Pet Forum

Part of providing a safe environment for my dog is making sure that he doesn't run outside of the yard, without me with him. We live in a neighborhood that doesn't allow regular fences, and our puppy loves to play around in the back yard for a few hours every day, so we had to figure out something. After a lot of research and thought, we decided to get an electric dog fence, also known as an invisible dog fence or hiffen dog fence.

One of the first questions that I had was how does an electric dog fence work? When we think of an electric fence we think about some barbed wire beast that is designed to keep tigers in their cages, but, thankfully, dog fences aren't quite like that. Here is some information that I found on how electric dog fences work:

Electric dog fences use a combination of technology and training to teach your pet to avoid the edge of the yard, gardens, pools, couches, rooms or any area you want your pet to avoid. A tiny receiver worn on your pet's collar picks up the coded radio signal and issues either a warning and or an immediate electronic stimulation to teach your puppy to avoid the boundary. Shock is shock, and if you hear other companies sugar coating it...well, keep in mind: Your pet must not like the sensation at all and must be seriously interested in avoiding it.

In other words, an electric dog fence basically works by shocking the dog when he attempts to leave the defined invisible fence. It sounds pretty cruel, but trust me that it is way more humane that risking the poor puppy running into the road by himself. Here are a few thoughts that I found from others that have an electric dog fence:

1- "My cousins live in a wooded area where no one has a fence so many of them with dogs have invisible fences. They all swear by them. We have considered installing one if we find out that we can't have a fence in Alaska. We probably will if the electric dog fence thing doesn't work out with the home owner association."

2- "The thing with electric dog fences is that the dog gets punished, but often doesn't connect it with what we want him to. If he ran out to greet the mailman every morning, and got zapped for doing that he would relate the shock to the mailman. Now you have a dog who hates mailmen. And that is just an example of how it could back-fire. Very hard to undo a precedent like that. Other critters can get in, and sometime, the dog does get out, then cannot get back in. I don't like them at all, but then that's me who prefers a more positive approach to problems and training."

3- "The people down the street from me have a electric dog fence and a very large doberman. I was walking Jake, then about a year old, across the street. The dobe went right through the fence and tried to attack us. Lucky for us there were lots of people out so no damage was done. The dogs owners later told me the collar didn't give enough shock to stop him from leaving the yard. Several weeks later they had a chain link fence installed."

4- "You may think I scared and hurt my dog in order to get him to learn his boundaries, but I really think that maybe you're not familiar with how electric dog fences works. Plus what about people who's fence gates accidentally get left open, or maybe they get a hole in the fence and their dog runs into the street and gets hit by a car? I guess that would hurt worse than a static charge. In case you're wondering...I tried the collar on myself before putting it on our dog, and I would say it's more of a shock than pain.

In my honest opinion, electric dog fences are great. After you train your pup to understand and respect the boundary, they won't cross it. I'm not a fan of harming a dog at all, but I just can't take the risk of him getting hurt in the street.

Do you have an invisible dog fence? What experiences have you had with it?

We tried an invisible dog fence. I finally just had it taken out. The stupid thing didn't help us at all. Our dogs were running out of the fenced in area all the time. Not to mention that it is sort of cruel.

We have had an electric fence for our dogs for 3 years. We love it! It took about a week for the dogs to learn where the fence was. After that, it worked just like it was supposed to.

Ok this is a first for me.
I really haven't heard of something like this.
Does it really work and does it harm us too, I mean would we also feel the shock

Just like people, different things work for different dogs. Dogs have personalities, size differences, etc. Each thing that is purchased for one dog may not work for another dog.

Yes, it really works.

Yes, you would feel the shock if you were wearing the collar.

I am not real keen on the new invisible fences. They can be costly from what I have found out. We also had a neighbor who had one due to the fact their dogs are very aggressive and one had bitten a child riding a bike down the road in front of their house.
There were many times that the fence did not seem to contain the dogs and they quit using it after a while. I have a 4 foot wooden fence for our poodles and it works fine for us.

I've heard from quite a few folks that have had different experiences with invisible pet fences. Some say it didn't work at all, and others say it is great. In my opinion, it has a lot to do with properly training your dog to learn the boundaries.

Then again, no invisible fence is going to stop a dog on a mission.

Yes I have an electric fence for my yard.
As many dog owners are aware, when it comes to keeping your dog within a confined area, the only thing more effective than building a real fence is to create an “invisible” radio fence and then, whenever he attempts to cross it, administer a mild electric shock to your pooch.