Installation
The steps of installing your dog fence break down as follows:
- Planning the installation
- Mounting the transmitter box
- Laying out the wire
- Burying the wire
- Driveways and Pathways
- Connecting and Testing
You should set aside about ten hours for the whole installation project. The first and second steps will take about an hour. Burying the wire will take about four hours (if you use a trencher or edger. Doing the driveway will take an hour. And if everything goes according to plan the final connection and testing will take another hour. (The extra three hours is for the unexpected challenges and the much needed breaks that accompany any DIY task)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t know if you answer questions or not, but can you tell me how close a dog can get to the buried wire before the warning and subsequent correction will typically go off? I have several areas of my yard where the property line runs at an angle to the house and at the narrow points there are only 6 or 7 feet between the house and the property line (where I would bury the wire) before it widens out. Is this enough space, or would the dog never be able to pass through these areas of the yard? Thanks for your help.
- Mark
ADMIN – Hi Mark,
Mark, the boundary width can be set by the user on most systems. You can vary the boundary width anywhere from 1 foot up to 20 feet. Most people are going to want to set the boundary width at about 5 feet for the training phase, but you can certainly reduce it to 3 feet to work with a narrow side passage between the house and the boundary wire.
I have large property to fence with woods on perimeter. Can I just lay the fence through the woods on top of the ground? What about laying it in a rock ditch and then just on top of grass?
ADMIN – Hi Lynn,
You are fine laying it on top of the ground for the wooded section and in a rock ditch. But on the grassed section, I would rather see you bury it if that area is mowed. You could just staple it down there, but you will inevitably get breaks in the wire where the lawn mower goes over which is a pain … so you are usually better off just burying it.
What is the life expectency of a system buried in the ground in New England? Would the lifetime improve if barried below the frost line.
What is the standard technie emloyed in the installation of the wire and crossing a driveway?
ADMIN – Hi Paul,
The life expectency is approximately 10 years. I don’t believe the expectency changes based on burying the wire below the frost line. The standard technique for crossing a driving is to put the line in an expansion joint and seal over silicon. Alternatively you can use a circular saw and a masonry blade to create a trench in the driveway.
I would like to install underground fencing for my dogs but I share a yard with my neighbor. How can I install it without having to go completely around the whole building but still contain my dogs on my side of the yard.Only the east and south side of the yard is open and I want to stop them from leaving it without putting a big wooden/chain link fence up. Can I dig two trenches about a foot apart and just run it along those two sides in one trench and back in the other, twist the wires where they go into the house to the transmitter?
ADMIN – Hi Glenda,
You can double back on yourself as you suggest, but you will need six feet of separation between the two wire. Perhaps you can run the dog fence wire along the north and west sides as well to complete the loop? If you send us a diagram by email or fax we are happy to take a look and suggest a layout to you.
Hello,
I used your tips and had great success installing the system myself. Thanks a million! The dog was trained in 2 days! My dog is a 120lb great dane/ black lab and is not the smartest dog around but he learned very fast. I put the fence on the side of our house. I had to double back to make it work. We are finding now that our dog tries really hard to sneak out the front door and bolt. We want to put a boundary in the front yard to stop him from doing this. A very small one right by the front door to keep him from running away. I can not figure out how to make this work. Any ideas?
ADMIN – Hi Philip,
You could add a really small loop around the front door, then link it to the main loop with twisted wire. A much easier way would be to use one of the outdoor zones (the rock) if you have the Innotek 4100/5100, then just use it in wireless mode to create a small barrier keep the dogs from bolting from the front door.