The Truth about Electric Dog Fences-
A wonderful thing about the internet is that we have access to information, lots and lots of information on just about any subject. And the ‘answers’ to our questions come fast. Kind of like rubbing the magic lantern and getting a answer. Its almost too easy.Unfortunately lots of answers doesn’t mean its easy to find correct answer to our particular situation particularly when it involves something like behavior and dogs.
We’ve all heard about Electric, Hidden type fencing for dogs. We’ve heard they can be a great tool to keep our dogs safe. We’ve also head lots of other things many of which are not true, some of which are potentially quite dangerous if we follow their advice. We’ll address a few of what I’ve heard are the most harmful and damaging pieces of information out there about what an Electric Dog Fence and your what MUST and Shouldn’t be done.
Thinking about training your dog yourself? First read THIS.
Today’s topic: The training myth-
We’ve all heard, “Once a dog gets a shock or two it will learn not to leave the yard” Sounds logical, right? After all how many times did you have to put your hand on the stove before you generalized that you shouldn’t put your hand on a stove when its turned on?
Unfortunately dogs are not humans, they’re not classroom or book learners and don’t learn through verbal descriptions like saying to the dog “Bad Flag”- they don’t learn or generalize the same way we do. Dogs, all dogs, are ‘lab’ class learners. The challenge with training a dog for an Electric Hidden type fence is that too many folks assume that when the dog gets the shock it will quickly learn to associate the whole boundary areas with the shock.
Nothing, I mean nothing is further from the truth at the beginning of the training process. Why? Because the dog is most likely to associate the shock with being outside or being on the grass, or with a particular point (where it got the shock) rather than what we are training for- to Generalize that everything past the containment flags is an ‘ouch’ zone.. so stay on this side of the Flags.
If we really want our dogs to learn the boundaries for the Electric Dog Fence then we MUST first understand how dog learn. Then we MUST carefully observe the dogs reaction after receiving the correction and MUST be certain that the dog does not receive any further corrections if it is fearful or appears to be confused. More shocks does NOT equal quicker training in most cases. More corrections in a short time typically leads to a more confused dog.
Why saying ‘Bad Flag’ is a bad idea-
I’ve heard (and even seen containment companies) trainers telling people to bring their dog to the perimeter flags and point to the flags and say ‘Bad Flags’… I cringe when I hear this. This is one of the worse pieces of advice when training a dog for the Electric Hidden Dog Fence. Why? Let me ask you a question. When you talk to your dog where does your dog direct his attention? To the yard or to you? Correct, we’ve worked hard to help the dog associate our voice with attention to us. So, when we say to our dog ‘Bad Flags’ part or all of our dogs attention comes to us. This is exactly the opposite of what we want. What we want is the dog to pay attention to and learn from the environment. The flags, the beep of the containment collar and the ensuing corrective shock. This part is solid behavioral training. Operant Conditioning. The dog NEEDS to learn from the environment. This is how dogs and other animals learn to avoid pain by associating the one thing with another; in this case the flags, the beep and the shock. When you are talking to your dog you are actually distracting him from what he needs to pay attention to- The environment. In this case the flags, the beep, and the correction.
More next time on Electric Dog Fence- Myths and Maxims
If you desire proper training and professional installation contact the professionals and Contain My Dog Contain & Train HERE.