05.05.07
Training Dog to Invisible Fence
Invisible fencing for dogs is the greatest thing since sliced bread! With it we are able to give our English Setter Peaches a huge yard area to run around in, including accompanying us to the barn when we tend the horses.
With Peaches we use a combo contain-and-train invisible fence made by Innotek. They recommend a dog is not old enough until 6 months to train to an invisible fence. With our Innotek model, settings are changeable on the collar itself– the contain mode is for everyday use of the fenced area. We can also manually use a handheld controller to reinforce other training– using warning sounds and/or pulsing corrective shock– either inside or outside of the contained yard.
Peaches plays inside her invisible-fenced yard, slip-sliding on icy snow in this video!
The invisible fencing system will come with instructions and possibly a DVD with examples. Basically, you first set up the fence. There must be visible boundaries for the dog to see, either obvious natural boundaries (hedge, treeline, other fencing etc.) or you place a line of flags in the ground to mark featurelsss boundaries. The fence emits an audible warning sound to the dog’s collar from up to 12 feet away from the fence, which changes in tonal intensity as the fence is approached, and then to a corrective pulsating vibration (shock) about 2-3 feet away from the fence. The distance range is adjustable.
To start training, put the dog on a leash and walk it around the fenceline in both directions, inside the boundary, and whenever the dog approaches the boundary you stop it with the leash and pull it back towards you sharply with a verbal NO command. You do this many times; a retractable leash could be helpful. Essentially you are establishing the boundary location in the dog’s mind and conditioning it to retreat from the boundary.
Next you put the training collar on the dog and repeat the boundary walking using the warning sound as a cue to tell the dog when to retreat from the fence (still reinforcing with the leash.) When the dog has this idea reliably, remove the leash and test the dog’s understanding of retreating from the fence at the warning signal, reinforcing verbally by calling the dog back to you if it encroaches towards the fence.
The last step is to set the collar for the corrective shock if the dog ignores the warning sound. Remember, the typical invisible fence has a warning sound which gets progressively more insistent as the collar approaches the fence, until it turns into a corrective vibrating (intermittent) shock. With Peaches it took her three shocks to learn that she dare not ignore the warning signal. She would not approach the fence after that, and she knew the limits of the boundaries. Thereafter she retreated from the fence as soon as she heard the warning signal from her collar. Final testing of the fence’s effectiveness is to cross the fence yourself and walk away from the dog; however, you should never call the dog to cross the fence.
To solve the problem of taking the dog on a walk outside the fence perimeter, we carry Peaches over the line (with her collar turned off, of course.) I have also heard of folks using a carpet remnant they place on the ground, and teach the dog it is OK to walk across the carpet and on a leash to cross the line.
When we installed our own invisible fence, we buried it only in areas where we had to, such as driveway and lawn. We had a lot of natural boundaries– stone walls, horse fences, treelines– which were protective enough to simply lay the fencewire on top of the ground. We DID have to protect it from the horses, so anywhere it’s within a pasture we either buried it at the fenceline or tied it up to the bottom fencerail. Our horses paw and dig near fencelines, especially in winter, searching for acorns and grass morsels. They seem to like nothing better than chewing up a section of dog fence wire, so we have had to patch it together in many places. We had to bury it inside a piece of rubber hose under a horse gate which they use frequently.
If we had not put up this dog fence, Peaches would most certainly be dead– most likely run over by a car or killed by a coyote. There’s no doubt that an invisible fence is less expensive (around $100-$200 self-installed) than any other kind of fencing to keep the dog at home. I have heard some people are afraid it is cruel to use shock training of any kind; I think it is crueler to let the dog be run over or be staked out on a chain or given no freedom at all. Of course some dogs are not inclined to run around or to wander like an English Setter is, but peace of mind is important to consider.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome, as always!
Randall Botma said,
September 10, 2007 at 3:23 pm
you have been very helpful thanks a lot rjaybotma@yahoo.com