Invisible Fence Fun..
Growing up we had a family dog named Ginger. She was some sort of a collie mutt, we were never really sure. She was a good dog but she had one big flaw. The second she got off leash she would bolt. She would always try to escape out the door whenever it was opened and once she got away she would not come back until she wanted to. No matter how much you called or chased her. It could be hours before she returned. More than once we received a call from the pound letting us know they had her. Twice she was picked up in the high school cafeteria (which was a mile away) getting free snacks from the kids.
Now, years later the last thing we wanted our dog to do was to bolt off leash so my wife purchased a SportDOG In-Ground Fence System which she expected me to install. Wonderful, just what I always wanted to do on a Saturday. I thought it was going to be a huge pain in the ass, figuring it out, digging a trench to bury the wire all around our property etc etc. Turns out it was not all that bad. I mean it took some time to do but it was not hard and I had it mostly done in one day.
Here is A YouTube Video With More Information On Invisible Dog Fences:
So now we have a nice invisible fence installed and it is time to train our dog. We followed the instructions and placed warning flags around the perimeter. We would bring her up close to the flags and say “Bad Flag” and then back her away. We did this for about a week until it was time to actually use the collar. You can set the SportDOG collar to just beep, beep and vibrate or beep and shock. We started off with beep and vibrate. I mean we thought we were being nice. Well, the first time that thing vibrated you would have thought we stuck her with a cattle prod. She freaked out, ran inside and pretty much went catatonic. We could not get her to come off the porch for a week.
My wife spoke with a dog trainer who informed us that because our dog was a rescue there was a good chance she was abused and that using the invisible fence probably wasn’t a good idea until we had her longer and built up more trust. Okay, that sounds reasonable. It was a bummer I had just installed the thing but we felt pretty bad the way she reacted so we were fine holding off training for a little while.
Now fast forward a couple of months and it is the heart of Winter. Each night before we went to bed we would have to take the dog out. If we could use the invisible fence we could have just opened the door and let her go out herself. But no, we had to take turns getting bundled up, putting her on a leash and then walk her around the backyard until she did her business. Freezing the whole time. We tried tying a long leash to the porch and putting her on that but she would just wrap herself around the bushes so it was more of a hassle then a help.
Once Spring came we decided to give training another try. It had been about six months so we figured she was ready. You know what? It actually went well. We started with the beep and vibrate setting but then moved up to beep and low shock. It only took her getting shocked once and that was it. She was trained. She never tries “break” through it. It is great because in the summer we can leave the sliding back door opened when we are home and she comes and goes as she pleases. No fuss no muss.
