dockrocker

His actual name is Duggan, but we call him any number of other things, only some of which can be posted on a family site like OSO. We think he's at least part mastiff (or mastiff-related breed). He stands 30 inches at the shoulder and weighs 110 lbs, and NONE of it is fat. Dumb dog jumped right over a 12 ft slab patio at our old house - wanted to keep his paws on the grass when he was chasing a rabbit. Couldn't believe my eyes. Of course, he was a bit younger then, now that he's middle-aged, he's not quite so quick off the mark.

Our new house borders maybe 5/6 houses - irregular lot - and at least 3 of them have dogs. Needless to say, all of the neighborhood pooches are eyeing up the new guy and vice versa. I've currently got him on a line, but he invariably gets it wrapped around trees, rocks, etc, meaning I have to run out to untangle him. Invisible Fence is coming out on Friday to give me an estimate.

dyno

Mike go for it!

Padraig

1. Go for the Invisible fence brand, they were the first and they if you have problems they will take it back.

2.Make sure you do the training. If I recall correctly it takes about two weeks. This is very important.

I have had mixed success with my Irish Wolfhouinds. The ones that were trained to the Invisible fence as pups all did fine. I did have some problems with Irish Wolfhounds whom I acquired as adults. An additional problem is the fact that once out...they are reluctant to come back as they will get zapped. I now have a conventional fence although to get a variance I had to go through hell.

mr_velocity

Didn't work on our shepard. We even tried putting cables on the top of the fence and using the transformer for the electric farm fences. When he wanted out he was gone, no matter how much voltage was in the cables.

dockrocker

One nice thing about our hound is that he is something of a homebody - not a runner at all. Growing up, we had a sheltie collie, that little bastard was GONE at the first sign of an open door or gate.

Duggan, on the other hand, is perfectly willing to chase a rabbit to the end of the fence, but that's about it. During the sale of our house, the buyers had a home inspection done; turns out the inspector left the gate on the far side of the house open. I noticed it a week later, and the dog never left the backyard. I just want the added insurance of the electric fence to make him think twice if the neighbor's dog is out, that sort of thing...

rbtnt

We have had Invisible Fence brand for 14 years with the only problem being a lightning hit on the transmitter and several other items. We had 4 different dogs using the fence over the years and only one of them didn't mind the shock at first. We got a different collar from Invisible Fence that had 4 prongs and turned the fence up so the signal had a much wider path. This took care of 99% of the problem. Turning the fence up does not increase the strength of the collar or shock, just the strength of the signal in the wire. This increases the distance from the wire that the collar with receive signal.
The dogs we trained were adults as we got them from a local rescue group.

I think the batteries run about $50/ year from Invisible Fence.

K-9 used to have a system where the collar had a rechargeable battery and the transmitter had a connector on it to recharge the battery.

h2owarrior

Our next door neighbor has a dog that I just cannot stand. The thing is a major pain. Howls all night, scares the kids....the thing even bit me once

So, the neighbor buys one of these invisible fence things and the dog will not go outside its yard....period. Now you have to understand the dog hates me as much as I hate it. And it would do anything to get at me. Well it cannot muster the strength to get through the "invisible fence" so it repeatedly throws itself into this thing and yelps in pain runs back a few steps and gives it another go. It is amazing. I can taunt this dog for hours and it just will not stop. So I think the things really work. I've been letting this dog shock the life out of itself for well over a year and it has not gotten through yet. I sure hope we don't have a power failure or I would be dead meet. The dog next door is a 150lbs pit bull.


Good story huh ? Well it is not true. We have several neighbors that have these invisible fences and they seem to work very well. And I really do like dogs

MrMagloo

I just made the plunge myself a few months ago, and after a considerable amount of comparing Invisable Fence, vs. PetSafe, I went with the later.

The technology seems to be much more flexible, and even had wireless models.

I ended up with a wired unit that beyond the ability to simply adjust strength, I also got a remote control that would provide instant zap or beep only corrections, progressive corrections, meaning the closer the dog gets, the stronger the zap, linger prevent - which if the dog remains just inside the minor correction zone, the zap will get stronger, and most importantly for me, if the dog goes through the fence, the zap keeps going until the dog returns. Some of the other systems out there would stop zapping once the dog goes past the zone.

Some of my options required some custom programming, but I lucked out by finding an ace local installer whom really knew his craft.

Fwiw - I hope this helps.

TopSpin80

I have a really good one on my dog.... and he still will run the batteries out about once a month.... we even have one for vacations that we can set up and it gives him a 100 foot wireless perimeter to go in. But if your dog is running he'll probably get through it, with only a brief shock.. My dad has two, one that stops him from barking too... it will shock him if he barks... The dog learns really fast not to bark. I don't like the no barking but we live in a neighborhood now and the dog is not used to being put in a yard, he is used to roaming free.

Ernie

The electric fence ended up being cheaper than the bills racking up at the pound.

Miller

My parents had one after I went to college. I thus didn't have much experience with it. However, it was, according to them, ineffective when the dog they got after I moved out, was at a full run. She would just keep going with only a momentary hesitation. Now, if she was just nosing around, she would stay within it's boundaries. They used the Invisible Fence brand and had it professionally installed. The dog was a beagle.