Comments on: Planning

By: Mike Robinson

Mike Robinson — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:06:39 +0000

Thank you for all of the great information! I have an outdoor outlet on the back of my house where I want to mount the transmitter. However, the transmitter will not be very sheltered from the elements. Is there a waterproof transmitter system available?(If not, I think I just came up with an idea to make me millions). If not, what happens if the transmitter gets wet? Lastly, do you have any clever ideas for a waterproof housing that could contain the transmitter and be mounted on the outside of the house.

ADMIN – Hi Mike,

The only weatherproof transmitter is on the Humane Contain, but I would avoid that system. We usually just use a regular system and put it in a weather proof box. You can get the boxes in the electrical section of most big-box hardware stores for around $20. You don’t want to put the transmitter unit outside unprotected otherwise after the next heavy rain it will short circuit and stop working.

Let us know how it goes with your million dollar idea. I am guessing it is a way to stop it raining.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:45:42 +0000

Thanking you in advance, you have a great website that answered most of my questions, but I need to be sure which fence to buy from you. My pup is only 9 weeks old right now, a lab/and something else cross (maybe golden,GSD and/or Chow) I live in a rural area in VT and am able to lay the wire through the woods on all sides of my house except when it crosses the driveway. There is a culvert running under the driveway and I was wondering if I could put the wire through the culvert or will that be too deep? Some of the wooded area is very thick with bushy vegetation, could other animals (like rabbits) pull the wire up and break it if they were to get near it? I want to fence in about 1.5 acre…..can you suggest the proper fence? Thanks.

ADMIN – Hi Deborah,

Appreciate your kind words. You can run the wire through the culvert. How deep depends on how wide you intend to set your fence boundary width settings. But, in general anything over one foot deep is going to block the signal getting to the surface and will compromise the fence in that area.

Usually with a wooded area we just staple down the wire to avoid some animal snagging themselves on the fence and breaking it. You will get the occasional break with a critter chewing through the wire. You can mitigate this by running the wire through irrigation pipe or sprinkler system pipe to protect it – but in our opinion this is not worth the extra effort and we find it easier to just deal with the occasional break.

For that kind of dog you have many options. The Innotek IUC-4100 is a good choice, it is a smaller collar and is rechargeable. The PetSafe Stubborn is also good, it has a bigger collar and uses a disposable battery, but is a little cheaper. Note if you use the Stubborn, you will want to keep it on the lower settings because anything beyond the medium correction on that system is likely to be counterproductive with your dog.

FYI – I would wait until he is six months old. Training is much easier once the dogs have matured a little bit, when they are just a pup they have a limited attention span. So you might want to wait a few months before making your purchase.

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:06:28 +0000

We have an 8 month old Malti-Poo that was taught to “run away” by our older dog (who has since been given away)! Our little guy originally would stay right by us when walking outside but now is gone whenever he gets out of the house. This seems to be a game for him and when neighbors find him they give him treats to “catch” him (which seems to be reinforcing the bad behavior). We have coyotes in the neighborhood and I am terrified that our baby will get out and will be an appetizer for the coyotes. Toby Mac is 12-1/2#. Our yard is fenced with a block wall (we live in Arizona) but Toby can get out the front door or garage door through the laundry room. What would you suggest?????

ADMIN – Hi Pat,

If the problem is darting out the garage and the front door, I would run the boundary wire around the entire property perimeter. When you are going around the rear which is already fenced in, I would either bury the wire or staple it to the side of the fence.

A good system for a dog that size would be the Innotek IUC-4100. It has one of the smaller collars, and is rechargeable. The PetSafe Little Dog is also a good choice and is a little cheaper, but there is a significant ongoing expense due to the proprietary PetSafe batteries it forces you to use.

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:02:26 +0000

Using the exact house/garage/driveway/control box location illustration in your Single-sided Boundary Layout, is there a way to create that single-sided boundary without having the wires cross the driveway twice? One way I’m thinking is to lay the wire from the control box, along the right side (as you’re looking at the house) of the driveway, across the driveway to the opposite property line, back to the left edge of the driveway, up along that left edge of the driveway, through the garage and bypassing the control box, then alongside the right side of the driveway again down to where it turns onto the driveway.

Then, from there, twisting the wire along itself back towards the garage, bypassing the control box, back along the left side of the driveway, then back again towards the garage (still twisting it) until it reaches the control box. In the end, the wires on the right side of the driveway will be twisted twice on itself, and the wires on the left side will be twisted three times on itself. You probably haven’t heard of a layout like this, but I rather not make any more cuts in my asphalt driveway than necessary.

ADMIN – Hi Frank,

Afraid your creative wiring would not have the desired effect. You only get cancellation if two (or four or any other even number) wires are twisted together. When you twist three (or any odd number) wires together, you get a signal.

There is no good alternative to crossing the driveway twice that we have ever found.

By: Stuart Keen

Stuart Keen — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:51:11 +0000

1. My dog is a Labrador/Golden Retrieve mix, his coat is medium length and weighs 55 lbs. My concerns are a) he is an older dog (14+ years) and is developing bladder problems so he must have access to the unfenced back yard 24/7 (there are dog doors from the house to the lanai to the yard). But twice he wandered away from home, so I need the invisible fence to contain him. How often must I remove the collar and for how long? Basically, if he has access to the outside, he needs to wear the collar all the time, but I can periodically restrict him to the house without the collar for short periods if necessary.

2. Both sides of the back yard are open to my neighbors. The back of the yard has a 11 ft high concrete wall that extends to all properties in this development so this does not have to be “fenced”. However, in the right hand corner there is a 12 ft wide x 25 ft long “dead end” run (corridor) that runs parallel to the wall, behind my neighbor’s wooden fence. The configuration is like a fat upside-down “L”. The dog needs access to this corridor. How can I run the “invisible” wire fence from the house, along the right side of my yard, up to the corridor, then jump the entrance to the corridor over to the wall, along the top of the wall and back along the other side of the yard to the house? The 12 ft width of the corridor presents a problem. If I went up the fence and over to the wall, then the radiation from vertical wire would interfere with the entrance to the corridor. If I went down several feet into the ground, then when I came up the side of the wall, I would again have radiator from the vertical rise there. I understand placing the wire in a metal pipe would not help. Would covering with sheet metal help? Any suggestions for wiring this non-standard configuration?

ADMIN – Hi Stuart,

1. The manufacturers all recommend that the collars are worn only 12 hours a day. In practice, many people leave them on around the clock and this works fine. The important thing if you are going to leave the collar on constantly is to check the dog’s neck every couple of days for the first month, then weekly. If the dog develops a rash or allergic reaction, you want to catch it early.

2. To create a gap in the fence, you can go up high (8+ feet) overhead or deep down (at least 3 feet, maybe more depending on soil type). To avoid the vertical sections where the wire goes up/down, causing an signal that blocks the corridor, you may have to place the vertical sections further back from the opening.

The other option to create a gap is to make a big U-shaped loop that goes around the entire yard (but not the passage to be left open, then doubles back on itself six feet apart to complete the loop.

Shielding with metal pipe or sheet metal is not effective.

By: kellygf

kellygf — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:12:14 +0000

We are looking to purchase the Innotek 4100 for our 2+ acre property…for our 3 Australian Shepherds. We have 3 gates that we would like to be “free pass” areas. Is there a way to make the gate areas in the loop not charged? There is no overhead options for these gate areas.

ADMIN – Hi Kelly,

Other than going up high, or going deep down underground, there is no easy way to great 3 separate breaks in the fence. If you want the dogs to go through the gates, you will need to switch the system off or remove the collars every time.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:37:53 +0000

I would like to do a back yard only setup. If I were to use the twisted wire along the back side of the house then double back one of the wires and twist it with the other two, then create my loop along the outer yard would this work,( the double back /3 wire twist?) The gutter method is an option but our gutters tend to get full of leaves and then freeze, I know I know clean the gutters…. that aside.

ADMIN – Hi Dave,

Three wires twisted together does not cancel out the signal and will trigger the dog fence collar. Afraid, the gutters are your best bet. (PS – my feeling is that if you don’t have anything growing in your gutter, then it doesn’t need cleaning)

By: Auslander Scofflaw's Dad

Auslander Scofflaw's Dad — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:28:06 +0000

The back door of the house is literally on the NW corner of the house immediately adjacent to the driveway. The far side of the driveway is my property line on the west side I would like to keep Aussie from exiting the property from the driveway. The driveway is 9 ft wide. I understand I could form a narrow loop along the top and bottom of a fence along the driveway and happens to end even with the NW corner of the house. How “hard” is the perimeter? Do I end the loop 3 or 6 ft from the back door? Do I run a loop top and bottom of the fence and adjust the boundary to the edge of the house but not the door? If the later, then there is only 6 inches between the West edge of the house and the left side of the door. Fortunately there is a material difference in the driveway at the NW corner of the house. One side is asphalt the other is cement with a wooden grid embedded so if I had to I could loop on the ground closer to the door from the fence. But how far must the door be separated from the loop to be safe?

ADMIN – Hi James,

(1) By hard, I presume you mean is the boundary consistent. With the wired fences, the boundary will be much more consistent than with a wireless fence but there will still be a bit of vagueness, the boundary moving 1-2 feet from day-to-day.

(2) I would indeed run the loop along the top and bottom of the fence. But, I would adjust the boundary width so that you have 3 foot buffer between the where the boundary triggers and the door.

By: Danny

Danny — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:39:31 +0000

I had used to system I bought at walmart underground fence (wired). I noticed at least 2 problems:
(1) I live in a mobile home with no metal roof and no metal siding but with a metal frame (26×52). The correction would hit the dogs as they approached the house.
(2) The fence was slow to react and the dogs would run through. I live on 2.5 acres 200 x 400 feet of full trimmed woods (lower branches removed ) with the home offset to one side.
I was thinking about the wireless system because of the run through what type of system would you recommend ? ,what other info do you need ? Pictures?

ADMIN – Hi Danny,
(1) If the correction is getting inadvertently triggered, it is likely a problem with your layout. Take the collars and figure out where they are getting triggered. Email us a diagram of the layout and where the collars are getting triggered and we could help you figure it out.
(2) The slow reaction time is due to the brand of fence (I am guessing from Walmart that it is the Humane Contain). I would try switching it out for another brand. Since you have 2.5 acres, you set nice wide boundary zones. If you do the training with the dogs, then running through should not be a problem.
I would advise against wireless systems. Generally they are not as good as wired systems and in particular they are not good in wooded areas where there are many obstructions.

By: John Robinson

John Robinson — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:24:33 +0000

I would like to install a perimeter style around my 1acre property. Is it possible to put gate areas in so I can walk my dog to the neighbors property with out having the dog put on the brakes when she comes to the boundary line?

ADMIN – Hi John,

There are no gates per se. Once you have the dogs fully trained, we can start to teach them that it is ok to go through the fence when you give them permission. (You will of course have to take the collars off the dog before they cross the boundary) For more details on how to do the ‘gate’ training, see the Training –> Walking Your Dog section of the website.