ADMIN – Hi Cory,

Some systems have an optional grounding electrode that is connected to a grounding rod to provide protection against lightning strikes (e.g. PetSafe SDF-100A). They are not necessary for the unit to function properly. If there is no grounding rod nearby, and you need lightning protection, you can alternatively use a Lightning Protection module that uses the ground from your house’s electrical system by plugging into a standard three-prong outlet.

Sorry. Just found the mounting option for the wire. Great. But I’m still not sure about the fence selection. I don’t really like the collar for the SportDog model but think five levels of training may be necessary. One more question…I have LED landscape light that has buried wire near where I would install the invisible fence. Is this going to be a problem? How can I avoid it?

ADMIN – Hi Wylie,
If you believe you’ll need the extra correction levels, the SportDog is a good choice. At 60 lbs, I don’t think the size of the collar will be a hindrance. Expect that any electrical wiring has the possibility of creating interference. The best approach is to lay the wire completely out before burying it and test it. This way you can make adjustments easily. We recommend keeping a distance of 6 to 10 feet from any cables when running parallel to them. When you need to cross over a cable, make sure you do that with a perpendicular angle to minimize the interaction between the two wires. If you do receive interference there are only three solutions: 1) physically move the wire further away from the interfering cable, or 2) decrease the boundary width, or 3) both

ADMIN – Hi Joanna,
Two wire terminals are for your loop. You plug in the wire in one terminal and it comes back and plugs into the second terminal. The 3rd terminal on the transmitter is most likely your grounding terminal. I’d recommend contacting the manufacture to be certain. We do not work with Pet Stop products.

ADMIN – Hi Katie,

The wire installed at your house will work with any in-ground wired dog fence you purchase.

ADMIN – Hi Brian,

Two options:

1) You could bypass installing a fence by placing Outdoor Rock zones at the driveways keeping your dogs from leaving there. We advice bundling in the Innotek 4100 collar and charger (separate item) with this option. Here is the link to the Outdoor Rock: http://dogfencediy.com/store/accessories/indoor-zones/pawz-away.html

2) The second option is to install a dog fence. You install the wall transmitter in your garage. You’d run twisted wire from the transmitter out to one driveway where the twisted wire connects to a long narrow loop that covers the driveway opening. Then you’d connect another section of twisted wire to the loop and run it down the other driveway where it would connect to another long narrow loop that covers the driveway. This layout is exactly like the single-sided layout illustrated here (http://www.dogfencediy.com/installation/plan/#singleside)

ADMIN – Hi Steve,

Sometimes the transmitter will ‘leak’ a bit of the signal and cause any collar in the immediate vicinity to trigger. The range is limited (1-2 feet). For this reason you should keep the transmitter away from areas you want the dog to have access to. I would keep the transmitter away from the basement door that you want the dog to be able to use. Moving it a few feet to the side or up high should do the trick.

ADMIN – Hi Thanh,

You can use the remote control on the Innotek IUC-5100 both inside and outside the fence boundary. The remote is completely independent of the fence.

If you order before 1pm EST on a business day, it goes out the same day and you will typically get it in 2-3 business days depending on where you live.

ADMIN – Hi Andrew,

If you are getting the fence signal blanketing the entire yard, even when you turn down the boundary width dial – most likely the fence is set to “large area” when it needs to be set to “small area”. This is done in different ways on different systems. On most PetSafe systems there is a switch on the side of the control box.

If that does not fix the problem, most likely transmitter is defective and should be exchanged for a new one.

One person touched on the basement mounting issue in the comments, but I haven’t seen any detailed information about transmitter barriers, like wall thicknesses and material concerns when mounting inside. I’m planning on mounting mine inside a basement and I have 6 inch thick concrete on all sides topped by TJI supports and a main steel I-beam down the center. Not to mention sheetrock, insulation and an aluminum drop ceiling. Will any of these things get in the way of the signal and if so how much with the transmitter’s range be decreased?

Second issue is low voltage lines such as phone/cable/network and most importantly, our home alarm system. Should I avoid mounting the transmitter near these wires/jacks and if so how far? Could it interfere with window and door contacts too?

ADMIN – Hi Rob,

Thanks for the kind words.

(1) If you are installing a wired system, the control box can happily sit in the basement.

If you are looking at a wireless system, basements don’t work well because the ground blocks the signal. You need to install the control box a few feet above ground level. It also needs to be kept as far as possible from large metal objects like sheet metal or boilers.

(2) You want to avoid running the dog fence wire parallel to any other wiring or metal for long stretched. If you do run the wire parallel, you want to try and keep six feet of separation. With these long parallel runs, the dog fence signal can sometimes get induced in the other wiring. These are not commandments, you can break them both if you need to, just use the collars to check to make sure you don’t get the dog fence signal induced in unwanted places where the wiring runs.

Also note, this does not apply for the twisted wire. You will most likely be running the twisted wire out of your basement to the start of the boundary loop. The twisted wire does not have the above restrictions and can be run close and parallel to metal and other wiring.

The transmitter does not have these restrictions. You can mount it pretty much anywhere. Out of an abundance of caution we like to mount it 3+ feet away from other electrical devices, but there is no good reason for this little superstition.

ADMIN – Hi Brett,

GFI (ground fault interrupter) or GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) is a safety device that cuts off power when it detects odd surges in current. Whether you use a GFI outlet will not make a difference. A GFI will not replace the lightning protection.

There seem to be some forum posts that suggest that a GFI may cause problems when the dog gets the correction, because it would cause a surge in power through the system that might accidentally trip the GFI. This is incorrect. The shock from a dog fence comes from the dog’s collar not the fence that is plugged into the power outlet. The correction would not cause any kind of electrical surge.

So the GFI won’t hurt. But, it also won’t help save the dog fence control box if there is a lightning strike on the dog fence wire. When lightning strikes the dog fence boundary wire, the current surges through the wire and toward the control box, frying the control box before the GFI has the chance to help. The GFI only helps the dog fence control box when there are surges in the power line in your house, it doesn’t help when there are surges in the boundary wire. (Power strips with surge protectors also don’t help, for the same reason).

THE GFI would help save other appliances if lightning struck the boundary wire. When the current surge went up through the dog fence control box and entered your house’s electrical system, then the GFI would shut everything down.