Comments on: How wide is the system boundary?

By: Owen

Owen — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:45:29 +0000

I’ve just put in an Innotek 2100, on a small property for an escape artist! In response to a query, Innotek had a solution for creating a “dead zone” in the perimeter wire which I don’t think I’ve seen on your excellent site: run a double loop, with the wires apart 5 feet or so, I would have to have one high and one low for space reasons, then run them together, ideally twisted, for the dead zone. Needs a bit of planning but quite elegant, but it’s a bit more than I have, so I’ll just run the wire high to make the dead zone.

I have another question which Innotek can’t help with. Probably because I’ve only used 110 meters of wire, the field width control is very sensitive, 7 o’clock off, 8 o’clock narrow field, 8.30 wide field, 9o’clock the field is about 20 feet, and the knob goes up to 5 o’clock. It seems a bit less sensitive when I link the cut-off 40 meters of wire in series between the perimeter wire and the transmitter.

ADMIN – Hi Owen,

Thanks for the tip. That is an elegant way of creating a dead zone that we had never come across.

The dial is very sensitive particularly for small runs of wire, but yours seems to be unusually sensitive. Check that the control box and make sure that the “boundary size” switch is set to small (not large).

A resistor added in series should work to make the dial more sensitive, but it is not something that we have ever tried.

I would like the knob to be much less sensitive, with a 1 meter field at about 1 o’clock, so I can use the full range. Is there any way of doing this? I thought of putting a resistor in between one end of the wire and the transmitter, but what value?

Can’t fault Innotek’s helpline though, quick and helpful!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:22:24 +0000

I built a picket fence to contain my dogs in a small portion of my yard so my wife and I can open the door to let the dogs out to play and to do their business. One of my dogs is doing great with this setup, but the other one has figured out she is strong enough to jump the fence. We’ve decided to get a wired boundary fence to keep her contained. I would like the dogs to enjoy as much of the fenced in yard as possible so I’m wondering where I should place the wire so the jumper will not be tempted but still have free reign to run around the contained area. Thanks for any help you can provide.

ADMIN – Hi Mathew,

Placing the wire higher up on the fence allows you to set the boundary width so that it does not intrude quite as far from the fence. Still you want the beep and correction to start at least 1-2 feet from the fence. (You need a little more distance for bigger dogs than can jump over the fence cleanly, and a little less for dogs that need to scramble over the fence)

The reason you need this small buffer zone is that it is very hard to train a dog with a correction that only triggers while the dog is sailing over the fence. Once the dog is going over the fence their momentum tends to carry them over and it is hard for them to change direction. Also, most dogs will not jump with the owner present and while on a leash. So it is much easier to have the boundary width set up so that the correction starts when they get near the fence before they are in full flight going over.

Once the dog is trained and safely contained, you can turn down the boundary width a little so that they can get closer, but still I would make sure the correction starts at least 1 foot from the base of the fence.

By: Dino Marinelli

Dino Marinelli — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:54:05 +0000

I just purchased the inotek 4100 and in reading the manual it says that you should have at least 8 to 10 foot wide boundary. I don’t understand I thought you could set the boundary for 1 to 3 feet and that would be sufficient for training. I don’t have a great deal of space between my house and the neighbors property line. They gave me permission to put the wire in there yard which wil give me about 4 feet to work with after the boundary line, to the house steps. Will this work and can i set this for 3 feet wide boundary?

ADMIN – Hi Dino,

You can set the boundary width as wide or narrowly as you like, but for training purposes you want it to be at least 3 feet on either side of the boundary wire. When planning narrow sections, you also need another 3 feet or so of buffer space – the dog will not want to go within 3 feet of the boundary out of caution. So I would at a minimum bury the wire 7+ feet away from the side of any house. Of course ideally a wider boundary and bigger buffer space would be nice, but that is around the minimum before you start compromising the ability to train the dogs too much.