Dog containment systems.

dead meat

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I`m looking for opinions on electronic containment systems for my GSP. This is a 4-5 year old dog, he is a rescue dog from the US, great on the leash but totally ignors everything when off. I`m concerend for his saftey when spring hits as it get very busy on the farm and i don`t like leaving an animal on a tether all day. I was looking at what Cabela`s has, what else is available and is it worth it.
 
I use the guardian wireless dog system, works good. Only allows 90 ft max radius from unit. Good for 1/2 acre or so.
 
I've got the wireless system as well, and love it. I had the buried-wire set-up originally, but had problems with it...interference from a nearby metal barn. The PetSafe company replaced it with the wireless system for no additional charge (!) since the original instructions had not made any mention of potential difficulties such as I had experienced.

The wireless system uses more expensive collars, and is limited in the areas covered (maximum approximately 90-foot radius). It doesn't allow you to exclude the dogs from specific areas within the safe zone, such as flowerbeds or gardens, and the safe zone is always circular in shape. On the positive side, the wireless system doesn't require laborious digging and burying of wire, it's set-up and ready-to-go in seconds, and it can be picked up and taken with you when travelling, giving your dogs a safe zone anywhere you stay.

Electronic collars are a fantastic way to easily improve the quality of the dogs' life without putting a ton of money and work into fencing. If I were to buy another one tomorrow, it would be the wireless system, no question.
 
How's the battery life on the collars of the wired/wireless systems? Do you get some kind of warning (light or beep or whatever) when the battery is needing replacement? I don't have a dog currently, but am considering having one again. I always liked the idea of a fence, but would these systems be a suitable replacement?
 
I'll be honest I don't have a dog right now and I've never used an electronic fence. However I think there are many cheaper ways to train the dog IF you have the time and knowlege to do it. I feel that the electronic ones should be for help with training not as a replacement for training. Also there is no subsititute for a physical fence... it's kinda like ####... sure it's a naked woman, but when the power goes out, you turn to your wife!
 
I'll be honest I don't have a dog right now and I've never used an electronic fence. However I think there are many cheaper ways to train the dog IF you have the time and knowlege to do it. I feel that the electronic ones should be for help with training not as a replacement for training. Also there is no subsititute for a physical fence... it's kinda like ####... sure it's a naked woman, but when the power goes out, you turn to your wife!

The electronic fence is not a substitute for training. I know people who claim their dogs are trained not to ever leave the property. When the dog is hit by a car, the inevitable response is "I don't know what happened...he never leaves the property!" Really? Did the car drive up onto your lawn to hit your dog?

It also doesn't keep outside critters off your property, like a real fence may or may not do. It's just a tool to help maintain control over your dog. Once they are trained to the e-fence (and they do have to be taught its limits) most dogs respect it completely, and after the learning process they will virtually never receive a shock from it. In some ways, it's better than a real fence...aside from considerations of cost, time for installation, or esthetics, the dog can't burrow under or leap over an e-fence. My dogs can be running flat out after a rabbit, but they still screech to a smoking stop when they get to the e-fence line, just before the correction hits.

The dogs receive an audible "beep" warning them that they are approaching the border. If they ignore this and continue, they get a correction. It takes very little time to get to the point where the beep alone stops them, and soon enough they stop before reaching even that point. As far as I was able to tell, one of my dogs received 2 corrections, and the other got 3, before they learned to pay heed to the audible warning.

Batteries seem to last about 2 1/2 or 3 months for me. I assume that a dog that requires constant corrections or warnings would eat up batteries a lot faster. The new collars do have a blinking LED low-battery indicator. If you don't notice this, you will start to notice the dogs gradually, over the course of days, moving a bit further out. As soon as you replace the battery, the dog will hear that first beep and get right back into line.

Bottom line: I do own three dogs, they are well-trained and socialized, and I do enjoy the added peace of mind that the electronic fence provides. I feel that it is just about the best money I have ever spent on my dogs' welfare and quality of life.
 
Pretty costly to build a dog proof fence for several acres. I have a large farm yard and this dog so far when you unsnap the leash is gone. When you call he stops and looks then is off. I believe he was abused some time in the past, he will duck when you reach out to pet him. It will take a lot of time but at 4 or 5 years old he`s had a lot of time to build bad habits and i don`t want to see him underneath an airseeder. The wireless systems look good but the battery life is a question i have as well. jjhonwm that`s good to know about the metal buildings as we have several in the area i`m looking at.
 
that`s good to know about the metal buildings as we have several in the area i`m looking at.

Deadmeat, just to clarify, the metal (a 90-foot pole barn) caused problems with the buried-wire type of fence. I discovered this only after burying over 1400 feet of wire...I was not happy.

The wireless fence, set on maximum power (i.e. to create the largest possible safe zone) worked perfectly, but the edge of the safe zone was still about 50 feet from the barn. If I were you, I would contact the manufacturer with any specific questions you may have about your particular layout.
 
I have about 4-5 acres contained with a Petsafe invisible fence. My pup is a Pudelpointer with an extremely high prey drive, and with proper training it's been great to keep him contained. Many equipment rental places have a device to bury the wire that attaches to an ATV, or you can rent a small ditch witch to bury it.

As to his recall issues, a proper training program with an ecollar will certainly help with this.

Hunting breeds are a different beast, recall and containment can be a challenge with their prey drive
 
My size 10's up his ass when he was a pup were a pretty good deterrent for not listening.

My dog will bugger off at the cottage, but one sharp whistle and he is right by my side. Its all about training...if your dog doesnt listen off the leash, then you need to train him/her more.
 
I don`t think more physical punishment to an already abused dog will acomplish much. Thanks for the input on the electronic fencers guys i`ll have to call some of the manufactures and get some more input.
 
I have the Invisible Fence. My two boys have about 18 acres to run. They know the boundries, and only get to within 20' of the wire. They sit at the end of our drive and bark at people and other dogs, but do not attempt to run on the road.

Works great and I am pleased with the system.

S
 
Train first, then use e-collars for re-enforcement. I did all hand and verbal training first with reward for my dogs, and then certain areas that I wanted an immediate response from we involved an e-collar or if a dog understood a command but was not listen we would evolve the e-collar. It depends on the dog too, some breeds are just easier to train than others, my mastiffs have always been great at the "come" command, where as our poodles freaking suck...

electric fences work, but you must walk the perimeter with the dog on leash so he knows the boundaries, don't just let him find them out on his own. Some dogs have just bolted full force towards and through an electric fence and didn't even know it.
 
It will cost you more but a fenced dog-run with insulated kennel may serve you better in the long run. I don't know about your farm but at ours we have coyotes, fox, skunks, racoons, rabbits, deer, etc all travel through the yard at times through out the year. I've seen too many dogs run through lots of pressure when hot on the trail of their favorite quarry. A fenced dog-run allows a person to leave a dog unattended for hours with peace of mind that their dog is safe and sound.
 
It will cost you more but a fenced dog-run with insulated kennel may serve you better in the long run. I don't know about your farm but at ours we have coyotes, fox, skunks, racoons, rabbits, deer, etc all travel through the yard at times through out the year. I've seen too many dogs run through lots of pressure when hot on the trail of their favorite quarry. A fenced dog-run allows a person to leave a dog unattended for hours with peace of mind that their dog is safe and sound.

This is an important point. Although I am a fan of the e-fence, I didn't mean to imply that my dogs are controlled by that alone, 24/7. My dogs had a heated kennel, opening onto a fenced run. At night, or when we were not home, they were confined to this. The e-fence was used to give them freedom of the barnyard and area surrounding the house, but only when we were home to supervise.

We recently moved to Manitoba, and with the more severe weather here we decided to keep the dogs indoors. The collars go on when they are let out of the house to run. For the first three days, I walked them around the perimeter of the e-fence twice a day to teach them its boundaries. They reacted as expected when they heard the warning beep...no corrections were necessary. Ten seconds to plug in and turn on the transmitter in the house, total training time to let them learn the new perimeter: maybe an hour.
 
Before I trusted the fence with my dogs, I took a hit from it just to see what it was like. Not particularly pleasant. When I mentioned to my wife that I had tried it, she suggested that she would like to test it as well. I kept a straight face and watched her.

Did you ever laugh so hard and so long that you started to feel faint for lack of inhaling?
 
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