It’s what you don’t see that’s most important with an Electronic Dog Fence
A car without a good engine won’t last long and won’t get you were you want without considerable headaches. Likewise, an Electric dog fence containment system won’t be dependable without a few key ingredients. Those key ingredients are not what most people think.
The Electric or underground dog fence system is made up of: A radio transmitter that sends the signal, a special receiver collar that the dog wears, the underground perimeter wire, boundary flags and training.
Everything mentioned is necessary for an electric dog fence containment system. Though people often focus on the transmitter and the containment collar in their comparison efforts. These are important. They also are the most easily replaced aspects of a system.
The real question is what parts are most important? Which parts Must you get right from the beginning? And which parts will give you a really big headache if you have to replace them?
The training and the underground wire or cable are the two most under looked critical parts of a successful containment system.
Why?
First, proper containment training is more, much more that simply ‘showing the dog the boundary flags’. unfortunately dogs are not like children or adults for that matter we can’t just ‘show them the boundaries’ a few times and expect them to not only respect them but to understand the hidden boundary concept. Proper training, not just exposure to the boundary flags, takes two things to be successful long term; introducing proper distractions (people walking by, other dogs, cars coming and going and more) and, time. More on proper training here.
The second most important and most often overlooked component is the proper containment wire cable. unfortunately most ‘kit systems’ sold in stores and on Amazon and at other stores have dangerously small wire that can be easily nicked and damaged just by the act of putting it in the ground. As soon as this thin containment wire contacts a rock it can damage the thin outer casing exposing it to water. Then its just a matter of time. Even some ‘professional’ installers use sub-optimal wire. This is an unwise practice and can leave the homeowner with problems not so far down the road. Insist on at least 45 mil cable housing on a 14 or 16 gauge wire. This ensures most protection. Besides all it can take is a hit from a shovel or landscaping person to damage a too thin wire. Bigger really is better. More peace of mind and less headaches in real life situations.