Wire for an Electronic Dog Fence
16 Gauge Wire vs. 18 Gauge Wire vs. 20 Gauge Wire (thick vs. thin)
Most systems include a reel of wire for you to use, usually 20 gauge wire.
But systems will generally accept any wire between 16 and 20 gauge, the latter being thinner than the former. We have heard suggestions that thicker wire (e.g. 16 gauge or 18 gauge) is superior since it is less likely to break. We are agnostic. Our experience has been that the thinner 20 gauge wire is just as good. Anything that breaks the thin wire will also likely break the thicker wire, so we do not think there is any advantage using the thicker more expensive wire.
Thinner wire has the advantage of being easier to work with since it is more flexible. In particular I would avoid 16 gauge because it is much too stiff to easily work with.
That said, the price difference between the thin wire and the thick wire will likely be less than twenty dollars, so if you feel more comfortable with the thicker wire, go for it. Just try not to mix different gauges of wire, it is not the end of the world if you do, but it will result in somewhat more variable field widths.
A note on availability, the thinner 20 and 18 gauge wire is somewhat hard to buy, not being available at most hardware stores like Home Depot, Loews or Ace, that only stock 16 gauge wire. The easiest place to get more 20 or 18 gauge wire is to order it from the supplier that sold you the system. It should also be cheaper than the 16 gauge wire available at the home improvement stores. To get 20 and 18 gauge wire locally, try your nearest electrical supply stores and ask if they stock reels of “single strand 20 gauge wire.” (note, most are not open on weekends, so time your visit during the week)
Twisted Wire
You need to use twisted wire to run between the transmitter box and the boundary, and for any other place where you do not want the wire to trigger the receiver collar. By twisting two wires together, the radio wave cancel each other out and thus the dog can walk over the twisted wire without getting a correction.
The easiest way to get twisted wire is to buy it. You can usually buy twisted wire from the people that sold you your system. It will cost you around $25.
You can also make your own twisted wire. First decide how much you will need and cut two single pieces of wire double that length (twisting the wire makes it shorter). Tape the two pieces of wire together at both ends using some masking or electrical tape. Now tape one of those ends to an electric drill and hold the other end in your hand. Turn on the drill and let it twist the wires together until you have about four twists per inch. This is harder on the thicker gauges of wire, with 16 gauge wire it is very difficult so use a thinner gauge for the twisted section.
For more details on twisted wire, take a look at the following tutorial video:
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
can the wire be twisted too tight and cause the entire system not to work?
ADMIN – you want to do about four twists per inch, but that does not need to be perfect. We have never heard of a system not working due to overtwisting, unless that overtwisting causes a break in the wire.
I am going to have the transmitter in my garage which is on one side of my house, then I am going to lay wire around the perimiter of the back yard which is 600 feet ending up at the opposite end of the property/house. I would need to some how get the end of the wire back to the garage which is 60 plus feet away.
My main concern is that that wire will have to go right through/past the porches that I want my dog to have access to. I cannot see how the twisted wire will help me in this senario..
The only thing I can see is to double back all the way around the yard as I have seen in some drawings…. that just seems to be a waste of wire.
thanks
ADMIN – Hi Darwin,
You are right the twisted wire does not help here. Doubling back would be one option.
Another would be to run the wire up the downspout on one side of your house, through the guttering and down the downspout on the opposite side. The vertical clearance should let the dog still get thought the back door.
A final option would be to run the wire around the front of the house.
Hope that helps.
I have one small section that I would like the dogs to cross over. Can I splice twisted wire into a 12 ft section of the boundry wire? From the drawing plan on the website it looks like a splice then boundry wire then another splice of twisted then boundry around the shed structure. But then I read the post about the porch so I’m confused.
What I want to do is have a shock free section of the boundry wire. How do I do this, I have a couple acres that I don’t want to have to double back on. thanks
ADMIN – Hi Susan,
There is no easy way to create a section of the boundary loop that does not have a correction. You cannot splice the twisted pair of wires into part of the boundary loop.
The only way to create a non-active section of the outer boundary loop is to:
1. go high above that section so that the wire is high enough that the dog does not get the correction down below.
2. go down below that section so that the wire is down far enough that the dog does not get the correction when it crosses over.
Twisted wire is primarily used to connect the boundary loop to the transmitter box. Unforuntatlely it cannot be used as part of the boundary loop.
I have an older Invisible Fence transmitter ICT700 and I need to buy Perimeter wire (800′+-)Invisible fence company sells 14g can I use 20g without a problem
Admin – Hi Barry,
Yes, you can use regular 20-gauge wire without any problem.
In every illustration I have found, it seems twisted wire leading to the transmitter is required. I plan to have the transmitter in my garage. The plan is to have the wires out one side of the garage mounted up in the garage rafters (where the garage acts as part of the boundary, and the other lead directly out the opposite side wall – direct wires out each side of the transmitter to form the loop. Am I missing something? Do I need any twisted wires and splices at all?
ADMIN – Hi Eric,
You don’t need to start with twisted wire. It seems like in your installation that it will not be necessary. The reason most people use a small section of twisted wire to start the installation is that they want a non-correction section that gets them out to the main loop. With your installation, where the garage is part of the boundary, a non-active twisted wire section is both unecessary and undesirable.
How far into the ground will the wire have to be placed for a section not to pick up the signal?
Hi Garrett,
The wire will have to be buried very deep. The exact depth will depend on how high you have the boundary width set, but at least one foot if you want there to be no signal at the surface. Burying at one foot is difficult, and I would strongly suggest that you use another method to create a no signal section. If you tell us more about your layout, we can usually find an easier solution!
I will be running a 2000′ loop around my property. The question that I have is this. What is the max distance that I can run twisted wire from the box out to start my boundary,and will the large size of the boundry effect this twisted wire distance ?
ADMIN – Hi Mike,
There is no limit on the amount of twisted wire your system can use. The 2000′ loop is not an issue, provided your system can handle the combined length of the twisted wire and the loop. If you are using something for big yards like the SportDog or the Innotek IUC-4100 then you are well within the capacity of the system.
How do I bury the perimeter cable under a 16 foot width of sidewalk that I want included?
ADMIN – Hi Sean,
The easiest way to buy the cable under the sidewalk would be to cut a shallow groove across the sidewalk with a circular saw, place the cable in the groove and then calk over it. If there is already an expansion joint in place use this instead.
Hello,
Which is better, strained wire or solid wire? thanks
ADMIN – Hi Rodger,
There is no significant difference in performance whether you use the stranded or solid wire. The stranded is a little easier to work with, the solid is a little more corossion resistant. But, they are still very close and either will work very well for this application.
Has anyone tried using shielded wire for producing dead spots in the loop? I’m thinking that something like TV cable, with the braided shield grounded, to get around a porch without having to use a double loop with twisted wire.
For creating dead spots in the wire, can you do a three wire twist? If I understand correctly, in order to create a dead spot, you have to twist wire with the current headed in opposite directions. This is good for getting from one loop to another isolated loop, like a flower bed. I’m trying to create one single loop around my back yard, including the back of my house where the back door is. I want the dog to be able to pass through the back door without getting a shock. What I was wondering is if I take the wire past the back door a few feet, then go back with the wire in that same area (that gives me the two wires to twist), then come back one more time with the wire. If I twist all three of these sections of the wire, will that cancel the signal, or will having that extra strand enable the signal to be preserved (and my dog will get shocked)?
Thanks,
Dave
ADMIN – Hi Dave,
Clever idea, but unforunately you cannot do a three wire section – the signal will still be present and the dog will still get the correction. There are a few ways to do a backyard only that you can see in our planning section.
This site is great. Wish it was around 5 years ago when I was installing my own here on 14 acres.
I laid down 340o ft of stranded 14 gauge (no not buried, its also through woods and bramble). Rabbits chewed through it in multiple places. So I ordered 4000 ft of 10 gauge solid. They don’t chew through that, and the cost (a few hundred) is a lot less than a half mile of trenching. So if you are not going to bury it, get heavy solid core. Its a few hundred dollars well spent on a large system. I even looked at getting aluminum 6 gauge wire in a huge roll (as for power wires) – If I had do it again I would perhaps use that – no splices. Also you get a nice low total resistance (about 10 ohms on my system).
Also as a physicist I know that twisting the wires is not really needed – for the frequencies that these things work at using wire like lamp cord (I used 16-2 house wiring which is really sturdy and fairly cheap) will work as well. If you do use a twisted method you do need to be carful that the lengths of each wire are the same – if one is shorter than the other then you might get some signal leaking out. My guess would be that not getting the twisted pair of wires each the same length is a problem.
Like the other people I would like to do one loop around the back yard. The backdoor exits to a deck that is about 18 inches off the ground, and the dog carries the collar with receiver at least a foot off the deck. So if I run the wire under the deck the total distance from wire to receiver will be about 30 inches.
Would a 30 inch distance be enough to let the dog get out the door? Can I adjust the RF signal strength so 30 inches is enough and still have the fence effective (it is an inexpensive Innotek)? Will using shielded television co-ax partially attenuate the signal under the deck?
ADMIN – Hi Guy,
You could adjust the boundary width distance to say 12 inches. It would be hard to train the dog with such a thin boundary. I would suggest you try another route. You could not set it to more than 18 inches, otherwise you would get the dog getting the corection every time they lay down and also the boundary is not precise down to the inch, so you don’t want to set ti so agressively that there is no margin for safety.
We have never seen good results from shielding.
Thanks in advance,
Guy
I am planning to install a loop around my backyard on 3 sides with the house being the 4th side. Is it possible to use shielded TV coaxial cable for the wire along the side of the house with the dog access door? I have read your claim of poor success with coaxial cable, and I can understand how it would not be effective if left ungrounded. However, you never said if the homeowners installed a GROUNDED connection to the outer shield braided wire to make the shield work.
ADMIN – Hi Randy,
You can certainly give it a shot. We have tried a bunch of things to shield the signal in one section but none has proved fruitful, nor have we ever had a customer successfully do it. Don’t want to be doom and gloom, we would love to see it successfully done … it would be very useful and we would love to hear if anyone does it successfully, but I would not bank on it.
What most people do to complete the loop is run the wire up a downspout on one side of their home, along the gutter and down the downspout on the other side. That vertical height separation is usually enough to let the dog come in and out of the house at liberty.
can a “Dead Zone” be created by running wire through a section of metal pipe ( ? if copper better shield than galvanized iron) ,or within a section of 2 pipes with one inside the other, a combination of pipe & burying in ground ?
ADMIN – Hi Ken,
There is no good way to shield the wire that we have discovered. Encasing the wire in a metal pipe does not help, nor does shielded wire. The best way to create a section with no correction is to modify the layout so that the wire either bypasses the area, passes high over or low below the intended dead zone.
My basic plan is to have an irregular 3.5 acre loop, on one end I would like to have a dead zone of approx 15 ft in order to allow access to a creek. I seem to be getting that the only way to do this is to bury the cable more than 1ft or elevate the wire more than 6 feet?
Is this correct, I can not just splice in twisted wire for this section?
Also, If I order from you, can I pre measure all footage and get an excact quote with 2 collars and all needed wire?
ADMIN – Hi Pat,
Correct, you have to either go down deep (depending on your boundary width settings you will probably need to go down (2+ feet), or up very high. Most people go high, and string the wire up a tree and across to another tree,
As you rightly surmised you cannot splice in a twisted wire section.
We would be happy to give you a quote. Wire is only sold in 500ft increments and my best guess is that with 3.5 acres you will need a total of 2,000 feet.