Wireless fence...any experiences

racso1975

Well as it says on the tin does anybody have any experience of these fence's? Are they any good? how do the dogs find it?

Rabies

Hey, don't any experience with it but we have thought about it.

There are a few threads about it.
Did a quick search

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=287709&referrerid=&highlight=dog+fence
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054958452&referrerid=&highlight=dog+fence
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054981968&referrerid=&highlight=dog+fence

peasant

They can work fairly well if:

- the dog has been PROPERLY trained to recognize its new boundaries
- the wire is put along a visible boundary and not just willy-nilly across open areas
- the eqipment is properly installed.

They have several drawbacks:
- your dog may not get out ...but others can come in
- a power cut and your dog goes walkies
- same for a low batterie
- the buried wire my be cut by growing roots
- exposed wire may be cut by other accidents
- a dog that's not correctly trained may escape anyway
- a really bold dog may just ignore the electric shock and decide that going walkies is well worth the short pain
- a really timid dog might be so scared of the system that it doesn't dare move freely any more
- you have to constantly check and check again that everything is working properly.
- proper training takes time and effort

The only really positive thing about them is that they are a lot cheaper than a proper fence ...especially if you need to secure a large area.

We used to have one. We invested in a proper fence. We and our dogs are now much happier.:D

Danes

What Peasant said ...

Ruu_Old

It has worked for my brothers dog, a fiesty Jack Russell. He knows his limits now so I guess its worked but hasn't restricted him from anything else.

racso1975

Thanks Rabies never even thought of doing a search on

As peasent says i would hope to train the puupy to realise the boundaries and given time and enough training it will not be required long term.

Thanks for all the help lads

peasant

racso1975 wrote:

As peasent says i would hope to train the puupy to realise the boundaries and given time and enough training it will not be required long term.

Thanks for all the help lads

I don't think that'll work. Given a strong enough incentive, every dog will go walkies, given half a chance. (really ould fellas who couldn't be bothered any more the only exception).

After our fella had lived with the fence for a while and knew his boundaries, we thought we'd do him a favour and crank it down a bit. Because he liked to ly in one particular spot with a good view, where he wouldn't get shocked but was close enough to the boundary to set off the beeping alarm. So to save the battery and his ears, I set the fence on its lowest setting to stop the beeping.
It took him all of three days to figure out that there now was one spot along the 300 metres of fence where he could cross without getting shocked.
At that point I had tied the wire to an existing fence and he could squeeze under the wire without triggering the alarm/shock.

So off he went, visiting the neighbours' sheep:eek:
Thankfully we spotted him before he could do anything to upset them.

netwhizkid

My Neighbours had one of these one time and it worked okay for a few years but one day while it was turned of the dog came along and chewed up the wire (smart dog). They are damned expensive I think.

peasant

Well,to be fair, in comparison to our wire mesh fence, the radio fence cost only 10% of that price.

What is a major pain in the neck though, is when you have a break in the wire and have to go hunting for it. The poor dog has to stay locked inside while you're out there in the dark and pissing rain with a torch and a spade, digging up the buried wire, trying to find the broken section.

I ended up re-laying the wire three times before I had enough and got a "proper" fence ... it was worth every cent in the end.

In my opinion a radio fence is 100% better than no fence at all, but only a proper fence will give you complete peace of mind.

iguana

peasant wrote:

In my opinion a radio fence is 100% better than no fence at all, but only a proper fence will give you complete peace of mind.

What about a radio fence + a proper fence? My back garden is totally walled or fenced with sunken mesh wire so they can't dig under. But I was considering getting a radio fence as an addition so they will be discouraged fron trying to jump over when they are bigger. Especially as I have raised beds in some areas and I doubt 6ft will be an insurmountable jump for them when they are fully grown.

peasant

Tying the radio fence wire close to the steel wire mesh probably won't work. The metal fence will most likely disturb the signal. Just extend your existing fence upwards where and when necessary.

Alfasudcrazy

I just bought a radio fence yesterday and laid the wire around the boundary (about 2 acres) It works fine but I have not put the collars on the dogs yet as they are not trained.

I am a bit confused about the settings. I have two dobermans and have set the unit control to 6 but you also must adjust the collar unit. Anyone know how this should be set up for two dobermans. They have already broken out once and are searching for weaknesses in the boundary all the time so I am anxious to have it up and running pretty soon.:eek:

iguana

peasant wrote:

Tying the radio fence wire close to the steel wire mesh probably won't work. The metal fence will most likely disturb the signal. Just extend your existing fence upwards where and when necessary.

It is illegal to heighten a fence above 2m which my current one is. The wire mesh is underground, the radiowire would run along the top.

peasant

iguana wrote:

It is illegal to heighten a fence above 2m which my current one is.

You could always fix a bracket to the fence and run a few wires horizontally inside the fence where the raised beds are to prevent them from jumping up and over.

But I'd wait and see, if I was you. Not all dogs are jumpers or climbers ...you might be perfectly alright with your fence as it is.

iguana

peasant wrote:

But I'd wait and see, if I was you. Not all dogs are jumpers or climbers ...you might be perfectly alright with your fence as it is.

They definitely appear to be jumpers. At 14 weeks they discovered the joys of jumping on the kitchen table. Springers by name.........:rolleyes:

I'll just play it by ear, if they seem to be inclined to jump the fence when they're a bit older I'll look into it. I'm just worried as they were only here 4 days when they went under the fence to the children nextdoor. I had only left them outside for about 15 minutes when the kids came to my door with the puppies.:eek:

Where I live in London I don't have much hope for getting them back if they got further than a few neighbours either side.