Wire dog containment electronic fences?

[Michael Schuch]

A German Shepherd decided to adopt us. We found her in the back part of the property in really bad shape, not able to stand on her own. We nursed her back to health and reported her to the local humane society as well as put adds up on craigslist, facebook and next door in the lost pet forums. After a month nobody inquired about her at the humane society so they said she is ours if we want her. She is a terrific dog and can't imagine not taking her despite our pet hair allergies.

Anyway, she wouldn't wonder more than 3 feet away from me for a few months but will now go potty in the front yard and let herself back in by pushing open the side door that I leave cracked for her. She strayed to the neighbors property and that caused an issue. So I ordered a cheap ($145) wireless fence off Amazon that has done the job of keeping her in our 5 acres. The collars lasted about a month then died. In that time she has learned to stay out of the neighbors yard.

I am now looking for recommendations for a wired electronic fence for our 5 acre property. When I say wired I mean a transmitter wire that activates the collar (not a hot wire). Does anyone have one that they like? These are the two I am looking at:

Sportdog electronic fence:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...KIKX0DER&psc=1

Extreme dog fence:
https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Fence-Und...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

There are several places on my property where a wire can not be buried. We have several protruding ancient lava flows covering large portions of out property and where we have soil we also have a lot of lava rocks to deal with. I plan on investing on good quality 14 gauge wire so hopefully it will last on the surface.

Any experiences with electronic dog fences would be appreciated. I am leaning towards the Sportdog electronic fence.

[ChrisA Edwards]

With the issues of burying a wire, have you thought about a GPS dog fence, such as

https://www.amazon.com/WIEZ-Electric...f-a2c47c48c32f


I have no experience with this product, I have a wireless dog fence that gives me about a 100ft radius, which works well for my two small dogs.

[Ed Aumiller]

We got a border collie for our daughter during the pandemic... should have found out that they like to run.. while trying to train her to stay at home a local dog trainer pointed out that many dogs learn that if they run across the wire that the shock and noise stops when they are on the other side... so for some dogs, a wire fence is only partially effective...
And they are hard to get back once they learn that....because they will get shocked coming back...
Had a shepherd and they are very obedient normally and will probably be ok with a wire fence system....
Thank you for keeping her after helping her..

One problem with a gps fence is if you have trees, etc the gps signal can get weak and not work properly.. we have a gps locator collar on her collie and it is often not very active or not working due to a low gps signal when she is in the woods...

[Michael Schuch]

With the issues of burying a wire, have you thought about a GPS dog fence, such as

https://www.amazon.com/WIEZ-Electric...f-a2c47c48c32f


I have no experience with this product, I have a wireless dog fence that gives me about a 100ft radius, which works well for my two small dogs.

I have looked at the GPS collars but everything I have read from people that have actually owned them is quite negative. I always google for "[product name] FORUM" to actually read about what people in the forums say and there is very little out there about them that I could find and what I could find was ehh to bad. I appreciate the link to the video but I couldn't find anywhere in the video where she shares any real life experience she was more just reading the spec's off the Amazon page to me.

Do you have the PetSafe wireless dog fence? It is one of the few that have real feedback not fake feedback and seems to actually do what it is supposed to do. Unfortunately the radius the PetSafe wireless systems are quite small. I would really like to give my German shepherd more room to roam if she chooses.

My daughter and I did spend a fair bit of time when we got the "JustPet" wireless collar and it did work effectively enough for a few days that she did learn to stay in the boundaries. Now I believe I just need something to reenforce what she has learned with chirps and vibrations to remind her about the boundaries. She does not seem to have any tendencies to run off. I just would like some extra security to make sure she doesn't make the neighbors angry.

I am not on any dog forums so I thought I would post here to see if I could get any real feedback from people that I trust. I did research the JustPet wireless collars quite a bit before buying but now I have found that all the information on them is completely fake reviews. Mine was the 5th of 5 negative reviews in a row and someone has pulled the product off of Amazon.


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She is a wonderful dog and almost as amusing as my wonderful daughter!



20220608_123655 (Large).jpg
This is what she looked like after the first 3 weeks with us. The soar under her eye has healed and she has filled out a good bit.

We got a border collie for our daughter during the pandemic... should have found out that they like to run.. while trying to train her to stay at home a local dog trainer pointed out that many dogs learn that if they run across the wire that the shock and noise stops when they are on the other side... so for some dogs, a wire fence is only partially effective...
And they are hard to get back once they learn that....because they will get shocked coming back...
Had a shepherd and they are very obedient normally and will probably be ok with a wire fence system....
Thank you for keeping her after helping her..

One problem with a gps fence is if you have trees, etc the gps signal can get weak and not work properly.. we have a gps locator collar on her collie and it is often not very active or not working due to a low gps signal when she is in the woods...

I have read the same about the wire based system not being effective for some dogs. It also sounds like spending a good amount of time training the dog makes a big difference the ultimate effectiveness of the wireless fence.

[Lee Schierer]

I highly recommend this electronic fence. I used it on our Brittany for over 16 years. One of the two collars is still working. https://www.petsandbeyond.com/produc...dog-fence.html

The collars are rechargeable, water proof and won't let the dog sit near the border until the batter dies.

The most important thing is to properly train the dog on what to do when it hears the warning beep.

[ChrisA Edwards]

We do have the PetSafe Wireless fence system. It has a small control unit. We plug this in outside in a covered porch. My two small dogs do obey it and for the most part, even when not wearing their collars are conditioned to their range limit.

My neighbors, about 5 house away, sometimes pet sit our dogs. We just unplug the unit and take it to their house.

When I had two larger dogs, both Goldendoodles (110lbs and 60lbs), I installed an in ground wireless dog fence at two difference properties, one 11 acres and the other about an acre. The one acre property was very rocky, to the point the dogs would need to be mountain goats to get up on those rocks, so I just laid the wire on the ground and over the rocks. It worked fine.

Neither of these dogs were roamers, but the larger one would run through the electric fence if he saw a squirrel or something similar he had no chance of catching.

For some reason, my Border Collie, figured out the limits of our property and would poop right at the edges, in the long grass and woods area, but would not leave the property unless with me.

[Bill George]

Its unfair to the dog to not be able to see the bounties. A GPS system would be very damaging to the dog when it can not know when he or she is going to be zapped. We have perhaps 500 sqft of yard fenced and that all our two pups need. Take them for a walk.

[Michael Schuch]

There are some $1000+ GPS collars that seem to have some happy customers. for all of the ~$100-$200 GPS collars I can't find any recommendations from REAL users. The only recommendations I can find are from sites that get paid for click through sales and have no actual experience backing them up.

I agree about having the visual demark for the dog no matter which system is used. Training our German Shepherd on the first wireless system was pretty straight forwards... when she hears/feels the vibration use the leash to pull her away from the marking flags back towards the center of the yard and praise her. She figured it out quite quickly and only got zapped once on the lowest setting once.

The PetSafe wireless fence systems seem to have a very consistent good rating from customers. It is one of the few where I could find feedback from actual users. I decided to purchase the PetSafe Stay and Play system with a 100' radius (200' diameter) range covering about 3/4 of an acre. Extra transmitters are kind of pricey at ~$150 each but they can be found for about 1/3 of that on ebay. I ordered the base kit off of Amazon and an extra transmitter off of ebay for $60. This should cover our house and our shop (she does like going to the shop with me). I can add more transmitters later if needed. I like the fact that it has multiple levels of audio correction that increase as she gets closer to the boundary. I also like that it continues to remind her with audio reminders when she is outside of the safe zone so she can't just run over the boundary then be encouraged to stay away as returning to the safe zone would result in another zap with a buried wire system.

I appreciate all the replies! I will post back here with my experience once the PetSafe system comes in for anyone that comes across this thread in the future.

[Doug Colombo]

We have had a pet safe system for 10 years - works great ! In fact,when we built a new home (moved in this March) we had to wait until spring re-install the system. Our dog re-learned the boundaries quickly and loves being able to be outside not tied up.

[Rick Potter]

Funny how some dogs stay home and others like to roam. I had a black Lab that lived in our fenced back yard. She was not allowed out the gate. We moved the fence and gate out about 5' one year, and she always stopped at the original gate location 5' short of the gate.

Now have a Fox Hound that does not try to escape, but if she spots something down the street and someone is going through the gate....she's gone.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I helped Install a radio fence that was not fully buried. In some areas it was hidden under rocks and mulch, zip tied to chain link, and stapled to landscape timbers. It crossed the asphalt driveway in a cut made with a tuck pointing grinder. The Dog "Samson" a giant Bouvier Des Flanders would get a running start, gallop up the driveway at a full sprint and give a little yip as he crossed the wire.

[Tom M King]

We not only have fenced dog yards, but I built a good sized covered patio for the dogs so they have somewhere to go out when the weather is bad. I've had the materials to build another one so we can keep the boys and girls separated when we need to, but other things have taken precedence.

[Clifford McGuire]

I don't have anything to contibute on your question.

But I wanted to post a 'good for you' for taking the dog in! I didn't read all the replies, so fogive me if you already answered this question.....What did you name her?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

+1 for good for you! It sounds like this poor creature limped into an ideal situation!

[Mike Cutler]

I have the upgraded Sport Dog Fence system. Mine has the Contain and Train feature, and the remote works when my dog is in the field hunting.
My system was almost $400.00 in 2019, but the fence portion is the same.
Mine keeps a very active, very fast, Vizslain the yard.
Bottom line, It works!!