Dog Containment Systems
How it Works
Dog Containment Systems, also known as Invisible Fences*, Pet Containment Fences, Radio Fences, Dog Fences, or Underground Fences, work using three main components; a transmitter box, a boundary wire and a receiver collar. The transmitter box usually resides in the owners home amd sends weak radio waves out through the boundary wire that has been laid out around the perimeter of the owner’s yard. The receiver collars, that are worn by your dog, listen for the radio waves sent out through the boundary wire. When the dog gets near the boundary wire, the receiver collar detects the radio waves and beeps to warn the dog to retreat. If the dog keeps approaching the boundary wire the dog gets a mild shock to remind them to retreat.
For reviews of some Dog Fence systems click here. Or start planning your installation by clicking here.
Why it Works
The dog learns there are negative consequences for approaching the boundary and so learns to avoid the boundary. In much the same way we learn not to touch a hot stove by being told that it is bad and having a couple of bad experiences touching a bad stove, the dog learns not to go near the boundary by us training it to think crossing the boundary is bad and by having a couple of bad experiences going near the boundary and receiving the correction. Psychologists call this process Operant Conditioning.
Idle Speculation
We have been installing Dog Fences for a while now, and have a theory as to why they are so successful. We think that Dog Fences mimic the boundaries a dog would have in nature. The closest relatives to our domestic dogs were nomadic but they had boundaries. The boundaries were marked by geographic features such as waterway or biological features such as the presence of competing animals as indicated by scent. The wild dog knows where it is safe to go and more importantly it knows where it is not safe to go.
The domestic dog does not have any of that. It is not obvious to the dog that it cannot go outside your yard or that it cannot go onto the road. The dog fence fills the gap. It gives your dog a territory and teaches them that leaving the territory without you can be dangerous.
You will find it fascinating to see the change in your dogs once they learn their boundaries. Dogs that were running wild, digging under traditional fences or darting out open doors seem to transform. Suddenly, they are happy in their territory. The dog is at peace and does not worry about things outside the boundary, it does not even see them. We speculate that dogs crave boundaries and that the dog fence provides the boundaries they crave.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m thinking of installing an e-fence in my summer home, but I only live there from May-August. The rest of the year I live in a house with a fenced yard and don’t need an e-fence. Would a dog be able to go back and forth between a home with an e-fence and one with a physical fence? Thanks, K.
Hi Ken,
The dog will remember boundaries at a vacation home. But make sure
you have a continuous month of training in the vacation home to get him started. It takes them about that long to learn the system. So it is probably too late for this year. But if you start in May next year you will be
fine.
If you want to be extra cautious, you could put the flags out for a
couple of days when you get there each May to give them a refresher
but I do not think it will be necessary.
How close can a dog get to the fence before she gets a warning beep? The reason for the question is that I want my dog to be able to go from the front yard to the back yard but I only have about eight or ten feet of yard width on each side of my house. Thank You!
Tim
Dog Fence DIY – Hi Tim
You set the boundary width at the control panel and can make it from 1-10 feet wide. Most people will want to set the width to about 3 feet wide. You probably want another 3 feet to make a nice corridor to let your dog go through without getting near to the boundary. So with eight feet in your house you should be fine!
Hi my name is Richard what will happen if the dog goes past fhe e-fence
ADMIN – Hi Richard,
If the dog goes far enough past the fence boundary they stop getting the correction. It also makes it difficult for them to return, because they will get the correction coming back in.
The key is to spend some quality time training the dogs when you first put in the system so that they do not learn that they can run through, and that they think the best (and only) way to escape the correction is to retreat.
Hope that helps!
Will it keep a dog from jumping a fence? Due to city codes, our fence can only be 30 inches high. It keeps the puppy from getting out, but when he grows up (Standard Poodle), he will be able to walk over the fence!
ADMIN – Hi Charlene,
Lots of people with fences use these to stop jumping over the fence or digging a hole under the fence. They work really nicely with a physical fence as it makes training really easy because it is quickly evident to the dog where the boundary line is.
If you already have a fence, installation is pretty easy, just staple or zip-tie the boundary wire to the fence instead of burying it and you are ready to go.
Can you install two (2) boundary fences off the one transmitter unit??
I would like to fence the back yard (550 foot fence loop) and the front
(180 foot fence loop).
Thanks
ADMIN – Hi Robert,
You can use one transmitter to get two boundary areas by doing a figure eight design. For some more detailed in formation, take a look at the layouts in the planning section of the site.
I have 3 large dogs (60 lbs. +) and one small dog (12 lbs.) Can I use just one transmitter with the 4 dogs?
ADMIN – Hi Linda,
I think the best way to go, would be to get the petsafe small dog (for the little one); and then get three extra collars for the big dogs. You can use any petsafe collars with the petsafe small dog. A good choice would be to get either the PetSafe Stubborn dog collars or the PetSafe PRF-3004W Deluxe collars. Both are good because they have multiple correction levels. Which one to get would really depend on breed and temperament of the dogs. For most cases, the PRF-3004W should be fine; but you could use the Stubborn for a particularly big dog or a particularly strong willed dog. Perhaps a mix of the two.
I love your site. We live out on 5.5 Acres and we want to do the whole thing, is there a transmitter better than another for this large area?
ADMIN – Hi Katie,
The sportdog SDF-100 and the Innotek IUC-4100 are good choices for over 5 acres. They can do up to 25 and 50 acres respectively, so you will have plenty of capactiy.
We have farm fencing and our beagle is quite crafty about getting out. Our vet said electric fencing is probably our best bet. Do we just attach it to the bottom of our fencing and let her figure it out when she starts trying to work her way out again. I saw in a earlier reply that we can zip tie it to the fence itself. Sounds pretty easy.
ADMIN – Hi Starr,
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! You absolutely must train the crafty beagle, so that they know when their collar gives them a warning beep, they need to turn and retreat. The problem with letting them figure it out themselves is that 50% of the time they figure out that the way to stop getting the correction is to go through the fence, rather than retreating back into your property. Imagine you were a dog and out of nowhere get a static shock – you wouldn’t know what you are supposed to do, run through the fence, freeze or retreat. The training makes sure that they develop the reflex of retreating. (see the training section for details)
If you already have a fence, zipties are your friend and will make installation a snap. You will need to spend two weeks (two fifteen minute sessions a day) on the training. It is really easy and you will be very glad you did it.
Will the wire/fence work with above a 20 foot retaining wall? Our property is on a hill with the front yard, front door and front entry walkway above. Below a 20 foot retaining wall is the garage, driving and back yard. Should we loop the wire below the retaining wall and the bring it up the wall and loop back. Our dog has never gone near the edge of the wall and jumped but??? How high does the signal transmit??
ADMIN – The signal distance is set by you at the control box. Most people will set it at 3-5 feet. Too low and it is hard to train the dog, too big and it will take away too much of your yard. For that reason, I don’t think you want to set the boundary width at 20 feet, it would just make too much of your yard out of bounds.
If there is no concern about the dog going near the edge of the 20 foot retaining wall (that sounds like a cliff!), then loop it along the bottom, that way the dog can walk near the edge and get no correction, so they will get a bit of extra yard space. If you don’t want the dog going near the edge, then loop it across the top and it will prevent them going near the edge.
When laying the wire in a pattern where you loop back can the wire be laid in the same “trench” or will it cancel itself out?
ADMIN – Hi Dianna,
For the double horseshoe (U shaped) pattern, the wire cannot be laid in the same trench. You want to get six feet between wires. If you lay the wires closer than that they cancel each other out.
I am thinking about putting in a dog fence in front of a section of fence that has blown down and is now part of a boundary dispute so I cannot put up a wooden fence for quite a while. I really just need to put in a straight line and I know I can’t do that, but there is a gardening bed immediately in front of the blown down fence so I could surround that to make a circle that would also block the opening. My real question is, how far of a distance of twisted wire can you put in? If the twisted wire can be 40-50 feet then I could reach the spot where I need to put in the dog fence.
ADMIN – Hi Stephen,
You can use as much twisted wire as you want. 40-50 feet of twisted wire will not be an issue.
We would like to install the Innotek IUC 4100 around our 15 acre parcel. However, a creek runs through it which the dogs cool off in during the summer months. Usually about 4 inches of water in it and about 2 feet wide. The creek bed itself is about 8″ wide with 6′ banks. During periods of heavy rain the creek can fill to its banks. The fence would have to cross the creek in 2 places and keep the dogs from wandering out by going up or down the creek bed. Would the e-fence work in this application? Thank you
ADMIN – Hi,
The inground systems, including the Innotek 4100 will work fine going through water. There are two tips I would offer:
1. Run the part of the wire that will be going underwater through some old hose pipe, and sink it to the creek bed (this will help protect the wire from any debris during heavy rain
2. Make sure you don’t have any splices near the section that will be underwater. The splices are waterproof, but there is no need to test the fates!
If we train our dog to stay inside the fence, will she fight us if we want to take her past it for a walk or run?
ADMIN – After the dog is used to the system and confident, you can train her to go through the boundary when she is with you. The key is creating a new routine. Maybe you put her leash on (take the dog fence collar off), let her out and walk her out over the same spot every time. She will resist the first couple of times, but if you lead confidently, she will soon learn that this is an exception to the general boundary rule.
There is a lot more information of walking your dog in the “Enjoying your Fence” section of the website.
I have a pitbull-dalmatian mix. He can be very stubborn and has a high tolerance for pain, (a kid stepped on his tail and he didn’t even flinch). Will your collars work on him?
ADMIN – Hi Bill,
I would get a higher powered system like the PetSafe Stubborn for a pitbull. But, start low. Often a dog will have different thresholds for different types of pain — in this case it is not so much the pain, it is that it is such an unusual sensation for a dog that it may get their attention at a lower setting. If you aren’t getting a reaction then you can move up.
In order to create a boundary around my front yard I need to run the wire across the concrete driveway. How is this done?
ADMIN – Hi Mike,
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 and just know that they need to replace it every few years. 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 in the installation menu in the driveways tab.
I have two dogs and live in an area with no leash laws. The Golden has always been allowed to go out by herself and do her business, she’s about 70 lbs. We have just purchase a Havanese 5 month old.The two are inseparable, but I’m still thinking of an electric fence for the little one. Questions:
Is here an age limit for the system?
Is there a body weight limit ( puppy is about 9 lbs)
Is there a system that will work for both breeds.
We’re thinking of fencing in an area of 200′ 75′ foot
What would happen if only the little one had the collar. I don’t think the big one would go far without her. But the big one would be allowed to go where the little could not. Will the little on need a therapist (kidding) or just get used to it
ADMIN – Hi Ted,
There is no age limit, you just want the dog to be receptive to training. So if there is an old dog, you want to make sure they are healthy. (Also test their hearing, you would be surprised how often an old dog has lost their hearing but has adapted so well the owner doesn’t know. If they have lost their hearing use a collar with vibration) I like to wait till puppies are six months old.
No single collar is going to work well with both, but the PetSafe systems let you mix and match collars on the same system. I would use the PetSafe Small Dog collar for the Havanese and use a PetSafe Deluxe collar with the Golden Retriever. One little tip, train them apart. Especially when dogs are very close, they pay too much attention to each other and not enough to the training when you do them together.
The injustice will torment the little dog, particularly since she probably already has a Napolean complex! I predict a failed campaign to take over western europe will ensue, followed by her involuntary exile to Elba. No big deal, the Havanese will just learn she has different rules to her buddy. A lot of times the submissive dog will follow the lead of the pack leader and if you contain the pack leader you contain them both.
I have a concrete driveway with a spare (steel) pipe installed under it (about 12″ deep). Will the signal still work in these conditions?
Thanks, Dan
ADMIN – Hi Dan,
A foot deep should not be a problem, but you will have to turn the boundary width up to get through all that ground. This may cause problems in other parts of the yard where the signal is now too wide. If so, it may be easier just to put the wire in an expansion joint, or use a circular saw to cut a shallow slot across the driveway.
We live on a 80 acre parcel of land with a pond. What would be the best kit to purchase?
ADMIN – Hi John,
The only system that handles 80 acres is the SportDog SDF-100, which does up to 100 acres. It is a good system, with great waterproofing, but the collar is on the bigger side and only makes sense for dogs over 20 lbs.
We live on a creek and our retriever loves to play in it. Will the wireless fence work? Can you use the wireless system along in conjunction the underground system? We were thinking of putting the wireless system in the back yard where the creek is and then putting underground fencing on the rest of the property.
ADMIN – Hi Maggie,
The wireless systems do work with water (as do the wired systems). One thing to watch for if you opt for wireless, if there is a small valley where the water flows through the signals will often not get down into the valley. As always, we would prefer to see you use a wired system.
You cannot use a wireless in combination with a wired system. You would need two separate systems, with two separate collars, and neither would recognize the other’s boundaries so the dog would effectively be confined to the intersection of the two systems.
I think you will be able to achieve the layout you desire using just a wired system. If in doubt, email or fax us a diagram and we would be happy to help you design the containment system layout.
Can the wire be put through a culvert that goes under our driveway?
ADMIN – Hi Maggie,
You can run the electric dog fence boundary wire under the driveway in a culvert as long as it is not too deep. The signal starts getting really weakened when it is more there is more than a foot of concrete or dirt that the signal needs to go through.