Invisible Fence

[LeslieG]

Does anyone have an invisible fence for their dog? I'm thinking about getting one. I haven't had them come out yet, but I'm sure it's not going to be cheap. We want to do a fairly large area. Are you happy with it?

 

[stephgles]

I got quotes to do it but my dh is against it. My neighbor let me borrow the one they got at home depot that is a portable one a i have tried it and it works. It just takes a couple of shocks and they understand it.

 

[LilyWDW]

I don't like them. They do not keep anything out and, if your dog is determined enough, they can break through easily. I have seen it happen on more then one occasion.

 

[WicketsMom]

I prefer my real fence. An invisible fence does not keep anything out, and if batteries die or the power goes out the fence doesn't work.

 

[Green Tea]

I LOVE it. The people I've seen that don't like them are not the people that have ever had one installed by the company. I have the Invisible Fence brand installed by the company. It was truly the best money I've ever spent. That and the dog door for the pets to come and go as they want during the day.

It is a very prescribed learning process for both the pet and the owner. Initially they are only seeing the white flags and they learn that it is good to retreat from the flags (treats and praise) Eventually they get a tone only and more praise to retreat. Then comes the temptation. One time. That is usually enough.

The company send the collar batteries to you however many times a year you need them, on a regular schedule. The inside unit is plugged in. But has a backup battery that keeps it active during a power outage. If you accidentally cut the line while gardening ( ) it has an alarm.

It is a visual learning program first. They know the white flags mean retreat. At this point if I want my dog to not go upstairs or leave a tray of treats on the coffee table alone, I just put white sticky not square around it initially and that's it.

FWIW, a friend had a real fence, 6 feet tall, and a coyote jumped in and ate her dog. So real fences don't ALWAYS keep other things out either. But with the dogs having access to the house at all times, that isn't much of a scare for me.

I love it.

 

[LJSquishy]

I don't personally agree with them, I think it's cruel and can be dangerous for the dog in an emergency. I have heard of one dog that was being attacked by another dog (or two) on its property and was too afraid to run off because it didn't want to get shocked and the dog either was seriously injured or died, I can't remember. I have also heard of one dog that broke through the barrier to chase something, but was too scared to cross back into the yard in fear of being shocked. The fences just don't make sense.

In answer to your actual question, though, they really aren't all that effective. Some dogs will get used to the shock and will cross the border anyway, the batteries can die, something can cause a break in the line (like a critter chewing on the buried wire), etc. I especially don't like that it doesn't keep anything out of your yard.

I would either splurge for a real fence, or come up with a way to train your dog to stay on property. Really I wouldn't leave a dog outside unattended even with a fence but that is just me. I am not an advocate of tying dogs up outside, either.

 

[Anne34]

I LOVE it. The people I've seen that don't like them are not the people that have ever had one installed by the company. I have the Invisible Fence brand installed by the company. It was truly the best money I've ever spent. That and the dog door for the pets to come and go as they want during the day.

It is a very prescribed learning process for both the pet and the owner. Initially they are only seeing the white flags and they learn that it is good to retreat from the flags (treats and praise) Eventually they get a tone only and more praise to retreat. Then comes the temptation. One time. That is usually enough.

The company send the collar batteries to you however many times a year you need them, on a regular schedule. The inside unit is plugged in. But has a backup battery that keeps it active during a power outage. If you accidentally cut the line while gardening ( ) it has an alarm.

It is a visual learning program first. They know the white flags mean retreat. At this point if I want my dog to not go upstairs or leave a tray of treats on the coffee table alone, I just put white sticky not square around it initially and that's it.

FWIW, a friend had a real fence, 6 feet tall, and a coyote jumped in and ate her dog. So real fences don't ALWAYS keep other things out either. But with the dogs having access to the house at all times, that isn't much of a scare for me.

I love it.

We got one a week ago and love it so far. We can't have a regular fence here and this works sooo much better than tie outs and standing outside in the middle of winter watching them.

You can look into it and not do it. There were many price levels with more features at each level. I also have 2 dogs, so that was an extra expense for collar/training.

 

[LeslieG]

I've been doing some research. It sounds like it may depend on what kind of dog you have. The ones who try to run through it are the prey driven breeds who may see a squirrel or something.

We have a couple acre yard that's pretty wide open, and I'm also thinking of simply trying a 100' tie-out in the middle of the yard so that when the kids take him out to play and throw a ball with him, he will have plenty of room to run, yet can't take off. It's gotten to the point the kids are afraid to take him out, because we can't trust him. We're in a rural area, but still it's not fun to have to chase him back to the house. We have a border collie, and he does love to run!

 

[jana616]

I LOVE it. The people I've seen that don't like them are not the people that have ever had one installed by the company. I have the Invisible Fence brand installed by the company. It was truly the best money I've ever spent. That and the dog door for the pets to come and go as they want during the day.

It is a very prescribed learning process for both the pet and the owner. Initially they are only seeing the white flags and they learn that it is good to retreat from the flags (treats and praise) Eventually they get a tone only and more praise to retreat. Then comes the temptation. One time. That is usually enough.

The company send the collar batteries to you however many times a year you need them, on a regular schedule. The inside unit is plugged in. But has a backup battery that keeps it active during a power outage. If you accidentally cut the line while gardening ( ) it has an alarm.

It is a visual learning program first. They know the white flags mean retreat. At this point if I want my dog to not go upstairs or leave a tray of treats on the coffee table alone, I just put white sticky not square around it initially and that's it.

FWIW, a friend had a real fence, 6 feet tall, and a coyote jumped in and ate her dog. So real fences don't ALWAYS keep other things out either. But with the dogs having access to the house at all times, that isn't much of a scare for me.

I love it.

I agree with this completely. If you are talking about a true Invisible Fence from the company, installed underground, and you are willing to take the time to really work with your dog to train him, they are awesome. We have two at two different houses, and trained 4 dogs on them, and they have worked really well. My DH is a vet and recommends them highly to his clients.

 

[DVC-Don]

We have one professionally installed by Invisible Fence. It worked great for our two dogs, one of which was a runner. The were trained to stop when their collars beeped. They beeped when they got within 3 feet of the wire. We don't have the dogs anymore, but the fence is still in the ground, I just powered it off. We have a 10,000 sq ft yard and it cost about $1500 to install. We priced a fence, but it was going to cost in excess of $9,000.

 

[crisi]

We also have the professionally installed and trained to invisible fence. Love it. No, it doesn't keep things out, but people don't come into our yard (there is a really big dog there!), we don't live in an area with coyotes or roaming dogs.

 

[peanut12392]

We have had our invisible fence for about 14 years and we love it. We have a wooded back yard with a creek. The IF allows the dog to play in the creek, which he loves. He can cross the creek and go as far as our property goes. We have used it with 2 dogs (the first a border collie, now a german shepherd pup), and never had a problem.

 

[LeslieG]

We have had our invisible fence for about 14 years and we love it. We have a wooded back yard with a creek. The IF allows the dog to play in the creek, which he loves. He can cross the creek and go as far as our property goes. We have used it with 2 dogs (the first a border collie, now a german shepherd pup), and never had a problem.

My two favorites, german shepherd and border collie. Our german shepherd died about a year ago, and now we have a 9 mth. old border collie. Since we have a border collie now, did you find yours wanted to chase after things? Any problem with it trying to run through the fence?

 

[ceecee]

I LOVE our Invisible Fence. We had another off brand one (DH thought he could save $ and it did NOT work, dog was shocked from a passing car's radio signal and wouldn't go out again for days). Invisible Fence had a 100% $ back quarantee so we tried it. We trained the dogs and they helped, it was so worth it. You can set the collars to get a low buzz or a higher one, our dogs were set low as they never went out past the sound (4 ft). We moved and had another installed at the new house within 2 weeks. The dogs still stayed close to home, but we still had to teach them the new boundaries. Our older lab would forget everything if a rabbit ran back and chase it, once we got the fence she would just look at the rabbit and that was it, she broke the fence once when we moved and she followed our van out after me, however she did not have her collar on at the time.

 

[kellydizfan]

We have had it for about 6 years now. We have an Aussie and he is afraid of it and stays in the yard. We have a mix breed - not sure what he is and he has gotten out on several occasions. Not happy with it at this time. It is beeping and they told my dh that something needed to be replaced and it would cost alot of money. So now we have a damitalldog that won't stay in the yard and is now chained which I hate. We are on 1.34 wooded lot so not feesable to fence. Really stinks.

 

[ceecee]

We have had it for about 6 years now. We have an Aussie and he is afraid of it and stays in the yard. We have a mix breed - not sure what he is and he has gotten out on several occasions. Not happy with it at this time. It is beeping and they told my dh that something needed to be replaced and it would cost alot of money. So now we have a damitalldog that won't stay in the yard and is now chained which I hate. We are on 1.34 wooded lot so not feesable to fence. Really stinks.

We had some landscaping done and they cut the wire which caused the box in the garage to beep. Is the box beeping? If so it could be a break in the wire, DH was able to fix ours, once he found were it was. Invisible Fence came out at our old house after the lawn was aerated and they found and fixed the cut and it wasn't expensive at all.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My sister has one. It works fine for one dog but the other doesn't care about the jolt and runs right through it. I wanted to add that the dog who runs through it is deaf so it doesn't hear the warning beep. It's a black lab.

So she started interviewing folks to put in a regular fence.

 

[jmsaj]

Best money spent. Golden retriever. Have had the system since he was about 6 months old. We have it set so that he can pretty much have free run of about 1 acre of property. It is expensive but I feel well worth its cost.

 

[luvmy3]

I can't have one because it is not recommended for my dog's breed but my SIL has one and loves it. I don't know which brand, but it was professionally installed by them and they trained her dog with it.

 

[huskies90]

We have 2 1/2 acres surrounded by woods and about an acre of open property - way too big for a real fence. Invisible Fence wanted over $2500 to install and train my dog (plus like $75/year for batteries?? ).
I ended up buying one of the better PetSafe fences for about $200, ran the wire through the woods without burying it, stuck the flags in and I had my system installed in about 2 hours. Training my dog was a piece of cake and in about a week or so, he was trained and I have never had an issue with him running off. In fact, I let him out now without his collar and if there is something distracting in the street (like a jogger or another animal) he just runs to the fence line and stops. And when his battery dies, I go to home depot and buy a new one for $5. Battery has only died once in a year. He is a lab/beagle rescue dog, btw.