Alarming Incident w/ Neighbor's Invisible Fence

[Jennifer & Truffle]

Hi, all.

One of our neighbors has an invisible fence. I was out walking Truffle when he approached it and it suddenly looked like he was having a seizure. It happened twice in quick succession. It then occurred to me that he might have been electrocuted by the fence.  

When it was happening, he looked like a Looney Tunes cartoon character - with his legs splayed in different directions. He's fine - we proceeded along on on our walk without further incident, but it was truly scary for a brief instant.  

Has anyone ever experienced this before?  It must be a malfunction, no?

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

So glad You CAlled!  Please tell them you heard this story from the Cleveland News.  I'm glad Cleveland was forced to at least own up to the issue although, like I said, much is still pending. 

Cant wait until you hear some results

[Jennifer & Truffle]

F - no charge. They were intrigued by the situation and came to look out of professional/intellectual curiosity.  Amazing.

[BG and Gavin]

Just following along here.  Very strange indeed.

[Julie and Max]

That must have been frightening for both you and Truffle, glad he is okay.

[Emily, Bentley, & Maserati]

That is scary! I'm glad he is ok! 

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

Very scary but I'm glad Truffle is ok.  Did he yelp or anything?  When training my Beardie, he yelped and pulled away. Signals can jump on certain types of fences and a dog can be shocked unexpectedly in your own yard, (I saw this happen with Teddy, my bearded collie) but to my knowledge, the dog has to be wearing the collar.  Teddy would not go anywhere near the fence BUT if the power went off, he immediately knew it and would run off (Ted loved to run) leading me to believe there might have been some kind of sound when the fence was on that the dogs could detect that we couldn't.  Does Truffle have an invisible fence at home?  After training Teddy to the fence, he freaked out several times while walking in town… suddenly pulling against the leash, shaking, crying, and refusing to move forward. Each time, people tried to help, it was so crazy -- but we would have to turn around and go another way.  I think he must have heard a hum or a noise, maybe from a traffic light, that sounded like the fence.  He was not wearing the fence collar when these incidents happened. Once he jumped off the sidewalk in terror dragging both of us into main road -- freaked me out -- and we had to stop walking in town.  So I'll be interested in what you find out.      

[Jennifer & Truffle]

No yelp. Just flailing - and again, all of this took a matter of seconds.  We don't have an electric fence in our yard.  It really is so strange. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Some folks think some of the incidents you cite, Cheryl, are good reasons not to have an electronic fence.

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

I know many people use an invisible fence with no problem (or they don't think they have a problem, I didn't) but it's one reason I don't use an electronic fence anymore. There are some fences that do more to address this problem then others now - one in particular.  But after reading Joanne's article, I'm back to no additional underground wires :)

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

This past autumn, Charlotte had several seizures that we determined was from a chemical that the pest-control company put down near our back patio to get rid of an ant colony. Apparently, she walked over some residual spray and then licked her paws. After that terrible afternoon, she has not had any issues, whatsoever. Moving forward, we instructed the landscaping company and the pest-control guys to use organic and pet-safe products, only. I hope that Truffle is alright.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Oh Laurie, how horrible. Glad everything was resolved.  

Years ago, before  spot on flea products, I had a cat who would seizure just from flea collars.  

It is that time of year too!   Many are spraying products on their lawns this Spring. Let that be a warning to keep the pups off the lawns and walk only on the streets. Most yards have flags stating they were sprayed but not if the property owner applies the products themselves.  

[F, Calla & Luca]

I wouldn't even trust the lawn companies definition of organic and pet safe. My lawn looked like hell a couple of weeks ago but now it's greening up. I am about to start tossing seed around. I have seen a lot of ant hills too. But I will let nature take it's course. Lists of pesticides are neurotoxins and small amounts can be deadly. And things like vinegar won,t hurt the dogs but discourage weeds.