I know personallay of two dog owners who gave up using the invisible fences. Two main reasons, a dog can and will break out of the fence if excited/agitated enough by something outside of the fence. Then, when they are calm, they don't want to come back into the fence because of the shock, or whatever. The other main reason is due to having their dog injured by another dog who is not kept out by the invisible fence. Also, the invisible fence is not a deterrent to anyone who happens to want to come into your yard, be it a child or a dog thief.
The best containment, in my opinion, is a combination of an actual, physical fence, and the invisible fence. And even better is planting hedges or some such inside of the actual physical fence.

Our sub does not allow physical fences or the planting of any type of trees that would make a physical barrier. So that sucks, because we would prefer a physical fence for the sake of my kids too. But like I said, I never leave my kids or dog alone, I'm a stay at home mom and we spend all summers at a cabin on the lake so we are only here in the winter and then who is out side then in Michigan???
Jen

Gotcha. I agree to the physical fence being the best. Our town does not allow us to have any physical fence in our front yard whatsoever. I've spent a lot of money planting trees and bushes to block people's view into my front yard and just generally make it as private as possible but, without the ability to put in a physical fence, an efence for me will have to do.

Yeah, my two little ornery pups don't go out alone, either. Even with a physical fence around our yard, you just can't leave them out unsupervised, same as kids. The two people who I know that gave up on the invisible fences do leave their dogs out unattended. I did advise one of them very strongly against an invisible fence, and they did end up having to put up a fence in their back yard, anyway. The other person is in a very rural and secluded area with no neighbors, owns a lot of acreage, and they pretty much just allow their dogs free reign of the farm. Not something I would do, but their choice. They do not believe in fences and confining their dogs.

You guys can't even have a fence in your backyard?

I have a combo fence and kennel (with padlocks). The kennel for when it's a nice day and we're leaving the house and the fence for pee breaks, etc, or training.

Just discovered that we're going to have to rush our plans to put up a 6 foot fence though...my 5 month old just cleared the 4 foot one today!

That'w when the physical/invisible fence combo can be good. Maybe keep the pup far enough away from the physical fence that he can't clear it. (Maybe not)

 Quote: Amber Morgan

You guys can't even have a fence in your backyard?

Not sure but if you're referring to me Amber, I can't have a fence in my front yard. The back yard, I'm limited to nothing over 5'. There, I've installed a 5' fence and the efence is back there too but it's turned off for now. Don't need it because I don't really leave him out there alone for more than 5 minutes. Besides, he's a showline, he'd never be able to clear 5' !

When we had our pitbull who could scale our 6 ft cinder block wall like it wasn't even there, we installed an electric fence that we bought at a local feed/hardware store. Guess it is also the type that is used to contain cattle. This consisted of a single strand of wire about 18 inches above the ground and about two feet out from the block wall. It ran around the inside perimeter of our back yard and not once did our dog escape the yard again. It was plugged into a device in the garage that kept the wire "live" but after a few months, we just unplugged it and Buster still would not get near it. It kept him from getting close enough to the wall to jump over it. We even used a similar set-up on another portion of our yard that was never plugged into the "live" device. He never went near that wire either. It sure worked like a charm to keep him from escaping from our yard nearly once a week right before I left for work (having to chase down a pitbull running loose in the neighborhood is not my idea of fun!). We tested the "shock" on our arm and yes, it did startle you, but it was very low amps or something (don't know that much about electrical terminology) so it was not harmful. Here is a link to the company that manufactures them.
http://www.fishock.com/

If you were asking me about fences, No not even in the back yard...only if you have an inground pool because state law requires it then. Which I wouldnt mind if we had the money, haha.
Jen

I was asking both of you, actually. I wasn't sure because I know many places that won't allow you to put fences up in the front yard, but I just haven't heard of anyone saying the backyard was off limits! Now I have!