A pet-safe invisibie fence helps you protect your best friend.
The Situation: Fence vs. Invisible Fence
Fences are frowned upon in our neighborhood. Most houses have large backyards that connect to form an open area which can be used as a football field if enough of your neighbors are cooperative.
We also have a dog. He has no particular talents, and has the IQ of a soup bone, and his name is Biscuit. We would be brokenhearted if he ran away or was injured or killed because he left the yard. An invisible fence is a no-brainer for our home, because Biscuit must be contained, but the football games must go on.
There are many other reasons to own an invisible fence, though. Chandler Waite, who co-owns Dogwatch of Dayton, OH, explains them briefly; “In most cases these fences are more economical and safer than an above ground fence. With a hidden fence, there aren’t any gates to leave open, and your pets can’t dig under or climb over the fence.”
An invisible fence also has advantages over tying a dog up. A large or very frightened dog can break a rope or cable. A clever dog can slip out of a collar. Biscuit will simply wind himself around the nearest tree within seconds.
The Equipment: Dogwatch Invisible Fence
There are three components to an invisible fence system: a buried boundary wire which emits a radio signal, the collar worn by your dog which receives this signal, and the transmitter which sends the signal through the wire.
A properly constructed system will emit a warning beep when the dog gets too near the boundary wire, and if the dog keeps coming, he will receive an electrical correction. After a few corrections, even Biscuit responds properly to the warning beeps. The collars are normally adjustable, so you can be sure that your pet only receives the lowest correction required to get his attention – if the shock causes pain, it’s too strong. An adjustable invisible fence collar is an important feature to look for, particularly if you have multiple pets of varying sizes.
Insist on a computerized collar which is tuned to receive only the signal produced by your boundary wire. A non-computerized collar runs the risk of receiving prompts from stray electrical fields. Biscuit, for one, would not appreciate that. Most wires emit an AM radio signal, which might pick up interference from other sources, like garage door openers.
In addition to a computerized collar, you can safeguard your pet from errant zaps by using a system which broadcasts on FM frequencies, which are less prone to interference. At the moment, Dogwatch offers the only FM system on the market.
The Training: Dogs, Owners, Collars and Corrections
An invisible fence is most effective when dogs have been properly trained to avoid them. Professionally installed fences, like Dogwatch fences, include a behavioral training plan.
Some companies will have a person who will come to your home, meet your dog, adjust the collar correctly. Then this person will show you how to train your dog to recognize and stay within the boundaries of your yard. Dogwatch, in fact, offers free unlimited training support for dogs (or owners) who prove hard to train. Chandler also explained that Dogwatch offers an electronic advantage for the human in charge. “Our ‘tattle tale’ feature lets you know if your dog has tested the fence in the last 24 hours, which helps determine the appropriate containment level,” he said.
If you have doubts about your dog’s trainability, don’t worry about it, says Chandler; “We have folks tell us all the time that ‘it won’t work on my dog.’ We had a guy in Springfield that was convinced it wouldn’t keep his dog in. She was hyperactive and extremely excitable… so we understood why he thought that. She was a challenge and took an extra couple of training sessions but she was a success. He was amazed and is now one of our biggest invisible fence referrers.”
If you have a lovely yard and a lovable dog, and you don’t want a fence to cause problems for either one, think about how you could benefit from an invisible fence.
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