Pet Fence Advice

I have a 8 month old German Shepard pup and lets just say she is a hand full. I live in the country on abouth 35 acres. and you would think that would be plenty of room for her to run, but no she enjoys running across the road to the neighbors and stealing shoes, lunch boxes, pumpkins, their dog's dog bed, basically anything and everything. Nieghbors are good about it and understand she is a puppy but I hate to create hard feelings with them. They have a wireless dog fence but doesnt cover a very big area. I was wondering what some of the better wireless dog fences were and if anyone on here has them. I keep her locked up during the day when im not around but would like to buy a wireless fence so she could run and get her energy out. Any suggestions?

Why don't you just put the collar on her and ask them to turn their fence on. It will keep her out of their yard so the big problem would be reduced

We gave that a thought but I still dont want her crossing the road its a busy road and I would hate to see her get hit.

Yes, I have one. Don't remember the brand but my daughter works at a pet store and she got it for me there. Took a cultivator shovel and welded some handles on it like a walking plow. Wife pulled it with the lawn tractor and I grabbed the handles. Put about 500 ft. of wire in in about half hour. Trained the dog as per training video and after about 3 days you are good to go. After the dog gets in it maybe 3 times you can take the collar off and unplug it. Dog will not go near it. If you try and take dog across it on her leash she will skid all four feet and bite at the leash and squeal and she will try and kill you before she will let you drag her near that wire.

got the one from Lowes, used a lawn edger to bury cable, fenced off about 1/2 acre for lab mix (mutt), put up the training flags, worked on it about 3 weeks per instructions, good to go. One day a deer came into the area with him, he blew threw it chasing deer into woods, upgraded to 9volt collar, walked him back to corner where he ran thru deer and he twisted collar around 3 of my fingers , thought they were broke for sure but no more running thru, up graded collar used to be called bad dog collar, renamed now to be politically correct to stubborn dog collar. replace with dollar store 9 volt every 3 months and good to go. as said, cant tempt with bacon, cats, .... to cross line, he now enjoys his area , HTH

The invisible fences can work BUT are not fool proof. A former neighbor had one. Once the dog realized that it only got zapped close to property line, it would get out from time to time. Then it wouldn't want to go back inside the property for fear of being shocked. Use a good anchor and a long cable in the middle of the yard or a good chain link dog run for the best way to keep a dog on your property. We had a little dog that could climb a 5 ft. dog run so we zip tied chicken wire over the top. The person we bought our acreage from had his dog on lead that was tied to a post on a 4 ft. high railing. Very bad idea. The dog jumped off the railing and strangled itself. An owner should be charged in a case like that. Dave

I really like the one for our dog. Petsafe brand got it all used some at garage sales. I do go through plenty of batteries and shock collars don't last real long time either.
Some people think these are cruel,but I think letting them run freely is worse especially if they get hit on the road.

I wouldn't buy another Petsafe anything. We went through 5 of the bark(shock) collars. The first one lasted about 3 months intermittently. None of the other ones worked at all. We got a different brand that was cheaper, uses regular batteries and have had no problems. Dave

http://www.petfenceusa.com/containment.html

I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought this one. IT goes all the way around my 10 acre place but is rated for over a mile of fence. I have 3 dogs on the place that were just like yours sound. I put it in 3 years ago and haven't replaced the battery in any of them yet. I trained them in accordance with the instructions and only once the little female got so excited that she blew through the fence and couldn't get back. The colors have been on without being taken off for any length of time so they no longer even try the fence and you can't even beg them to leave. The thing about this system is I can let them into the back of the pickup or in the car and drive over it and it doesn't seem to bother them at all. It may be because now after all this time I have gradually decreased the collar settings and also the radio signal strength so that it's more of a warning than the shock thing. The one old dog when he first encountered it, hit it the first time and remained on the porch for the next week. It was funny because you could see the "What the He** happened to me look on his face, but that was the first and last time. He's a yellow lab. The beagle learns from others mistakes. He kind of sniffed along testing the perimeter and pretty soon was trotting along about 6 feet from the line. The black lab puppy was a different story, You would have thought she was a glutton for punishment as she kept running up to it and it was she was bouncing off it and shed try a little but farther down the line. She did this all the way around the perimeter. Now I know this sounds like it is heartless, but I assure it isn't as heartless as what brought this whole thing on and that was that the little black lab puppy pulled out of her collar and ran across the highway and got hit by a car and ended up being my grand daughters 3 legged puppy. She wrote a letter to Santa because the puppy had been a present from Santa and wanted him to to fix her broken puppy because it only had three legs now. Well needles to say Santa wrote back, and as she had named the puppy Kay, that Kay needed a good friend and that she should now call her Special Kay. They are the best of friends and praise the Lord the dog doesn't know she only has three legs and runs and plays like the rest of them. I wish I had done this before her tragedy. The person that hit her didn't even slow down or try to stop. Another driver actually picked the pup up, took her to the vet, payed for her care and got hold of us and the sheriff to let use know what had happened to the dog and the sheriff went and arrested the driver for extreme cruelty to animals. For once justice was met. But If I had had this fence, It would have never happened. Please, those of you who love animals, I am one of you. You may think its cruel at first but what is worse? keeping them up in the house or a little pen or on a chain? I hate all those options. A couple of little shocks that they will experience at first doesn't compare to what Special Kay went through, and she and her bros have 10 acres to run on. The collars have an audible warning before the shock. Read the information. Also, you can bury the wire or do like I did and tie wrap it to the existing fence. I express how much I recommend this system, and no I have nothing to do with the company. If you love and care about the dog, Don't hesitate. Get the SportDog In-Ground Fence System (SDF-100) that is advertised on this site. LarryT

Forget about the collars, you need an electric fence across the front of your property, that will stop her from running in the road. Set it high enough that it will get her but low enough that you can drive over it. Take her up to it a couple of times and she'll learn to stay clear. Its a heck of a lot cheaper than digging a line in too. Once she learns the boundary you can take it down.

Larry you are the one who should have been arrested for cruelty to animals. The driver that hit your dog did not drive off the road and intentionally hit your dog. The dog ran out in front of the car. You allowed the dog to run loose. I think you owe the driver an apology for allowing your dog to run out in front of his car. The driver was only responsible to stop if they knew that their vehicle had hit the dog. You are definitely the irresponsible person in this instance. Can't blame your mistake on others and expect to get out of blame. You did it to your daughters dog and no one else is responsible.

Sold and serviced electronic dog fences for 12 years. Didn't like the wireless ones...too many reasons they would not perform. Pet safe is a good brand.If you want it to work ....Train Train Train!
Most of my headaches were a result of Lack of training ("my dog was so smart he learned the fence in one day!" Then a call 3 months later wondering why the dog was bolting through the boundary.Start your shepherd off with the Stubborn dog collar...Very reliable and powerful if need be.(has adjustable correction level)Shepherds were one of the breeds that periodically tested to make sure the fence was operative. If you decide to go with the wireless...Train Train Train!
Good Luck,
Andy

The fact of the matter was she dug under the run fence. So I am glad your not a pet owner. You would have said the Dog deserved it, and you would most likely beat the dog for getting out. I can tell that your so perfect and can foresee all possibilities and also believe in hit and run because the pedestrian shouldn't have been in front of you on the road and he/she had no right to be there so you have no responsibility for what happened.

I do use the wireless PetSafe system with 2 transmitters to give our two dogs about 300 ft of range.

They will sometimes, but rarely, run through it if they are in high pursuit of a deer of other wildlife.

The one sure way to keep the dogs in is with an electric fence. Used that at my old place to keep them away from the horses, after getting bit a couple times by it all you had to do was string the wire any place you wanted to keep them out of.DOUG

I used the Pet Safe fence, added an additional 1000 feet of wire to it to get additional coverage. Very stubborn German Shepard and I needed the heavier duty 9 volt model. She also has a long coat and the short probes would not penetrate the undercoat to give enough of a jolt. She just ignored the lighter duty collar.

Trained as per instructions, after she learned the boundaries we stopped using the collar.

Found Pet Safe very good to deal with as we had problems with one collar. Replaced it after two years at no cost.