Invisible Fence?

jwstewar · May 29, 2006

Does anyone know where we can get a decent Invisible Dog Fence inexpensively? We will need 2 collars and a total of a little over 1800' of wire. I want a decent system, but it doesn't have to be a top of the line system either, as it is if I spend $1 it is more then I spent on both dogs. :yum:

Just want to keep them out of the road and away from the neighbor's garden.

OhioTC18 · May 29, 2006

jwstewar said:
Does anyone know where we can get a decent Invisible Dog Fence inexpensively? We will need 2 collars and a total of a little over 1800' of wire. I want a decent system, but it doesn't have to be a top of the line system either, as it is if I spend $1 it is more then I spent on both dogs. Just want to keep them out of the road and away from the neighbor's garden.

Jim,
For $50 you can get a transmitter AND 2 collars!!!

Where you may ask? My house. You'll have to pick up your own wire. I think I bought some at The Andersons, but it's available different places. I have some flags, may not be enough for 1800 feet. I'll have to see what all I have. I know I have the trasmitter, 2 collars and flags. I'll knock it down to $25 if you take more rocks for the lovely Monica.

Dutch-NJ · May 29, 2006

Better grab that deal quick..............

Most used invisible fences don't have any collars at all, much less two.

jwstewar · May 29, 2006

Jerry,

SOLD!!!!!!! Let me know when you are available and I'll bring a trailer for some more rocks!!!! I need to post some pics of what Monica has done with the ones from last year.

Of course, you are welcome to come "visit" them in person and "inspect" the garage.

But I'll come and get the rocks still.

OhioTC18 · May 29, 2006

jwstewar said:
Jerry,

SOLD!!!!!!! Let me know when you are available and I'll bring a trailer for some more rocks!!!! I need to post some pics of what Monica has done with the ones from last year.

Of course, you are welcome to come "visit" them in person and "inspect" the garage. But I'll come and get the rocks still.

Just bring the Chevy, not enough to warrant the trailer. I'll let you know when will be good, but I would like to come down and see what the place looks like.

cj7 · May 31, 2006

We bought our fence at WalMart several years ago.

If you need more wire you do not have to but the wire that comes with the fence. Any stranded wire will work. We just reinstalled our fence last fall. I used some 16g THHN Stranded.

OhioTC18 · Jun 1, 2006

OhioTC18 said:
Jim,
For $50 you can get a transmitter AND 2 collars!!!

Where you may ask? My house. You'll have to pick up your own wire. I think I bought some at The Andersons, but it's available different places. I have some flags, may not be enough for 1800 feet. I'll have to see what all I have. I know I have the trasmitter, 2 collars and flags. I'll knock it down to $25 if you take more rocks for the lovely Monica.

Jim,
Got to collecting the needed parts for you. The bad news is, I can only find one collar. Where did that spare collar walk off to by itself?
Here's what I have:

one collar complete with reciever and longer prongs for a long haired dog
one reciever minus collar
spare set of short prongs for short haired dogs
test light to test the range
transmitter with transformer
couple of hundred flags
training video and all manuals

I do have a 3/4-1" nylon collar we could make the second one for you, since I do have that spare reciever, but I know there is a complete one around here somewhere. I just can't find it.
Replacement collars can be purchased for about $70 if you'd want to just pick up another one. Wire can be purchased for the unit or as cj7 said, any stranded wire will work. When I looked online tonight I found 500' rolls made for that system for $44, thats kind of high in my opinion. All of my wire is buried and I doubt if you want to try to pull it all up

Batteries in the recievers have been around for quite a few years, but they can be picked up at CVS, Radio Shack, WalMart....etc.
Let me know what you want to do......... :tiphat:

TOMLESCOEQUIP · Jun 1, 2006

Radio fence : Baa Humbug !! UGHHHHHHHHHH !!! ....the lightning that came with last nights storms here just toasted my radio fence reciever (AGAIN) !! I just replaced it 6 months ago after the last time !! I think they may have a lightning warranty on the latest unit tho. I have it properly grounded to a copper ground rod, and it never blew the unit fuse, but still toasted the unit ! Hope my DOG doesn't find out............... :pat:

jwstewar · Jun 2, 2006

Jerry,

I'm still up for it. Just let me know. We've been letting the dogs out more and more and they are starting to really like it more and more, but unfortunately after they are out for awhile they decide to visit the neighbors and the neighbors' garden.

So we end up having to put them away. I hate to see their little faces in their cage when they were having so much fun out running around with the kids and everything. Good thing is, I only have to say "Come on girls, go back to your cage" and they go right in to it, I usually don't have to say it again and usually don't have to touch them or anything. :a1:

They might only do one "trick" but at least it is a good one - at least from my standpoint. :applause:

OhioTC18 · Jun 4, 2006

Jim,
I like to think that Buddy is so smart, but if I let that big bugger out all alone, he'd be gone in a heartbeat if he heard/saw another animal, dog, cat or whatever. He's done it before. We knew he'd never be held back by that invisible fence and they suggest shaving the hair if the dog has extremely long hair, which you know Buddy does.

I did locate some wire for you, maybe 2-300 feet of it. How does next weekend look for you? I'll even toss the rocks in my truck, come down and see the garage. We are eliminating a few flower beds and those rocks seem to appear out of nowhere. I even found some more where we thought we emptied them the last time You Monica and the kids came up. I don't have any large ones at all.

jwstewar · Jun 4, 2006

Saturday looks clear so anytime is fine. Monica got all excited that she'll be getting more rocks.

Invite the better half along and we can put something on the grill or whatever. PM/e-mail me if you don't remember how to get here.

OhioTC18 · Jun 5, 2006

jwstewar said:
Saturday looks clear so anytime is fine. Monica got all excited that she'll be getting more rocks. Invite the better half along and we can put something on the grill or whatever. PM/e-mail me if you don't remember how to get here.

Phyl probably won't make it, she is baby-sitting Emily. They do the shopping and whatever on Saturday. But if that situation changes, I'll let you know.

OhioTC18 · Jun 9, 2006

Jim,
I'm still planning on coming down tomorrow, maybe around 11-1. I wanted to get the rocks all loaded up tonight, but I helped my son move today, I'm a little stiff tonight. There's not really that many. Most are softball size. A few bigger.

jwstewar · Jun 10, 2006

We'll be here.

I plan on being out in the yard to day doing various tasks. Including picking rocks out from the dirt I've been trying to dispose of in the yard and laying the land scaping timbers by the driveway. Might also be drilling some holes in bolts so that I don't lose them again as suggested by Brad at the other place.

jwstewar · Jul 2, 2006

Finally got chance to play with this yesterday. Put an elbow on the subsoiler. I used the two spoils of wire I got from Jerry pretty quickly. We had picked up 2 more boxes as Wally World earlier in the week. Finished those up yesterday. Went to town yesterday and bought a 3rd box of 500'. I've got the whole perimeter of the yard done. I'm down to running the twisted wire to the garage, but I'm out of wire again.

I'll go to Lowes now and see if I can buy some wire by the foot to keep from buying a whole other box - but we'll see what the cost is.

Other than the fact we kept running out of wire, has gone pretty smooth so far. Ground was a little dryer than I wanted so it tore it up a little bit more then normal, but not bad. Only one area did I really have to rev the tractor up and drop it in 4wd to keep going - damn crab grass.

Can't wait to get it done and let the dogs loose. I think I'll buy an automatic water from TSC for $20 and put it at the garage so they can always have nice cool, fresh water since they won't (hopefully) be going to the ditch anymore.

jwstewar · Jul 4, 2006

Went to town today to buy wire. It was going to end up costing just as much to buy the wire by foot and get 100' of wire and no flags as it would just to buy another kit. So we bought our 4th add on kit. :pat:

Stretched 2 strands out and hooked it to the cordless drill. Poked a little hole in one of the siding blocks for the outside outlets and ran the wire down the wall behind the siding. I then buried it out to my perimeter run. Made my last connections and mounted the box in the garage. I then put new batteries in one of the collars and hooked the test light to it and walked to the side yard. Heard a little beeping sound and then saw the light flashing. Woohoo!!! everything works. I was worried that we may had broken a wire somewhere and didn't see it, but apparently not. Tomorrow I'll hook the lawn roller up and roll where I trenched and then I'll mow it as short as possible and then we'll flag it and put the dogs on the leash and try to teach them the bounderies and we'll see what happens.... :hide:

PS...I was a little worried about the length of wire for this particular unit as the box said for most small to medium yards.....hmmmm....we were doing about 5 1/2 acres or so, I don't think I would call that exactly a small - or even medium for that matter - sized yard. But in the manual that came with it it says that you can use 4000' of wire. We are probably only around 2000' so we are in good shape. The subsoiler is now nice and shiny again.

OhioTC18 · Jul 5, 2006

I think I had almost 1200' feet connected to it. It does have a light that will tell you if the loop is broken, if I remember right. I was sure it worked, it had only been energized a few times, other than that, it was disconnected.

Dargo · Jul 5, 2006

With the jogs and different setups to keep the dogs off of my driveway, I have almost 4500 feet of wire out with my Invisible Fence brand fence. Hopefully you laid the wire sort of zig zag in the trench to leave some extra to compensate for the freeze and thaw. The first time I put the wire in I just ran it straight and tight in the narrow trench. During the first really hard freeze my wire was pulled apart in numerous places; too many to even consider repairing. That is when I learned to leave a bit of slack and I ran over 3000 feet of replacement wire.

Ah, I just found the receipt where I first bought the unit; 1994. In the previous year I went through about 4 or 5 of the cheapo units. If there was lightning anywhere in the same county (it seemed) my unit got toasted. My Invisible Fence brand unit and collars have been in continous use since 1994 with zero failures and I've never unplugged the unit for any storm. As I said, my only mistake was when I went to encompass about 12 acres and did not allow for freeze and thaw.

Melensdad · Jul 5, 2006

How do you cross a paved driveway? Do you have to bore under it or saw cut it?

Doc · Jul 5, 2006

You got my attention Dargo. I installed the invisible fence brand unit last Oct. I didn't pull the wire tight, but I didn't leave slack either. We had a very mild winter, so that sure was not a good test for it. I'd hate to have it break during one of our bad cold spells. It would be impossible to fix then. ...If it happens at least I'll know why. :pat:

Dargo · Jul 5, 2006

B_Skurka said:
How do you cross a paved driveway? Do you have to bore under it or saw cut it?

Ewwwww! You said paved driveway. With a concrete driveway it's easy; just run the wire in an expansion joint and fill the joint with the expansion joint caulk sealant. If your wire is much more than 4" deep you have a pretty good chance that it will act as a dead spot there. My "guess" would be that you'd have to saw cut it and fill the cut with the proper sealant.

Dargo · Jul 5, 2006

Doc said:
You got my attention Dargo. I installed the invisible fence brand unit last Oct. I didn't pull the wire tight, but I didn't leave slack either. We had a very mild winter, so that sure was not a good test for it. I'd hate to have it break during one of our bad cold spells. It would be impossible to fix then. ...If it happens at least I'll know why.

I learned that when I was negotiating to buy the local Invisible Fence franchise. I spent a week with the owner, who was retiring, and helped him install. He was the original franchise owner in my area. We actually reached a verbal buy/sell agreement and he died. Afterwards his wife refused to honor the agreement even though she sat in on most of the negotiations and insisted on putting the business up for sale. I backed out because I was offended and pissed off. Eighteen months later she sold for 8k less. Ha!

jwstewar · Jul 6, 2006

OhioTC18 said:
I think I had almost 1200' feet connected to it. It does have a light that will tell you if the loop is broken, if I remember right. I was sure it worked, it had only been energized a few times, other than that, it was disconnected.

Yes, it does have a light to let you know that it has a loop. I'm a little worried about what Dargo was saying about pulling it too tight. Didn't even think about the cold. :burp:

I did get it rolled yesterday day and set the mower deck low and got the grass mowed and flags put up. When I said we'll see what happens, I'm actually afraid to see what the dumb dogs do. I think that is going to be one of our projects for today. Put the collars on them and see how dumb they really are - as I have no doubt the fence itself is working. :tiphat:

Doc · Jul 6, 2006

Put them on a lease and walk them close to the 'line'. When you hear the beep, act excited and run very fast away from it into the yard area. This method was recommended by the invisible fence folks and it worked great for training our pup. We had to do that on all sides in various places so she'd get the idea. I only did it for the 1st two days. After that I think she got zapped once and that was it. She stays inside the fenced in area just fine.

OhioTC18 · Jul 6, 2006

Doc said:
Put them on a lease and walk them close to the 'line'. When you hear the beep, act excited and run very fast away from it into the yard area. This method was recommended by the invisible fence folks and it worked great for training our pup. We had to do that on all sides in various places so she'd get the idea. I only did it for the 1st two days. After that I think she got zapped once and that was it. She stays inside the fenced in area just fine.

Yes Doc, training is important. Getting to close to the flags means "NO". And then run back to the center of the yard. It may take repeated times showing them the boundry. Leave the flags up for awhile and see if they get the idea before they get the shock. The collars put out a tone when they're close, so maybe they'll learn that.

jwstewar · Jul 6, 2006

Woohoo!!!! I guess the dogs aren't too dumb after all. :yum:

I put the collars on them today and turned them loose. It didn't take them too long before they crossed the border. I've never seen a dog jump up straight in the air like Holly did. :yum:

It was too damn funny. Felt sorry for her, but yet my wife and I were both :yum:

. Then later I heard her wimper as she got too close and she backed off pretty quick. Not sure about Oreo never saw her jump nor did I hear her wimper. Funny thing was on the second shock Holly took she was close and so was Oreo - Holly growled at her like she had done something wrong. Don't know if they know where there borders are, but they sure aren't wondering too far right now. I did put them back in the cage for tonight just too make sure, that and the kids' new Banzai falls is out in the yard and I really don't want a hole chewed in it considering it was $350 :pat:

and just purchased Sunday. I think my kids are spoiled. :pat:

jwstewar · Aug 11, 2006

Just a quick update. We've still been keeping the dogs in their cage at night. But I think this pretty much sums it up. I had them out today during the time my tractor decided it wanted to play in the ditch. As I was walking toward the tractor they were right with me, as I started getting close to where the line is, they both just stopped and sat down. They were close enough to start getting their warning, but they know they can't go that far - even though we have since taken the flags down as I was getting tired of mowing around - well and sometimes over them. :pat:

I have to say we are pleased with the results.

Thanks Jerry and everyone else for the advice.

OhioTC18 · Aug 11, 2006

jwstewar said:
I have to say we are pleased with the results.

Thanks Jerry and everyone else for the advice.

Not a problem Jim, glad someone got some use out of it.

bczoom · Mar 18, 2009

Bump.

OK, looks like I may be needing to install invisible fence.

A few questions.
How long do you really need it before the dog(s) know the perimeter and stay where they belong?

Can the fence be run at ground level or partially in the air?

Besides the original Invisible Fence brand, are there any others worth looking at?

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq · Mar 18, 2009

I usually jost wove mine along the bottom of the fence around a foot off the ground. You don't have to bury it and you can "tune" the sensitivity.

I think the training time depends on the dogs age and pain tolerance.

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