Invisible Fencing

[Holly Paterniti]

As many of you know we had lost our home one year ago on March 17th.  We had fallen victims to preditorial lending and moved into a 2 bedroom apartment with our 2 kids and Bear.  It was difficult at first as we all had to get use to our new surroundings.  I am happy to say that we have adjusted fine and are doing well.

 

Now for the GOOD NEWS!!!  As we sat here in our apartment, we kept on looking for a larger place to live.  And believe me, we saw some doozers, which made start to think we would never find a place or get a break :(  But all of this loss was a blessing in disguise!!!  As I thought all hope was gone, I had found a home where the family who are living in there now were unable to fulfill their lease and we would be able to move into this home. When we went to look at it........we walked in and that was IT!!!  We had to move in because this was  the house we had always wanted.

 

So ok......let me get to my point here as I am sure I am boring everyone looking at this posting.........anyways the house we are going to does not have a fence nor do we want to put one up.  So I have been looking into invisible fencing.

 

Does anyone have any advice on which one to get or prefer?  I would really appreciate all of your suggestions :)  THANKS!!!

[Lorraine Bromley]

We have one and love it. I don't know if one is better than another. We installed ours ourselves we threaded it through water hose in the areas we were concerned it might get cut like the flower beds. Neely did very well with the training before we turned it on. I think that is a very important part of training with it. As they learn to go towards the house when you say no when they go towards the flags that mark it off. If you just plug it in and they cross it you won't get them to cross back over into the yard again. They will bolt. We are in the process of training the sons great dane now as well.

[Holly Paterniti]

May I ask you which brand you bought and about the cost?  Was it difficult to install because we have never done this before.  THANKS!!!!

[Ginny Nightingale]

There have been discussion about invisible fence before ---if you search around the discussion topics, you may find it. I love my I. Fence, but some people on this site are dead against it because they feel that your dog could leave the property and not come back in. My two have accidentally left once, came back in and never left again.

They also feel that a stray dog can come on the property and attack your dog. There are other reasons too but I don't remember them all--maybe you can find the discussion. We don't have many stray dogs here--I haven't seen one in years--and my neighbor's goldendoodle, who has no fence comes over to play all the time (she is very smart and doesn't go into the road) -so, it works well for us and I am glad I have it. I would suggest not using a do-it-yourself kit--they do not work as well.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I have always had a physical fence for our dogs so I am afraid I have no advice for you. But as Ginny mentioned there have been previous discussions about this topic on DK. Here is a link to one and I am sure there are others if you use the search feature:

 

http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/dog-runfenced-area-vs

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

My dad spent all the money and time putting and invisible fence for his 2 dogs after one of their puppies ran out of the yard onto the highway and got hit by a car. Now the one dog won't even go outside so they don't even use it! I think with the proper training it would have worked better, Now they are contained to a small area with a 4 ft fence when they could have acres! I agree-look for the discussions in the forum before deciding. We were finally able to put up a 6ft fence last spring-so now my doodles can run around. Good luck!

[Holly Paterniti]

I really do like to have a physical fence in our yard, but at this point the place where we are moving to has an association and it is not allowed.  I know that the invisible fencing does not guarantee they will stay in the yard, but at our old house we had a 3 foot fence and I think Bear jumped out once and it scared him so much he never did it again.  And definitely I would not leave him outside for hours unless one of us is out there with him.

 

I think either a physical or invisible fence does not guarantee a dog staying in their yard.  So I guess what I am saying is I understand both points to the advantages and disadvantages.

 

Thank you to everyone who has posted :)  and I look forward to hearing from more of you  :)

[Bonnie and Kona]

Just want to say how happy I am for you finding this wonderful house after your experience of loss! Hooray!

[Holly Paterniti]

Thanks Bonnie :)  We are so happy about the whole thing too :)

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

We bought the invisible fence brand when we first moved in.  It was easy to train and the girls did good with it.  The only problem I encountered that was related to the fence itself was you MUST stay on top of switching the batteries (which aren't cheap).  I tried to stretch it a little too far and one day they busted the barrier because the batteries were low.  I also had a little problem trying to remember to take the collars off before I took them out for a walk or in the car.  Therefore I would put the collars on before they went outside to play and take them off when they came inside the house.  That sort of defeated my thinking that if they ever got out the front door by accident that they wouldn't leave the yard ......  Our fence was somewhere around $1300 I believe.  I could never get a comfort level with it personally and we ended up going to a regular fence (so now I have $1300 sitting in my garage unused).  My main problems were:  stray dogs wandering through and then a family with 3 toddlers and a weiner dog moved in next door.  I was scared to death that L&S were going to hurt one of the kids by jumping on them or step on the weiner dogs back and hurt him ....... I was just more comfortable going with a fence but if I didn't have that option, the invisible fence would have been better than nothing.  P.S.  Congrats on the new home!

[Holly Paterniti]

Thanks Lucy :)

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I have been on the "fence" lol about this too.  In our neighborhood, yards are huge - over an acre and many people have i-fences with much success.  I am not sure which brand most use, but I do know that if you have someone install it for you, they can help you train the dog on it.

 

I am going with a physical fence, but that will take a while! Saving, saving...I am not comfortable with my chihuahua doing an efence.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I wouldn't go with invisible fence just for the training (they claim) is included.  It involves walking around the yard twice with the dog and handing you a brochure to read to do it yourself!