Anyone done a DIY invisible fence?

[Green_Tea]

We have a small dog (under 15 lbs) and are exploring fencing options. Most but not all of our backyard is fenced in, but there are gaps. We are considering an invisible fence and it looks like there are many highly rated DIY options. Has anyone installed one themselves? Our lot is approximately .25 acres. I'd love to hear some feedback. I am not particularly concerned with keeping other dogs/animals out, but keeping our dog IN.

[homegirl]

We got the Pet Safe Wirelss fence for our 2 pit bulls. You can make a radius up to 100 feet and just plug this box into the middle of the "zone". We have our set so the dogs can go halfway down the driveway. The kit comes with white flags to mark the imaginary line temporarily to help the dogs figure out where they can go. After a while you can remove the flags because the dogs learn.

Since it's wireless, there's no wires to bury. You can set the shock on a scale of 1-10. We have our set at 3. Whenever the dog gets near the border of the zone, the collar beeps before it delivers a shock. The dog knows to retreat when it starts beeping. I've tried it on myself and it feels kind of like a 9-volt. But since it's for the safety of the dog and keeping them in the yard, I think it's a good thing.

I highly recommend the system as it has worked wonders for all our dogs. We tried many other things and this was the first thing that worked short of building a fence.

Also, you'll need to get 2 sets of dog licenses -- one for each collar. Every time you remove the dog from the "zone" you have to put a regular collar on, of course. Also when the dog jumps into a metal object (like a car) the collar looses signal and issues a shock. This happened to one of our dogs once but now we are really careful to remove the collar before the dog gets into the car.

[JBaxter]

We did. We cut the wire many time so we went with wthe wireless one. Works great

[trales]

We bought and installed the wired one from cabelas. We did it on an already fenced in acre that the newf was jumping the fence. It is great and under $200 dollars. We clipped it to the bottom of the fence, the only issue we had was that the Newf could jump high enough over it to get out of the range and not get shocked.

[dogmom]

Yes, I bought it from an online place that had lost of information. We have acres of land and they wanted $1,000 or more to install, which I thought was insane. We have in buried in our lawn, but just lying on the floor in woods, which makes checking for breaks easy. You don't have to bury it to make it work. We even cut a trench in the driveway to put the wire through. We changed models after several years to get a brand that didn't have an automatic shut off for the shock since our hound knew how to hang out, take the shock, then have it turn off. All we had to do was swap out the device, same wire. I know people who just drape it over the fence to keep big dogs away from the fence so they don't dig or jump. If you get the wired fence get the lightening protecter, we did have a lightening strike once on the loop and it went back through the wire to the outlet and good thing we had that one.

We just have a regular collar and a radio collar.

[wendibird22]

We DIYd ours 8 yr ago. It was a heat wave memorial weekend and we still remember the horrible experience. It sounded easier than it was. We had bought the package on clearance when Chase Pitkin went out of business. We live on an acre. DH dug the trench by hand and buried the wire. Took all weekend. In hindsight we should've rented a wire layer (some equipment places rent the out) or at least an edger machine. We thought doing it by hand with a garden spade would be easy. It wasn't.

I second getting the grounding wire for it. We also hand a lightening strike and it traveled to the outlet in our garage and burned the outlet and a part of the wall. Thankfully the outlet had a surge protector.

[Green_Tea]

Thank you for all the info! It's sounds like the wireless ones are easier to DIY. I am glad we are only dealing with a quarter acre!

[JBaxter]

Plus you can take the wireless one with you if you travel to family and take the dog.

[Green_Tea]

Plus you can take the wireless one with you if you travel to family and take the dog.

That's true. Seems like a really smart choice!

[doberbrat]

The training part is pretty important so dont skimp on that. Also, I know you said you're not concerned w/keeping other animals out, but with a 15lb dog, I'd worry about everything from stray dogs, to wildlife to thieves.