I "dog sit" for my daughter once a month for 2 or 3 days.

She has 2 boxers.

They are very affectionate and loyal dogs.

But they keep pushing fence planks onto the neighbors yard.

I am tired of having to re-attach them. (I use screws instead of nails.)

Do they make a fence charger that could be installed along the bottom of the fence that would not kill the dogs ?

(Maybe one with adjustable voltage/current ?)

Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hUiKU9rlRE

Hi Andy...

Perhaps something like this, although I don't know if you can adjust the voltage.

My advice would be to first talk to your daughter about this and see if she's ok with it and to make sure that this does not adversely affect the dogs.

Regards...

You might want to look into an "electric fence," though I've never used one and have no idea how well it would work with brawny boxers who are already used to pushing the envelope, as it were. I do know someone who has one which works quite nicely with his Yorkie. (Don't go underestimating how feisty Yorkies can be. I used to have one; as far as he was concerned, he was a Labrador. He once chased a buck deer out of my back yard. Darndest thing I ever saw.)

My Daddy had a fence charger for his cows, but his fence was wire and the whole fence was charged. I think an "electric fence" is more along the line of what you are thinking about than a fence charger, which is designed to send the electrical charge directly through the fence.

This looks promising.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Havahart-Ele...item20d625f2ed

Yeah, that site says this product would be a nice way to train your pets. Sad thing is that people might actually believe that. There is no training component at all involved, the dog doesn't understand why he is being shocked. I personally wouldn't put 640-960V anywhere near my dog and most of elektro-shocking equipment isn't allowed here in Germany anyways.

A better way to train dogs is to use a remote controlled dog collar that sprays ice-spray (something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/PetSafe-Prem...item2c82435261 ), this way the dog doesn't get electrocuted, it is just unpleasant for the dog. Additionally, because such a collar is remote controlled you are directly involved in training the dog, so that you can give the dog clear commands and he can understand the relationship between his actions and the punishment.

Trainer involvement is crucial when training dogs, this isn't something you can automate.
I am a bit extreme when it comes to animals, but, IMHO, if someone is not willing to spend the time needed for proper training he/she shouldn't have (or sit) a dog.

I think that an electric fence would probably work well.

Most "fences" are actually wires, attached near the bottom of a metal fence on insulators, about three inches long, that are (for obvious human reasons) bright yellow.

And I have seen "fence chargers" that run on six-volt batteries, because what they actually do is to charge up an electrolytic capacitor. (The "spark coil" from an old car used to be a source of pranks.) The charge has high voltage (so it "smarts" ...), but almost no [/i]amperage.[/i] (Think of a high-pressure stream of water passing through a soda straw.) Thus, it really won't harm your dog. But you should set it on the lowest power setting.

Basically, what you want is for the dog to say: "WTF?!?! That hurt!" After a couple of days you can even turn the charger off.

I personally think that the radio collar devices are worth it: the actual device is battery powered and of questionable worth. I've seen them in the mud of the pen.

Agreed fully. I realize that people do use electric fences, I do not. I train my dogs to stay in my yard, to come when I call them, and to understand when they are very close to going beyond proper behavior. And NO there is no hitting involved!

An issue here, Andy is that you are "sitting" for these dogs on some form of basis, regular versus not. This sounds like "every once in a while" versus everyday or so many times per week by a pattern. I'd be concerned that they'd get one message from you and a totally different message from their primary owner. So I wouldn't entertain an electric fence if your daughter doesn't use one, and consider that the environment and boundaries are different between your home areas anyways.@SideTopic:
Formerly had a teacup poodle, 5 pounds he chased a dozen turkeys back up into their roosts and he'd go after a deer if I ever let him out. Yesterday of all things, we now have a cocker spaniel who just hit 1 year. Perfectly loving, playful guy. And he's met other dogs. Went to the ice cream place and there were two mutts, but full sized dogs like German Sheppard sized just sitting there with the crowd in line. Chillin' not even sniffing or bugging the nearby strangers. My 20 lb cocker sees them and went into attack mode. We're talking mouth frothing and psycho barking. The crowd was laughing like "those dogs'll tear you apart little guy" and those two dogs were just sitting there looking back, tongues hanging out, chillin'. Then of course once my guy gets his ice cream, his face is planted in his bowl getting every drop and somebody walks by with a Yorkie and then that dog starts menacing at my dog who is about 2x the Yorkie's size. It's like these little dogs have to go after anything bigger than them.

Might consider lining the bottom and middle of fence length wise with 12 gauge vinyl pastic sheets that are cut 16 inches wide and are 8 to 16 feet in length instead of going electric.

Me also

So I fence them in right
Like this

So I do not have to read about them in the paper like this

I know both guys as that is my town and neighborhood. I own 5 dogs and am a responsible dog owner. My wife used to be the animal control officer so I only have throw aways from euthanasia.

@ Fixit. Your daughter will be tickled pink if you improve her fencing
in the right manner. Girls like home improvement in my experience.

I live in the Wild West so my mind set may be skewed some what.

TobiSGD,

It does not look like it is remote controlled.

It activates based on barking.

I'd be inclined to go with something like rokytnji's suggestion, if only because electric fences need more maintenance (battery changes, corroded connections).

That said, electic fences are excellent in the right place. Don't forget that a lot of farmers and smallholders have dogs, cats, children and other small critters (not to mention tourists) running where they might fall against an electric fence, so even the 'large animal' fences have to be safe for all of them. The one possible danger is that an animal might get shocked for the first time, jump away and land in front of a passing vehicle.

As for training, the entire purpose of electrifying a fence is to train the animals not to touch the wire/tape, and hence not to break through the fence. So while a fence would not teach dogs to 'stay within the garden,' it would teach them 'not to touch this fence,' which might be useful for a habitual fence-breaker.

Farm animals learn to avoid the particular type of wire/tape they are familiar with, and if the fence isn't on all the time, some of them will learn to test it every now and then. I have a cow that is normally extremely thin-skinned, but if left in a field with greener grass(TM) on the other side of an electric tape, she'll be over it in a day or two if the fence is left off. I also once worked for farmer who had a small, terminally cheerful dog that would never carry her tail higher than her rump - that way she could easily trot under every electric fence on the farm.

Cattle, obviously, don't really learn (before they get turned into tasty steaks and hamburgers), but other animals certainly do.

Pigs, although the source of tasty pork chops and bacon, only need to get the shock once or twice. They seem to recognize the bright-yellow insulators ... and, come to think of it, that's probably one of the reasons why they (the insulators, not the pigs ... ) are bright yellow.

In the case of a dog, a battery-powered (lantern cell ...) unit ought to "teach the lesson" quickly and permanently. (Place the wire low to the ground so that he can't avoid touching it if he turns out to be a "digger.") A few "totally gentle and harmless, but unexpected(!), 'swats on the nose,' administered at precisely the most-opportune time, will quickly get the point across. You can even disconnect the batteries at that point: the lesson has been learned. It's simple Pavlovian Conditioning that does not harm them in the slightest.

(By the way, do attach a wire also to the gate: even if it is a disconnected "dummy," it should have the same yellow insulators. Although, in my dog's pens, I poured a block of Quickcrete at ground level beneath, specifically, the area betwixt the two gate-posts, to completely eliminate "digging" there.)

I wouldn't expect a cow to beat a pig through a maze, but cattle do learn. Otherwise I'd never be able to halter-train, much less milk, the things! They learn to respect fences, and whether they deliberately 'test' a fence or just carelessly touch it now and then, they will eventually notice if it's left off.

I have seen a horse walk up to an electric fence, slowly sniff at the tape, then (depending if the fence is energised) either walk away or lean across the fence to reach whatever's growing on the other side. Presumably a dog would be quick to learn something similar if the fence was only on part of the time.

I think that the most important thing is that the wire-line(s) is very obvious to the dog. The insulators which attach the wire to the fence are bright yellow for a reason. Many people tie short lengths of yellow (or orange) tape or flags to the wire to make it even more visible, because a key part of the lesson is visual.

Unlike "wireless shocking collar" devices (which, in my experience, don't work anyway ...), the presence and the location of the wire is very obvious to the dog, as is the consequence for touching the wire. The negative feedback is instantaneous, and it is also directly and unmistakably connected to "the act of touching the wire," therefore "getting too close to the fence." Within a day or two, you can disconnect the battery because the lesson has been learned. (Dogs are smart.)

(My original suggestion to go to a farm supply store is no-so-good: you do not need a unit, battery-powered or not, that can support "two miles" of fence!)

Just google "battery powered electric fence." (Maybe include the word, "garden.") I've seen one that works on flashlight batteries. (6v lantern batteries are more common.) It has high-voltage ("ouch!"), but no amperage. Thus, it is quite incapable of harming the animal, while it quickly gets the point across.

Unless the charger charges only your side of the fence(!?!), it might have unexpected consequences.

I am sure that you must have thought why they "charge" the fence in order to address the problem.

OK

Hi,

I have used 'electrified fences' on my horse farm for many years. True that a horse will sense when the fence is off. If you have ever touched a electrified fence the experience is not something you wish to have again. Most fence controllers use a high frequency created from the controller that is AC. It will not latch on to you or the animal like a DC voltage can. Very low current at a high voltage at a very high frequency.

I had a mare that would just run through a fence that was tape for containment. Shock was short and she wanted on the other side. I also had a small welsh which would paw at the ground, shutter then just run under a fence. Once on the other side he would just shake off the experience since he wanted in with the mares. He had been cut late so he had experience mounting a mare that was ripe(in-season). He would do anything to get to a mare. When I first got him, this would happen all the time with him getting into the mares paddock. I hid once to see how he was getting in and that's when I noticed his actions of just charging under the wire and through the fence.

The fencers will not kill anything. If you happen to have a 'burner' that is designed to control weeds and containment then the charge is a little higher at a greater frequency(Plus more $$). Horses and even cows will learn to respect the wire and will know when the fence is on.

I would check your local laws if this happens to be in town/city since the NEC is used within communities along with local ordinances that may not allow electrified containment.

Parameter control techniques would be a way to train the dogs to leave the fence alone. This type of control will use a small signal parameter string(wire) along with a sensing collar to control the distance allowed relative to the signal wire. The animal is shocked gradually as they approach a limit set by the operator relative to the sense wire. The animal will learn the response & limits when the sense wire is approached thus forming a boundary to prevent a negative response. You would be conditioning the animal to learn how far it could go before any charge from the collar. Conditioned response!

PETA would be totally against any form of conditioning using a charge. But they do not have to feed the world. Nor control a animal that could do harm to it self or others if not contained properly.