a neighbors IF.

We resorted to taking his collar off when we took him on a walk.

If you have neighbors using the same technology, you may have similar problem.

Our dogs are so trained to the IF that we can't get them to cross the driveway to get down to the road to walk. All of our usable yard is on one side of the house and the driveway comes up slantwise from the road down at the far end of the yard. The IF crosses the driveway; otherwise we'd deprive the dogs of a big chunk of running room. The IF people showed me a few ways to train a dog to understand when it was safe to cross the fence. None of ours -- we are on Welsh terriers 4 and 5 now -- would do it. We have to put them in the car and drive them down to the road. If we had near neighbors they'd probably think that either the people or the dogs were pretty lazy.

"... Do you think that it is a good alternative to the traditional fence?..."

In most cases, no. A completely wire-free point-source broadcasting system that presumably corrects when the rf signal to the collar is not strong enough has many inherent traits that can be problematic for typical use.

The broadcast signaling will roughly create a circle, which as previously pointed out is not a typical yard shape. The circle might allow access into the street or other area that should be off-limits, while not providing access to optimum areas.

Also, without something like a burried wire to define limits, no reliable special exclusions areas can be easily created beyond the approximate circle.

On a system like the one linked, metal can interfere with the signal. Metal fences, metal siding, automobiles, metal barrels, metal wheel barrows, metal trailers, and metal doors are all items that might change the signal. You wouldn't want your dog to get shocked merely because the UPS truck drives on your property.

Additionally since signal reception at the collar defines when correction is not needed, correction can occur for numerous reasons that might not have to do with your dog leaving the acceptable area.

A far better rf containment system would be a buried wire barrier/underground fence. For this type, the collars use the signal to define boundaries that initiate warnings/correction. Special exclusion areas can be built and permitted area size and shape can be tailored exactly.

Any containment system with correction collars will require training the dog on the boundaries. The link states as a selling point that the transmitter is portable, suggesting the containment could be easily taken and used on a trip. This would not be well accepted by many dogs on the fly. The containment would need to be retrained at each new location for most dogs..

As to the concerns about persistent escape artists, smart dogs that work to get out of an electronic containment will also work to get out of a traditional containment. A buried wire fence in combination with a traditional fence can provide more effective containment of recalcitrant freebirds.

It is worth noting that dogs in areas of sufficient size and interest, that get enough social interaction and have an appropriate daily (or more frequent) job, that get enough excercise food and fresh water generally will be far less motivated to excape their yard than dogs lacking something. Mature unneutered males may be tempted by local females in estrus, but even then attempts to escape containment should be far less zealous for well exercised dogs with sufficient social interaction that has stuff to do, than for an unemployeed attention hungry unexersized dog in a boring enclosure.

My e-fence was set to beep when approaching

beep/mild shock getting to close

stun when running at boundary

...

my dog, get would take the "mild" shock and it would shut off, then he would jump over the fence. They have a do not electrocute pet setting.

After about a month or two, it actually gave him a slight sore on his neck, so we quit using it.

But, what a smart dog.

Hope it helps

Good fences make good neighbors.

An acre is about 209 feet per side. The range of the unit, you described was about 2 circular acres.

Assuming you have a boundary fence on you property, that is larger than 2 square acres, the wifi fence should perform adequately.

There is no substitute for working with the dog. If the dog is abandoned, it will get bored and, eventually, figure out how to defeat the wifi fence, and clear the boundary fence.

I used a buried wire fence for my 150# Golden Retriever. It kept her from eating neighbor dogs that kept trying to get to her; however, she was excellent protection form the occasional burglar, who visited my neighbor's house(s).

#150 golden retreiver?!? I guess you were being literal about needing to keep your dog from eating the neighbor dogs.

Yep! She was on a See-Food diet. If she saw food, she ate it!

Thank you all for the insightful feedback I really appreciate it. I think I need to take some time on whether I will it one or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9loYRP-5csk

Do shock collars really work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T9qiGCq5sk

Do shock collars really work? Nothing like a personal test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T9qiGCq5sk

Dogs are very trainable;If you speak canine.

A friend of mine trained his dog to understand his territory by walking around the property with the dog with a spray bottle of his own urine.

He would spray every bush and tree he came to.

He sprayed it high to indicate a large dog had marked it.

This marked the territory for his and other dogs.

The dog understood the markings,and defended anything inside the boundary,but never left the area unless it was to follow his master.

This was a spayed female pit bull,but he said it had worked on every dog he ever owned.