Steve:
Hi. I’m Steve from contain my dog. I’m here to talk with you today about electric dog fences, specifically, how they work. Electric dog fences have been around a long time, since the mid-1970s. Although the fences have been around over 40 years, and many folks have accepted them as a great solution for keeping their dogs safe, I often still get asked to explain how they work. First, I’m going to tell you the components that make up an electric dog fence, then I’ll explain the purpose of each of these parts. Lastly, I’ll explain how they all work together to make for a successful containment system. The electric dog fence is made up of four major components: The transmitter, twisted pair cable, the perimeter cable, and the dog’s containment collar.
First the transmitter. The transmitter generates a radio frequency signal and sends that signal out to the perimeter cable that goes around your yard. How does the signal get there? That’s the purpose of the twisted cable. The twisted cables are actually two wires that are tightly wound together carrying a signal from a transmitter, out to the perimeter cable. Because the two wires are twisted together, the radio signal is cancelled out so the dog can cross the twisted cable in the yard, and it won’t set off the containment collar.
Next, is the perimeter cable. The perimeter cable defines your dog’s boundaries in your yard. One of the really wonderful things about the electric dog fence is that the perimeter cable can make turns and go places in the yard that you just can’t do with a conventional or a physical type of fence. The dog can’t go over or dig under it, and the perimeter cables hook up to the twisted wire that we just spoke about. Now, the perimeter cable must make a complete loop around your yard in order to work.
It’s not possible, for example, just to make a line with the electric dog fence. The containment cable must make a completed circuit. It must start and end at the same point. One of the really important this to remember is that the perimeter cable is not the actually boundary of how far your dog can go. Your dog can’t go up to the cable. This is because the radio signals travels from the perimeter cable, and extends out a specific distance. The distance it travels is what we call a field width, and is programmed at the time of installation. The warning flags are set just before the field to warn your dog. If the field width extends to here, for example, the warning flags are placed right here as well.
Lastly, there is the dog’s containment collar. The dog’s containment collar is a special collar that your dog will wear in addition to his or her regular collar. The dog’s containment collar receives a signal from the perimeter cable and first delivers a high frequency warning tone at the flags, then a few seconds later delivers a static collection. The house side of the flags, in here, is a safe area for your dog, no beeps or correction shocks. The flags in beyond are the ouch or no-go zones.
One thing to note is the no-go zone or the distance from the cable is the same at all locations in the yard. If the transmitter is programmed to send out a 3-foot signal, that’s a 3-foot boundary around the entire yard. Although the electric dog fence must make a complete socket. You can, for example, configure your fence to not allow your dog to go from back yard to the front yard, or you can keep them out of a garden or a pool. Those configurations are explained in another video.
That’s a brief explanation of how an electric dog fence really works. I hope this was helpful to you. Feel free to ask any questions that you have. I’ll do my best to answer them here, or in the blog. I’m looking forward to helping you have a safely contained dog. I’m Steve Schwartz. Make it a great day.