Planning
Marking Utilities and other Obstacles
The first thing we need to do is have your underground utility lines marked so you know where to be careful when digging. 811 is a free service that alerts water, sewer, electricity, cable and gas suppliers to mark your property with the route of any underground utility lines. Simply call 811 and the utility companies will mark their underground utility lines with either flags or spray paint. It can take up to a week so you will want to call now. If you have privately installed any utilities like a septic system or lines for gas cylinders you will want to mark these as well. Most utilities are deeply buried (over a foot deep) and you will only be burying the cables a few inches deep so usually underground utilities are not an issue, but it is better to be safe than sorry and dig carefully in areas where utilities are located.
If possible mark the location of any sprinkler system lines or low voltage power lines for any outdoor lighting system you have had installed. If you can’t determine the location of these lines, make your best guess. Damaging a sprinkler line or a low voltage power line is not a big deal, both are easy to fix. Just be sure to shut off the water and power before you start digging.
Sketch a Diagram
On grid paper, sketch a rough map of your property showing any buildings, paths, driveways, garden beds, underground utilities and other obstacles. Figure out which parts of the garden you want to give your dog access to and which parts you want to block access to.
Decide where you will locate the transmitter box. The transmitter should be located near a power outlet and protected from the elements. Inside a garage or electrified shed is ideal.
Now determine where you will run your fence. The fence needs to make a complete loop starting and ending at the transmitter box. You will use a pair of wires twisted together in places where you want the dog to be able to cross the wire safely. For more details on twisted wire, see here.
Some things to keep in mind when deciding on the placement of wires:
- Cross utility lines at right angles – you want to avoid running wire close to a utility line for an extended stretch because, in some rare instances a boundary wires running close to a utility wire can induce a signal in the utility wire making part of your home wiring trigger the collar receivers.
- Round corners - boundary wires should turn corners gradually, avoiding sharp 90 degree turns.
- Separate parallel boundary wires – Boundary wires emit signals that will cancel each other out, so you want any boundary wires that are parallel to each other to be at least six feet apart. Similarly, if your neighbors have a dog fence, keep your wires about six feet from theirs.
Sample Layouts
Perimeter Dog Fence Layout
The most popular layout runs along your yard’s perimeter. This layout allows your dog access to the entire property.
The twisted wire joins the house transmitter box to the boundary wire. This enables the dog to safely walk over the twisted wire path.
Where possible lay the boundary wire two yards back from the road to give a good safety buffer for you dog and to allow a space for pedestrians. Also try to allow three yards between the boundary wire and the house on at least one side to allow the dog room to pass between the front and back yard.
Backyard Dog Fence Layout
The challenge in doing a backyard only installation is that you want the house side of boundary to be inactive so your dog can freely enter and exit your home without getting the correction. However, for the system to work, you still need a full loop of single (untwisted wire). There are a number of approaches you can take:
The easiest way to make a complete loop, while only giving the dog access to the backyard is to make a loop that goes tight around the front of the house too. This completes the loop, but there is not enough space around the front of the house for the dog to have access to the front yard. When you do this type of layout, it is important to do a quick check with the collar inside the house to make sure that the signal is not inadvertently spilling into the house in rooms where you dog will stay. If there is a problem, just decrease the boundary width, or move the wire a little further from the front of your house.
Another popular method is go high over the back of your house. Run the wire up a downspout on one side of the house, across the gutter, and down the downspout on the other side of the house. This vertical height over the ground gives your dog enough space to get in and out of the back door without triggering the correction. As always, you want to test with the collar at the back door to make sure there is no signal accidentally reaching down where the dog will walk. Also test rooms near the gutter line to make sure there is no signal spilling into those rooms. If there is unwanted spill, turn down the boundary width setting on the control box until you are getting no spill.
The final method is to go around the three sides of the yard, then double back on yourself to make a U-shaped loop. The two opposite wires need to be separated by at least six feet to avoid the signals from one loop from interfering with the other. If they are too close you will not get a nice strong signal along the boundary, and you may have dead spots where there is no correction at all. If you already have a tall fence in place, on way to achieve this without digging is to run one leg of the wire along the top of the fence, and the return leg along the bottom of the fence, so you get the necessary separation.
Exclusion Zones
You can also add small exclusion zones to keep your dog out of small areas within your property. For example you may want your dog to have full access to your yard except a small garden bed.
To do this you loop some boundary wire around the area you want to protect and join the loop to the main loop with some twisted wire.
Hourglass Layout
The hourglass layout contains the dog in both the front and back yard, but does not allow the dog to cross between the front and back yard. This is great if you want the dog with you in the front or back yard but do not want them crossing between them.
Note that the two loops are connected to each other on the left hand side of this diagram and that they both connect to the transmitter box on the right hand side.
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
We are considering a dog fence for our property, but have a question about the need to run wire at the back property line where there are already existing physical fences our neighbors have installed. Do we have to run boundary wire at the back fence line, or can we use twisted wire along that section, as long as we maintain a loop? Would twisted wire also be appropriate to connect a segment of boundary wire that is isolated between two physical boundaries?
Hi Laurie – the boundary wire always has to form a complete loop. You cannot use the twisted wire to replace a section of boundary wire.
Can the transmitter box be placed on a covered front porch attached to the house?
We have a power outlet on our front porch.
Dog Fence DIY Answer – as long as you are sheltered from the rain you are fine.
In order to stay within my property lines for a backyard only layout would I have to lay the outer wire on the property line resulting in the protected area being six feet inside the outer wire? I have a rather small back yard and would like to have the largest protected area possible.
ADMIN – Hi John
Here are another couple of options:
(1) Complete the loop by going along the front of the house, but close enough to the front that the dog could not actually go to he front yard.
(2) Complete the loop by going through the gutters in your backyard. (ie. along the three sides of your backyard then up the gutter downpipe, along the gutter line, and down the downpipe on the other side) The vertical height over your back door would still let hte dog go in and out through the back door.
Our property backs up to high tension overhead power lines. Do you know if that will cause any issues? The lines themselves are about 15-20 yards beyond where I would run the fence.
ADMIN – Hi Marty,
Hi Marty,
Power lines, even high voltage power lines aren’t a problem because there is so much vertical separation between the lines and the pet containment fence wire.
Hi – I would like to get a system for my 3 dogs and would ultimately like to do the backyard only design. I’m not understanding why that design requires a double-loop set up. Also, if I were to do the hour-glass design, so my front yard is also accessible, how do I do the wire across the driveway? I’m not keen on burying the wire, I’d prefer the no-dig method. Ehhh….I’m a single woman, digging is not my favorite thing to do.
I have a very large yard and like the idea of backyard only, since I like to walk them and don’t want to confuse them with which side of the house is the way we go for walks, and which is the side where they can run around like madmen.
ADMIN – Hi Donna,
(1) You need to make a complete loop for the system to work. Most people doing a backyard only and don’t want the loop to go across their back door, because they want the dog to be able to enter and leave the house freely without having to take the collars off. Hence the need for the double-loop or the hour-glass.
(2) To get across the driveway, most people find an expansion joint, cut across with a circular saw, insert the wire and then caulk over. If you don’t want to do that, if your expansion joints are deep enough, just place the wire in the expansion joint and caulk over if you can.
(3) Don’t dig, find a single man … digging is one of our few strong points
Seriously, it is fine if you don’t want to bury it, just staple it down really tightly to the ground, and when you mow raise the mower up to the highest setting. You will have to deal with the occasional break, but soon the grass will grow over it and you will be set.
Just for the record, it is not that hard to dig, just hire a trencher and let the machine do all the work.
Thanks for the answer! If I go wtih the double loop, that will significantly reduce the roaming area for the dogs, so I guess I’d need to get an expansion kit and splice the wires to connect them? I’ve done this with my stereo and a lamp I rewired, so I guess I can handle it.
I was going to wait until spring on this “little” purchase, but my puggle changed my mind last night when his collar broke on me twice last night and I had to go chasing him through the neighborhood. Guess I’ll be buying it today. Thanks for your help!
Now I’ve got to find the single man to dig the trench.
I’m about to move into a new home and would like to install a dog fence. My initial plan was to install a perimeter fence with a dog door on the side of the house so that our dog can let herself out. I am a bit concerned now that this setup is going to work because there is not a ton of room between the property line and the side of the house. If I place the wire directly on the property line, how close to the wire will our dog be able to get? Are there any tricks for this type of situation?
I was considering that I could change my layout to do a backyard only setup(double back loop) and use the returning loop along the properly line to cancel out a portion of the signal and “tune” the field width so that the dog can use the space. Will this work?
ADMIN – Hi Adam,
(1) You can adjust the width of the boundary. But as a practical matter, to let dogs through a thin spot you need at least 6 feet. You don’t want a boundary less than 3 feet because it is much thinner, it can be hard to train the dog as they start to figure out they can run through. Then you need about a three feet safety buffer for the dog to feel comfortable.
One trick, is that if you have a fence on the boundary line, you can put the line on top of the fence and the vertical separation reduces the effective width of the boundary in that section. Another trick is to find a sympathetic neighbour and see if they will let you go onto their property a little bit.
(2) The cancelling out is not very consistent (for the physics majors: you get interference patterns), you get some parts where is cancelled and some parts where it still works. So I would not rely on it.
I think it’s a wonderful and generous service to share your knowledge so freely! I learned a lot looking at your website – Thank you!
Now, to pick your brain! Two questions: 1.)We live on 2+ acres and along the front part of the property (450 feet) is a very busy highway and our driveway access. Clearly we want to keep Casper out of the highway but we walk her across the road into BLM property to get exercise. There is no gate across the driveway. How do we not confuse Casper that crossing the boundary we will lay parallel to the road is only okay to cross with us? 2.)You mention utility lines – ours are not buried but are on poles above and are located along the busy road and the boundary will run parallel to power lines. I thought I saw somewhere in your instructions that power lines on poles are far enough away as not to interfere with the boundary signal…… right? Thanks much!!
ADMIN – Hi Casper’s Mom (and presumably Casper’s Chef, Butler, Vet, Personal Trainer, and Buddy)!
Appreciate the compliment.
1) For the first few weeks, try and drive her over the boundary when you want to take her for a walk, so she doesn’t get confused. But after the first month, you can develop a routine for exiting the property. (Ours is, she comes to the door, I take off the dog fence collar, put on the walking collar, put her on a leash, and walk through the same part of the boundary every time). The dogs resist the first couple of times, but quickly learn that there is an exception when going on a walk with you.
There is a bit more information on the topic: http://www.dogfencediy.com/maintenance/walking-dog/
2) Overhead powerlines are not an issue. They are so high above the ground that you don’t get any interference. The issue ocassionally arrises when power lines are in the ground, parallel and close to the boundary wire. But, with overhead lines you get so much vertical separation that you are fine.
Wow! Fast response and what you said makes SO much sense – setting that routine! Thanks for the link too. Am currently pricing products but I’m impressed with your support – that says a lot to me!! Oh, and yes, this Mom is indeed chief chef and doggie hugger of Casper! Being a former NON-dog lover, she came to us as a stray and changed my mind! She worked her magic! Take care!!
Along the north side of my house, I have about a 10 foot gap between the house and the fence where I’d like to locate my line. In a portion of the area, the gap narrows to about 5 feet because of an air conditioning unit located alongside the house. I’d like the dogs to be able to use this area and pass through it. I bought the PetSafe Stubborn Dog Fence. Will this setup work? I did see the trick about locating the wire along the top of the fence. My dogs are big, but not stubborn, and are very friendly.
I also could skip this part and the rest of the yard where I have my fence if I doubleloop my layout. However, I would need to pass two sets of wire across my driveway where I only have a groove for one wire if I maintain the recommended 3-5 foot gap between wires. If I do the double loop, is my only alternative to cut another groove in my driveway? Finally, if I do double loop, do the correction and warning zones start from the inside or outside loop because I may have a gap problem on this side if it is the inside? Thanks.
ADMIN – Hi Bob,
Usually I would say that six feet is the minimum, that lets you set the fence at three feet wide and gives them another three feet safety space. You could make five feet work, especially if you locate the wire at the top of the fence which reduces it’s effective range.
Try the single loop first, the double loop is a pain and really cuts down on the usable space.
For a double loop, you would have to cut a second groove in the driveway, at least six feet from the first. The warning zone would start from the inside loop.
I have a fenced back yard where one side of the square is my house and the other 3 are split rail fencing. My dog jumps the 4 foot fence and I want to run the wire on the fence but allow the dog to enter the house. I don’t like the double loop because of the space it requires. 1. Can the twisted wire be run from transmitter and then have the other end tied together and connected to the boundary wire ( 3 wire spliced) so that a double loop is not required? If not, how high up would I need to go to run single wire over the doors? I have a 2 story house and don’t want to have to go that high to place in gutter.
ADMIN – Hi Gary,
Hi Gary,
Unfortunately there is no way to avoid having a complete loop of the boundary wire, you cannot use the twisted wire as part of the loop or do a 3 wire splice.
The height above the door depends on how wide you set the boundary width at the control box. You need at least that much clearance over the door to ensure the dog can come in and out of the house safely. Since we are coming up to fall, perhaps you can get whomever cleans out your gutters to run the wire for you?
Another option might be to do the double loop with one wire going along the top of the fence and the return leg going along the bottom of the fence. Just be sure to set the boundary width to something pretty low (i.e. about two feet), since the two wires are going to be only four feet apart and you don’t want interference between them.
I don’t have an outlet on an outside wall of my garage. How far can I run the twisted portion of my loop?
ADMIN – Hi Stephen,
There is no limit on the amount of twisted wire you can run.
So if we put the control box on the inside wall of the garage, we could run the wire along the walls to get to the outside wall. Alternatively, we could put the control box on the outside wall and run an extension cord from the inside wall outlet to the control box.
What is the maximum footage of wire I can run. I want to use it for my Austrailian Sheperd. We use him to work cattle on our farm. I would like to fun at least 3000 ft. minimum. If possable I would like to cove about 30 acres around the barn and cattle working areas. Also, would it be alright to run the wire down the fence line above ground. Would the electic fence wire interfer with the dog contro; wire.
Thanks,
dta
ADMIN – Hi Donald,
The maximum footage depends on the system. The ones to look at would be the Innotek 4100/5100, the SportDog and the Dogtra. The Innotek IUC 4100/5100 can do 25 acres (5000) feet. The Dogtra EF-3000 can do up to 40 acres (6000 feet). The SportDog SDF-100 can do 50 acres (7000) feet.
You can run the wire along a fence line, the wire does not need to be buried.
You can get interference from an electric fence, so it is best to stay six feet away. Sometimes you can get away with it, the only way to know for sure is to run a small length of line and see if everything works ok. But, again, best to give it a bit of distance.
Hi there! I obviously have a question for you. I am interested in the backyard only layout. We have about 1/3 acre back there, so the double boundries, I think, would stil rpvide plenty of room for my two puppies to run around. I have a 20 lb Llahsa Apso (1 year and likes to run) and a 6 month old lab mix that is shy. My question is: Since the boundry is doubled, does that mean that if one of the dog’s were to run through the first “zap” to the outer boundry, would there be another “zap” after that 6 foot buffer? Is it like having a double fence?
Thank You!
ADMIN – Hi Jen.
It would indeed behave like a double fence. The correction would occur in the vicinity of the first wire, then again in the vicinity of the second wire.
Great information and thanks for providing this. We live on a point of land surrounded on three sides by a lake. We’ve run a continuous loop across the fourth side of the property to keep the dogs from crossing. The lake keeps them confined on the other side as they only swim to chase balls or boat (which is why we don’t want to have the fence around the property in the summer). However, in the winter when the lake freezes, the dogs figure out that they can go just about anywhere they want. I am wondering if it’s possible to include another single run of wire around the property attached at one end of the existing loop and use a manual switch to alter the flow of the fence at the other end so that in the summer, it uses the closed loop in the front but in the winter, it switches one of the connections of the loop to go around the property.
ADMIN – Hi Kris,
You could absolutely have a switch that lets you change the configuration of the loop. When you do the switch every winter, I would just put the flags up for a couple of days to let them understand that the fence location has changed.
Your website has been extremely informative! Thansks so much! I am in the “ready to buy” phase for electic fence. I have a 5 foot physical fence around our backyard and two very persistent 11 lb. mini- dachshunds who find endless ways to escape and chase squirrels in the neighbors yard. I have to stop this for their safety and my peace of mind. Two questions for you. First, in order to complete the loop in my back yard only, can I go run the wire on the top and bottom of the 5 ft fence or is that not enough distance? Otherwise, I can use the gtter system you suggested to another person. One more option is to run up the gutter, through the attic and down the other side. Obviously, the fence would be the easiest if the 5ft vertical distance is enough.
Second, is the Petsafe Small dog the best choise for my size dogs? Not thrilled with the plastic collors or non-rechargeable batts. but if its the best choice for their size I can deal with it. Thanks for your knowledge:)
ADMIN – Hi Paige,
Thanks for the compliment! Try the top and bottom of the fence. With only 5 feet of separation, you will not be able to turn up the boundary width very high (probably 2-3 feet); but this should be fine since you already have a fence in place, so the dachshunds can’t really dash (sorry!) through he fence. It will be much faster and easier than going through the gutter. And on the off chance it is not working for you you can switch to the gutter/attic method pretty easily.
The PetSafe little dog is the best choice for dogs under 11lbs. But you are pretty close to the borderline, so you could try something rechargeable like the IUC-4100 instead. I think they would be happier with the small dog collar though.
ok, im trying to put in a seperate area for my dogs to stay out of. i have a perimeter all around my house, now i am trying to put up a small area to keep them out. at first i thought my 2 wires were to close, but i tried to seperate the wires and it still did not work. what i did was just stripped an area off my wire i had already and put both ends of the new area wire there, that did not work, so i seperated where i connected my 2 ends. that still did not work. do you have any suggestions to what i might be doing wrong?
ADMIN – Hi Nick,
I presume you are trying to put in an exclusion zone. You will need to cut the main boundary loop where you are going to connect in the exclusion zone loop . Splice one end of the main boundary loop wire to one end of the exclusion zone loop wire, and the other end of the boundary loop wire to the other exclusion zone loop wire.
I have a 4 yo rescued female Lab who (apparently) jumps our chain-link fences in the backyard. We have a high wood fence at the back of the property that she cannot get past, but a chain-link on each side of the back yard, so really it’s just those two sides we need to protect. Can I run the wire along the top of the side-fences and back-fence instead of burying it – and use your suggestion for the gutter along the back of the house?
ADMIN – Hi Dale,
Sounds like a good plan. You may consider running the wire along the bottom/middle of the chain fence to make it closer to where the dog’s collar will be when the dog is getting near the fence. The wire along the wood fence can go up high because we don’t mind if she gets close, but we want the chain link wire closer to dog height to stop her getting near that fence. (or you could turn up the boundary width so that the signal reaches the bottom of the chain link fence even if the wire is up high)
I’ve skipped around reading the other comments but if I understand what I’m picking up… If I want to do the backyard only set-up without the extra boundary line, I could run the wire through the gutter along the back of the house and down to the ground on each end, then out and around the backyard? Being that the wire would be up along the gutter it would be far enough away that the dogs wouldn’t get zapped coming in or going out of the house?
We have 2 schnoodle pups, about 3-1/2 months old. Are they too young to start working with them on this?
ADMIN – Hi Stacey,
Going through the gutter will work. You want to have the boundary width turned down enough so that the signal is not reaching the ground from the gutter. (3-5 feet is fine for most people). Then you want to use the collar to test that the correction signal is not getting anywhere where unintended. you want to have a safety buffer of a few feet to make sure that the dog isn’t getting the correction anywhere unintended.
When to start training pups? I like to wait till six months, many pups just aren’t cognitively ready to focus on training until then. If the owner really wants, I will train dogs as young as four month provided the dogs can confidently do a sit, stay and come.
I’m looking into adding an invisible fence to an existing chain link fence. My dogs are determined diggers and have found a variety of ways out including through concrete poored in the holes. The problem is that the dog pen is away from any power source and is 50′x 50′. Two questions 1) is there a way to power it through solar power perhaps, and 2) will it reduce their area by a lot if I put it on the fence? Our property includes about 4 acres, and chickens which they like to massacare…so I really don’t want to give them the run of the property. Also, I’m concerned that the deterrant may not be enough to keep them from the chickens. What do you think?
ADMIN – Hi Brandy,
There is not a good alternative power source that I am aware of. Perhaps you could put the control box in the nearest powered structure and run the wire over to the dog pen.
The system will reduce the usable are of the pen. You can set the wideness of the correction field and are probably going to want it set to about 3 feet at first. The dogs will also not get too close at first, so I would say you would end up with an effective area of 40′ x 40′. Once they are used to the system, you can narrow the correction area, and probably expand the usable area a couple more feet.
Chickens are always going to be a temptation, but one you can overcome. The key is the training. I would be nice and consistent with the training.for the first two weeks. Then in the third week I would use a chicken to test their compliance and make sure they learn that the boundary rules needs to be heeded even if there is a plump juicy chicken strutting past the cage. The more you can practise with the specific temptation the better.
How big an area can a system cover? I’m looking at 12 acres.
ADMIN – Hi Bill,
The systems have different capacities and can go up to 100 acres. Some examples, PetSafe Stubborn (10 acres); Innotek IUC-4100 (25 acres); and the SportDog SDF-100 (100 acres)
Can i run 1 leg of the boundry wire under my house in my crawlspace to get to the otherside of the house to join up with the other leg? If i do this will this setup trigger the collar while the dog is in the house?
ADMIN – Hi Chuck,
You can run wire under the house in the crawlspace, but you want to lay it as low down as possible and adjust the boundary width dial to stop the signal penetrating up into the house. You will want to test up in the house with the collar to ensure that you are not inadvertently getting the signal up in the house.
First off, thanks for a surprisingly informative website for us dog lovers! Truly impressive that you’re sharing these tips with us, and I see you promptly respond to posts. We’re very appreciative!
I have a stray mama lab mix and two puppies who recently “adopted” us. I think mama may have had the pups under my barn. I have 10 acres, and want to give the dogs 2 or 3, in the back yard and your design tips have been valuable. Could you explain a bit more how to deal with running the wires across a paved (asphalt) driveway?
ADMIN – Hi Steve,
The Labrador puppy is really irresistible! Congratulations on the new family!
Three basic options: over, under or through. You can run he wire over the driveway, some people will use a plastic bridge or an old hosepipe to protect the wire and some people will just lay it over the driveway naked. You can tunnel under the driveway although that is a major pain unless there is already a conduit in place. But, what most people will do is cut a shallow slot across the driveway using a circular saw, lay the wire and then fill over it with an outdoor caulk.
There is a lot more information on the installation section of the website in the driveways sections.
I just put in an invisible fence and am having problems. I had professionals install the wire and unit for me and at first it seemed to work ok. The next morning I came downstairs and the collars were going crazy beeping and vibrating. The company said it was probably some wires nearby (there were some cable wires on the ground) so I unscrewed the cable wires and removed them from the area but that did not solve it. I have the unit in my garage. I am really getting discouraged and I”d appreciate it if you’d tell me what to check for.
Great site. To make my life easier I’d like to run under our gravel driveway by running the wire through a cement pipe — the kind you have to allow water to pass under the drive. The concrete is probably 2″ thick and 4″ of gravel lay on top. Do you see any issues with this?
Also is there a collar that combines a bark collar with a normal fence collar?
ADMIN – Hi Bob,
The only issue is that you will have to turn up the boundary width to get the signal up through the pipe and gravel, which may in turn make the boundary too wide at some other point.
Unfortunately, there is no combination bark and fence collar. If you do add a bark collar, I would wait about a month after I finished the dog fence training. That way you will avoid the dog getting confused between the two.
Hello,
I have about 11 acres that i have fenced with 3 elctric fence wires already surounding my property. Could i disconnect my bottom electric fence wire from the top and middle wire and use the bottom wire for my boundry wire? The bottom wire is about 12 inches off the ground!
ADMIN – Hi Ryans,
Unfortunately, you will need to run a difference wire. The wire needs to be insulated. Also, sometimes you will get interference between the dog fence wire and the electric fence wire and will need to separate them by a few feet. I would do a test strip from 20 feet or so and see if your system gets interference before stringing up all 11 acres.
We have put the 4100 around our 5 acres, but would now like to add an exclusion zone. To use the e-zone drawing above as an example, which is much like our house area, the transmitter is at the front of the house near the driveway and the twisted wired runs about 30 feet, parallel to the drive, out to the perimeter. The landscape area I wish to protect is directly along the front of the house and the twisted wire runs right through the driveway edge of the garden. The area is only about 6 feet wide, but it is the dog’s favorite area for digging (and he has five other acres he could dig!!). Can a small loop be run connecting to the same twisted wire that runs to the perimeter, or must I run another twisted line from the exclusion loop to perimeter?\
Hi Connie,
You can hang a loop off the twisted wire.
Another option if you are trying to protect a small area, is to use one of these new Pawz Away wireless outdoor pods that work with the 4100 (the rock).
For a backyard only installation can I use twisted wire along the house to complete the loop?
ADMIN – Hi Mathew,
You cannot use the twisted wire as part of the loop. The twisted wire is used to go from the transmitter box to the start of the loop. There are a few other options if you want to do a back yard only layout. (1) You can run the wire along the back of your house, up a downspout, through the gutter and down a downspout. This vertical height over the ground should let your dog get through. (2) run the wire tight around the front of the house. (3) do a U-shaped loop that doubles back on itself with six feet of separation between the sections of loop.
I am looking into getting one of your fences and it looks like I will need to do a loop of the house ( I only want to get the backyard covered). However, the flowerbeds I will need to run the wire through on one side of the house are very close. From the base of the window to the far side of the flowerbed is only about 2 to 3 feet. I saw that if you bury the wire deeper it will be less effective. If I set the wire to a 6 foot barrier on either side how deep would I need to bury the wire along the windows to prevent the dog being shocked inside the house? Thanks for the information, it has been very helpful.
ADMIN – Hi Dargan,
It will depend on what your walls are made out of and the type of soil. But, I would think you would need to go about one foot down. The only way to know for certain would be to bury a section and test it out.
I want to do a backyard only layout. The dog will be leaving the rear of the house through a 2nd story kitchen via a sliding door at the rear house exterior and onto a deck which is 9 feet above ground. The dog then enters the backyard by walking off the deck & going down the steps to the lawn below. Can I prevent shocking the dog if I have just one continuous backyard loop with a wire running along the ground at the back of the house’s exterior wall i.e. when the dog leaves the house it would be about 9 feet above the wire on the ground below.
ADMIN – Hi Phil,
Using the vertical separation and going under the deck works. As long as the boundary wire doesn’t get within say 8 feet (Assuming you set the boundary width to 5 feet, and want another 3 feet safety space) of the dog then you are all set. You also want to check the stair down to the yard to make sure they are not within 8 feet at any point. Also you want ot check that the signal is not getting through the back wall into parts of the house where you want the dog to be able to roam freely. If you do have that kind of separation, you are good to go!
We have a lakefront lot and would like to let the dogs go into the lake but not leave the property . Is this possible ? Thanks Tom
ADMIN – Hi Tom,
Hi Tom,
Establishing a water boundary is harder. but doable. It is harder because there is no easy way to get flags out ont he water and it is harder to train the dogs to quickly turn and retreat in the water if they cannot stand. The actual installation is easy. You can just run the wire through the water as per normal. Many people put the wire through an old hose and either float it across the surface or weigh is down.
You should also consider whether you want the dogs to have free reign over the water. Whenever we do this for clients with indoor dogs, they end up moving the boundary because the dogs swim and then track mud into the house.