Electric Fences???

Question

My dog, Miller, is a beagle/german sheperd/lab mix. He is a runner, if not on a leash, he will be long gone. I was thinking of getting an electric/invisible fence...pros/cons?

Answer 1

The invisible fencing can work really well for some dogs and not so well for others.
Dogs who are strong personalities or ones that can take a licking and keep on going are not likely to stay in the fencing.
I have a friend who has a very well trained doberman female spayed dog. She is about 5 years old and holds an obedience title. She is a very well behaved dog. She this type of fencing and the dog does well with it except when she see another dog on the outside of the fence. She will run right through it and take the shock. She does not care at all. She will flinch and sometimes yip as she goes through it but has done it repeatedly even though she has had plenty of training with the fence.
I would never trust it for my dogs. I have a doberman and two weimaraners. I know that mine would cross the barrier if they wanted to hunt something or if some came into the yard.
I also do not like hte fact that anything can get into the yard with this type of fence. At least with mine on other dogs are going to be in the yard.

Answer 2

Sometimes the dog doesn't mind the shock, or can run out but can't get back in. Some pro's is that it looks nice, the neighbors can't complain about it looking bad. Another one is that it can but not always teach the dog to not go out of it's territory, otherwise it thinks it'll get shocked. The cons are the things above, plus I used to have a neighbor whose dog would escape the house without it's shock collar. Or the dog shock collar battery would die or wouldn't work. Honestly, with all fences there will be good things and bad things, I think mostly it depends on the situation you're in.

Answer 3

I used a regular electric fence it's about half the price and no digging. Go to a farm and garden and get steel temp. post they call them the clerk will set you up with every thing you need,but either way stake your dog so he can just get to the shock area and get a little zap a couple times will do it, let the dog know where the border is. By the way if the batteries get week in the collar alot of dogs will figure it out and cross the line.

Answer 4

just one thing to remember. For legal reasons u have to have signs indicating an electric fence is in place if the fence is along side a street, road, lane, fence boundry with neigbouring properties, or any other public access. Electric fences can kill people with pacemakers or weak hearts no matter how low the voltage. Someone can sue u even if they just get shocked.
Just a bit of advice !!

Answer 5

we use an electric fence and we have small dogs the one is a runner we live by a very busy street i got the small dog collar for her but she ran it i ended up getting the one for big dogs and setting it on level 5 the highest the first time she ran it it did make her legs buckle but nothing else happend she didn't get hurt and she hasn't ran since now i would reccomend checking the collar often if u notice a sore then take the level down

Answer 6

I beleive it works well for dogs who haven't left the area you are going to quarentine with the electric fence, but for dogs that do know they were once able to cross that certain point, it doesn't always work. My dog had always ran free where he wanted and we tried to get him to stay in our yard with this. Well, he realized very quickly that the shock was not going to stop him and it didn't. Might be worth a try though. Good luck.

Answer 7

Had 2 acres in upstate NY in the middle of nowhere. Also had 4 large dogs. 2 Bullmastiffs, One Neapolitan Mastiff and one large Shepherd who loved to escape. Put up an electric fence. It taught the Shepherd well and then once he got shocked he never went back...but my bullmastiffs never seemed to learn it and got shocked to much for my liking! I couldn't stand to hear them scream and run with their tales between their legs. It was horrible. I don't like them...but it was the only thing that kept my shepherd in. I then put concrete down along the fence line and installed a 6 foot privacy fence. That also kept my shepherd in and since then I swore never to shock my beloved dogs again. Maybe if you get a shock fence with just enough voltage to scare your dog, it might teach him. But I don't like how they make the dog feel. Thats just of course, my opinion.
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Answer 8

they can take the one shock and then they are history; some dogs do this over and over ; also, once outside the fence area, they may be reluctant to cross back into yard b/c of the fence; I have seen many a dog loose who had a fence ; they just took the initial jolt and say goodbye; try to find a better avenue to protect your dog

Answer 9

My brother in law uses an electric fence for his weimaraners and it works absolutely perfect for them. It does require proper training for this to work as well. You can't just put your dog in the yard with the collar and fence in place and expect he/she won't barge thru it. You have to take the time and use flags in the beginning to teach your dog the proper boundries.

Answer 10

some dogs don't mind the shock, and I know one who got across but couldn't come back. However if it does work it will save a lot of stress. just remember it might not be obvious to everyone that the dog is contained and you may get complants, and other animals can still get to your dog. I would say use under supervision to be sure.