Author |
Message |
Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 6:27 am
Anyone have one? Any thoughts or comments about them? Do they work? We have 2 very mild beagles.
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Eliz87
Member
07-30-2001
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 6:32 am
My brother-in-law (who is a vet, if that matters) has one. He has a very active black lab, and it works fine for him.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 6:37 am
Anyone know how the cost compares to conventional fencing? Thanks Eliz. THat is good to know!
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Brenda1966
Member
07-03-2002
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 9:05 am
I don't know if it's an invisible fence or not, but my neighbor recently got one that consists of two live wires that run along the fence. If the dogs touch them they get shocked. They dogs don't wear any special collar or anything. The fence can be turned off (as she has kids and we don't want them touching them). The fence has worked WONDERS! These are two very large and persistent dogs. They had been pushing on the fence, breaking through boards and venturing into neighbor's yards. They had been in my yard more than I care to remember and even came into my house! They haven't broken one single board since the electric thing went up. A huge success! Conventional fencing is expensive.
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Karuuna
Member
08-31-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 9:53 am
I had a four foot high fence around my kennel which worked fine for containing my golden retriever. And then we got Max the Beagle. Max is very hard-headed and liked nothing more than roaming about town. He learned to climb the fence. So I put an electric wire around the top of the fence (not the invisible kind, but a livestock rated electric wire). Max the Beagle figured out that he would only get shocked once going over, and so he would just try to get over more quickly. Didn't deter him one bit. Replaced the 4 foot fence with a 6 foot fence. Max the Beagle dug his way out. Lined the ground inside the fence with chicken wire, then covered the entire floor of the kennel with landscape fabric and 4 inches of pea gravel. Max has started digging his way from the middle of the kennel to the outside. Stay tuned. And, uh, good luck. Invisible fence is highly dependent on the dog's trainability, and, uh, hard-headedness. If your dogs are quick learners, they'll probably do fine. I'm sure Max would just grit his teeth, steel himself and run right over the barrier, bearing the shock....
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 12:36 pm
See we are soooo lucky with our beagles. They are not your typical sniffers who let their noses control their behavior. I think an invisible fence would be fine for them, but i would like to hear from those with actual inv. fence experience. Anyone??? Good luck Kar, Max sounds determined. Can't you keep him indoors when you can't supervise him? I think my beagles might get more persistent if they were left outside unattended for long periods of time.
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Karuuna
Member
08-31-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 12:42 pm
Julie, I should have also mentioned that several of my neighbors have invisible fences. Their dogs are left out all the time (2 golden retrievers, one yellow lab, one black lab and two pit bulls), and when I stroll past with my two affectionate lugs, the neighbors' dogs bark and growl but never go across the little flagged line. We live in an area where the minimum property size is 4 acres, so the dogs get lots of room to roam with their buried fences. I'm away for long periods of the day, and dear little Max is also destructive inside, so outside is a much better place for him...
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Kristylovesbb
Member
09-14-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 12:58 pm
I have the kind that is underground with flags around the perimeter marking the area. My, over 100lb, choc lab will not go near it. It took all of one time for his wimpy butt to get shocked and he never attempted it again, on the other hand little miss skinny minny Lucy the black lab laughs at it.LOL The one I have you can purchase larger collars for varying degrees of shock. I can put the very small one on the big dog and it works fine, but the very large one on the small one only makes her yelp as she runs over it. I am in total agreement with Kar if the dog is hard-headed he is going through it no matter what. ps Julie, I think we paid about 200.00 for the fence and the collars are separate.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 1:04 pm
Thanks Kristy!!! Wow that is soooo much cheaper than a real fence... hmmm, might be worth a shot Wow Kar, 4 acres is plenty of room! But not enough for Max, huh?
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Serate
Member
08-21-2001
| Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 9:44 pm
Our dog Jake [part black lab, part chow, mostly kangaroo] just ran right through the invisible fence. We knew it worked because after we had to pen Jake up [and put a padlock on the gate because he figured out every way to open the gate] our landlord asked if he could bring his lab out and try the fence before buying his. Alex would run as fast as Jake but when he got near the fence he'd yelp and back away as Jake ran through. Guess it depends on the dog.
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Hootyhoot
Member
12-18-2001
| Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 4:52 am
My new neighbor had invisible fence installed for her two springer spaniels. We live on a little lake, and the invisible fence even goes out about 15 feet into the water. It works like a charm. The dogs can go into the water, but they do not go beyond where the wire is, and they run towards the road but stop just short of the invisible fence. I believe the person who installed the fence spent a few hours with the dogs when they first had their collars on. If only ALL my neighbors would get invisible fences, it would make life in this rural neighborhood much better!
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Riviere
Member
09-09-2000
| Friday, April 09, 2004 - 2:55 am
Hi Julie, we've had this chat long ago, I don't like invis fencing.. It does not keep strays or kids or etc out of your yard.. I own retired Greyhounds, and being sighthounds, they are too fast not to leap first and ask what that shock was later miles away. If you have mellow well trained dogs, great, but it just takes once. My inlaws had a well trained old Boxer and taught him the invis fence line. Yet when a burglar dropped by the dog chased him out of yard and refused to come back across, so traumatized, so they got a real fence. Friendly older dogs are a risk to thieves who walk right in and carry off dogs, recognize invis fencing and collars. It is your choice. To me, it's only like asking if my toddler is better off with an invis fence or a real barrier if you take your eyes off them? No choice! Invis fencing is cheap since everyone knows it's a poor substitute for the real deal. My neighbors are thrilled we have fences between us, total fenced all sides, we all own large dogs and keep our long fencerows planted with vines, low bushes, flowers. Can't say this is an 'ugly' answer to our lawns and keeping our pets at home happily. Compared to the 'ugly' scenario to lose a beloved pet for any reason due to invis fence. Don't mean to scare you, just think carefully?
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Sunrvrose
Member
08-13-2001
| Friday, April 09, 2004 - 3:12 am
I agree completely with Riviere's statement. "I own retired Greyhounds, and being sighthounds, they are too fast not to leap first and ask what that shock was later miles away." I have never owned or even seen a dog that wouldn't have bolted from the house and across the yard so fast that, like riv said, they might wonder what the shock was miles later. And as someone else said, since the return trip home tends to be slower, the shock of the fence might actually stop your pet from returning. Julie, you could do what I finally had to do, despite my wishes. I built a dog fence so that I didn't have to fence my entire 5 acres. My 3 dogs all large and all diggers are in an area about 8 X 20. We actually had to lay aluminum siding under the fences to keep them from digging out. It extends about 2 feet to the inside and outside. On top of that we have a few inches of dirt and 6 inches of pea gravel. We set this up about a year ago, and for the first time in 5 years our dogs no longer escape. Boy, did we get sick of paying animal control fines. They never got arrested cause they always ran home, but we still got dinged about 3 times.
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Sunrvrose
Member
08-13-2001
| Friday, April 09, 2004 - 3:22 am
Oh, and this is VERY important to me, we always bring our dogs in at night. And since the dog yard backs up to our back door, if we leave for a few hours during the day, we leave to door open so dogs can go in and out. I am totally opposed to leaving dogs out, all the time. I don't understand why anyone would even have a dog if they don't really enjoy their company in the house.
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Cathie
Member
08-16-2000
| Friday, April 09, 2004 - 10:35 am
I visited my cousin in St. Louis recently and was impressed with his invisible fence. He has a dalmation and a black lab and both are well contained with the current fence. They did have a problem with the first fence they had installed. It would send a shock only when the line was crossed, so as soon as the dogs were over they roamed awhile and then sat patiently by the line for their owner to turn the power off and let them back in. He changed to a system where the shock is continuous as long as they are outside of the fence so they learned really quickly to stay inside.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Friday, April 09, 2004 - 2:47 pm
Thanks all. The more I hear about them, the less I think I like 'em.
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Rupertbear
Member
09-19-2003
| Friday, April 09, 2004 - 4:15 pm
Yes, Julie....we all have invisible fences around ourselves...and we disable them depending on whom we wish to let trepass...or not ;)
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