Deanna recently had a scare w/ her dogs, now my husband almost lost one of mine!!! It really and truly only takes a second!!

He let the dog(Bella) out to pee and she took off at a full run looking for the squirrels that hang out by my bird feeder.There were none there so she rounded the corner of the house and went to the back where my older dog is kenneled.It is not unusual for her to do this, so Hubby went around the other side of the house to intercept her as she circled back, only....no dog!! I have woods around me, about 2 or so acres on that side of the house, and there was no sign of her. I wasn't home and he panicked!!!!!He said he screamed," Bella,COME" so loud that the buoy bell on my front deck rang!!Luckily he has such a loud voice that through the woods someone heard him and yelled back that they had her!!! He had to drive there to get her since there is no trail in the woods and she was soooo glad to see him.

She was very humble( uncharecteristic)all night!! :rolleyes:

Now no one is allowed to take her out off leash if I'm not home.I am considering a underground fence so this won't happen again or if she gets out by accident( 4 kids, you never know!!).

I know that there are companies that will come to the house and install and train w/flags, but I know that it's expensive. Has anyone ever put in one of the do it yourself kits such as what Fosters and Smith sells? I heard somewhere that the gauge of wire is important. I'd appreciate any guidance and feedback of whether people who have them are happy w/ it.I worry about her possibly running through it, I was told that could happen......thanks

hidden fences can be effective, depending on the dog. Two problems I see with them however:

1. Hidden fences do not keep out strays.

2. If whatever motivates the dog to run through the fence is strong enough, the dog will do it. Problem is, the motivation to come back is usually not strong enough for the dog to take the shock to reenter the fence.

DFrost

Originally posted by DFrost:
2. If whatever motivates the dog to run through the fence is strong enough, the dog will do it. Problem is, the motivation to come back is usually not strong enough for the dog to take the shock to reenter the fence.

DFrost Am all to familiar with that.

Also, in the past when I've had an invisible fence I had a nice visit from Animal Control telling me they'd pick my then 1 dog up and I'd be fined and such if he was not properly contained. The idiot could not (or would not) understand that I had an invisble fence. From then on I was worried that they'd stop back by and pick him up for being what they thought was 'loose'.

Well, I don't let my dogs out alone , so I don't worry about animal control.
I do have neighbors that walk their dogs down my road and my dogs feel compelled to run upto them.This is a big problem for me.

I have a tri tronics companiob model that I have on a high(yellow) setting and even w/ that my bitch will run to the road and ignore my recall until after shw has reached the other dog. She isn't aggressive, but dominant and she then comes back to me.
the other day when she took off w/ my husband outside was a shock to us, she has never done that before.We think she took off after a squirrel in the woods and ahen she got over the ridge, she got disoriented.

Has anyone tried an underground fence and had it be unsuccessful? If a dog is trained w/ the flags does it prevent run-throughs? Does anyone know about the gauge of the wire having an effect on the system?

Last year I wanted to plant some flowers in the backyard. I knew that my dogs would dig them up and step all over them so I decided to block them off with an electric fence. I got them trained with the flags and everything. It didn't work at all. Whenever they saw a squirrel or there would be kids swimming in the river the'd go right in there without even making a note of the fact that they have been shocked. Basically its like DFrost said, if they're motivated enough they'll run through.

On the other hand however, my friend's both GSD's have learned the boundary lines so well that even when they don't wear the collar they won't leave the yard. Even if there is a dog or people walking by. Every dog is different I guess and they respond to the shock in different ways.

I have not used underground fence, but I have heard mixed reviews. Some people say it works great, and others have had problems.

I have, however, used hot wire very successfully. My little mixed bitch developed an escaping habit when we went on vacation and the person who was supposed to be watching her *left her out in the yard unsupervised* for hours at a time. Anyway, we installed the hot wire in front of the part of the fence that she was hopping over, and the first time she got zapped was enough. She never went near it again. You might try hot wire first, as it is considerably less expensive than invisable fence. It might give you an idea of whether or not the invisible fence would be effective, and if not, you will have spent a lot less $$$. If it is effective, then you can probably go ahead and pay the big bucks for the fancy system if you want, or stick with the hot wire and buy yourself something nice.

You can hang surveyors tape from the wire to make it more visible, and once the dogs make the connection, you can hang surveyor's tape anywhere you don't want them to go.

I'll put in a vote for regular hotwire electric fencing. I use it inside my dogyards and it works well - the dogs learn quickly and it is cheaper that those underground systems. The dogs really respect it even when the cat "trolls" right in front of them outside the fence. Also keeps strays and wildlife out of the yard. Some of the smaller fencer units are pretty inexpensive and do quite a bit of fence.

I don't think hot wire would be good because I have young kids( 3 out of the 4 are under 8),any other ideas?? I have about 1 1/2 acres of land.

We need to make a distinction here. A hot wire is hooked up to an electric fencer -- available at your local TSC or other farm supply place. They have ones that run on 12 volt car batteries or on house current. It uses capacitor to deliver a high-voltage, low current jolt. The shock lasts about 150 microseconds. (How an electric fence works)

We used them on the farm when I was a kid to contain hogs. Both hogs and dog quickly learned to respect the fence. However, the hogs also learned that when it rained, the weeds would short out the fence. Then the dog would get work chasing the hogs. The kids would get work chopping weeds and chasing the dog who was chasing the pigs. Shoulda filmed it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Your kids will quickly learn to respect the fence. We did and we were about that age spread.

Depending on where you live, there may be a zoning issue with this type of fencing.

This one looks interesting ...
Pingg String

A number of years ago, I put in a floor to cealing bay window. To keep the dogs off of it, I hot wired it. The dogs learned the first day. My then 4yr old son had to touch it every day to see if it was on. Duh! He's since graduated high school with honors. !! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Thank God!!