Invisable fence users?

Spirit ,i've had the system for 5 years with no mishaps. My dogs don't go near the boundry line .It's not the type of fence I would go any place and leave my dogs out alone unsupervised.It's the type of fence where I let them out to get a quick run and relieve themselves.My dogs are happy ,i'm happy , and it works.[]They have a acre of land to run on.My fence was installed by Dog Watch.Everything is warranteed.

ORIGINAL: RedyreRottweilers

Spend the same money on conventional fencing. If you have a digger, a single strand of electrified wire can be put around the inside of your fence for less than a hundred bucks. End of problem.

JMO as always.

 
 
Boy, I wish I had found this forum before we spent the money in the I-fence.  We installed a chain link fence all around our yard before we adopted.  Peanut would NOT stop digging escape holes under the fence!  I called around and asked, and b/c they were looking to make a sale, everyone pitched the I-fence. 
Had I known about it,  I would have tried the electrified wire first.  Now, the I-fence is installed & so far, it's been successfull in keeping Peanut far enough away from the fence to prevent her digging an escape hole.  So, for us, it's been a good thing.  BTW our collars are rechargeable & they blink red when recharge is needed.  Each charge takes about 2 hours and lasts about 2 months.

I guess all collars are different. The ones I have the collars , the batteries last about 2 years before I need to replace them. Then Dog Watch will send me a notice to replace the batteries.

tori, your use of the fence, as you describe it, is less problematic than some, but IMO, it still isn't the *best* alternative.  It's simply the easiest, and least expensive, which is why people do it.  I would save for a year, and find other ways to exercise my dogs before I would shock them for my own convenience.  But, JMHO, no offense intended.

Spirit ,just to let you know ,niether dog has been shocked in years now.They stay far enough from the boundry line. The i-fence is not for every one and every dog.It's a controversal fencing system.

ORIGINAL: sillysally

My aunt's dog learned to run through it.  I guess I just have a *thing* against invisible fences.  I don't like walking/horseback riding down a street and having to guess at whether the dog charging at me is behind an invisible fence or not.  There used to be a pair of yellow labs whose yard butted right up against our horse trail.  They would fly down the hill barking and carrying on--most of the time it was just noise.  One of them would come when called, but the other *really* wanted at the horses.  I would occasionally hear a beeping (I'm guessing that's the warning tone), and one time the dog did get zapped.

I can identify!!!!  For most of us, that's just an inconvenience, but if you are on a green horse, it can be dangerous. 
The thing some people don't understand is that some dogs will get hyped up time and time again, and one day will reach a point where the shock won't stop them.  In those cases, it can get very ugly indeed.
While I don't make a blanket statement that e-fence is never ok (example: when I know darn well that my client will never exercise the Weim or the Viszla they bought because it was so "pretty", and will probably dump the dog if they can't reduce the energy level), but for my dogs - never in a thousand years. 

Yeah, I just don't think they should be presented as working for all dogs all the time. They don't. If you've got a high-prey-drive high-pain-tolerance dog (like, say, hounds), the chances of them every being trained to stay behind an e-fence are fairly slim. A lot of people don't realize this, spend a lot of money on a fence and find that their dog is just like, "Yeah, not so much. See ya!"
 
For dogs that dig, I think a tie-out while supervised is the best option. On a 30 foot tie-out line, you can play fetch and have a great time without worry. We had a tie-out for our bloodhound mix when we lived out in the country on a lot of acres with no fence. We'd hang out, play fetch, wrestle, he'd sit under his favorite cedar tree in his custom Conrad-shaped hole that he dug. I just made sure that I always kept an eye on him when he was tied out, to avoid strangulation risk. Though he's not dumb and he figured out how to unwrap himself if he ever wrapped him self around the couple things it was possible to do that with in our yard.

Certainly invisible fences are not suitable for everyone. But, I must say, all, and I mean all, of my neighbors have  invisible fences. All sorts of breeds safely confined. As far as I know not one dog has ever gone wandering. Every single friend I have who has a "normal" fence has a story of their dog getting out and going wandering. I really don't like this attitude that if you don't put in a "real" fence, you're somehow an irresponsible cruel idiot.

ohhh!! NOOO!!

Invisible fences are TERRIBLE. Although it probably depends on the type of dog you have...

Murphy's Law (2 years old - I came here when he was born for help on how to raise a puppy) just got himself one... It's supposed to be the most humane one around - Humane Contain invisible fence...

We put it in day before yesterday, complete with a real fence, so he knows where his boundary is. Then we put the collar on him yesterday and started training....

The best way I can describe it is that he had his feelings terribly, terribly hurt. He immediately associated the tone with the shock, and associated it all with coming near the house, rather than the fence!!! After the first shock he jumped, yelped, and withdrew to his kennel. When I tried to get him out, he just looked at me with these big, sad eyes for a while, then turned around and went farther back into his dog house.

Today I could barely get him in the house. he won't "Talk" to me like he used to. He acts like he's incredibly disappointed in me.

ORIGINAL: *Belfleur*

Nevertheless it's forbitten by law- in Germany- thank God!

 
Belfleur, Germany is a dog loving country!  You could start a thread on the kind of differences between the states and your country.   
 
I understand that some people want them and use them without problems, but there are a lot of potential problems for both dog and human.

((I guess my initial post was my distress at Murphy's first reaction. He's doing better today, and I can't take the fence out now. If I had known it would be this way, then I wouldn't have bought it.))

We have a GSD that seems to seems to exhibit no recognition of borders, even though we routinely walk him around the perimeter to get him acquainted with the property.  The problem is that he'll stay alongside the border when we walk him, but he'll wander up to a mile away when unsupervised.  The alternative to the fence (that we are currently employing) is the long chain, which is something I'm not particularly cool with given the fact that he is essentially a working dog.

Can anybody reccomend a reliable brand electric fence for a 10-acre lot?  It should be noted that we do irrigate our land, so the collar needs to be water resistant.  From where I stand, $1000 for 1/2 an acre isn't economical.  I'm gathering that I'll probably have to buy a long wire and install the fence myself to avoid spending a ridiculous amount.

http://www.hitecpet.com/consys.html

It's what I have... Murphy seemed to settle down after the first few days. Now he plays and romps and smiles - but steers clear of the fence (boundary). He won't go near it unless I lead him, because I've (finally) shown him that I won't "make him beep".