Did You know A Wireless Fence Could Save Your Pet?
I remember when I grew up we lived in the country and everyone in the neighborhood owned a dog. The streets had little traffic and there was lots of space between the houses and lots of woods and fields for all to roam. You could expect to see any of your friend’s dogs during the course of your travels during the day. It seemed more like the dogs belonged to the neighborhood, but each dog knew where to go for their dinner and when it was time to sleep. When I turned 16 and began driving, I remember seeing my dog a mile or so away from our house and pulling over in the car to give her a ride home. From the look on her face I could tell she had a great day exploring the woods, chasing scents, and probably getting into a bit of mischief. She also looked glad to see me and exhausted. I knew she appreciated the lift.
While I look back on those days fondly, those days are long gone. More and more people are particular about other people’s animals on their property and the damage that those dogs can do. A roaming dog may not understand leash laws, clean up rules, or fences, but people do. Irresponsible pet owners have made problems for everyone. This is why most communities have legislation, or at least a local understanding, that your dog needs to stay on your property. Even though I have those happy memories, I’ll admit this isn’t all a bad thing.
There are a lot of options out there to help you keep your dog in the yard, including traditional fencing and leashing when your pet is outside. An outdoor pen or a cable or dog run can also be a possible option. Each one has its own pluses and minuses. One relatively new method for keeping dogs contained is use of radio frequencies to establish a boundary for your pet. These are also called invisible fences or wireless fences.
Let’s take a look at each method and see what it’s good at and what its problems are.
Traditional fencing – Can be very effective if your dog is not prone to climbing or digging, but it becomes ineffective if a gate is left open by mistake. This is also a fairly expensive containment option and is usually limited to only the backyard.
Cable Tethering and Outdoor Pens – Very restrictive to your dog, and with the possibility of causing injury to the dog if the cable gets tangled, both of these methods are relatively cheap, but dogs in them tend to stick to one spot. This happens even with long cables and large pens. Using these methods extensively can really stress your dog out, and may result in behavioral problems.
Wireless fencing for pets – Fairly basic technology is used to allow you to train your dogs to know where the boundaries are and encourage staying in the right area.
We all know how the traditional methods do their jobs, so let’s take a look at the newest way of containing a pet and see how it works. We’ll also answer some of the most common questions people have about it.
Why A Wireless Fence?
There are lots of reasons that you might decide to go with this option for pet containment. In some parts of the country, you may not be allowed to have a traditional fence because of decisions made by your neighborhood association. Even in areas that do allow traditional and chain link fences, wireless fences may be a useful option for pet owners. It’s not possible for dogs that are contained using this method to dig under or jump over the wireless fence. Front yard access can be given, and there are no gates to leave open.
The way this technology works is that a radio transmitter is installed inside the house. The dog is wearing a collar that that knows when it is within the user set boundary. When the collar senses it is about to leave the “safe” area it gives a warning tone and then an electric stimulus if the dog doesn’t choose to move back towards the radio transmitter. With proper training, the dog quickly learns his boundaries and decides that he doesn’t want to receive the electric stimulus. It’s that simple. Naturally, with any electronic device, there are a myriad of options and features that can be had, but the basic concept remains the same.
There are several questions that people ask when they learn about this technology. The first is, does it really work? The answer is, absolutely. Most companies report success in over 99% of the cases.
The next question is, is it cruel? Well, this can easily be debated at length, but in my opinion the answer is a resounding “no”. Not because the negative stimulus isn’t unpleasant, because it is (if it wasn’t it wouldn’t work!). What most people don’t know is that a properly trained dog may only receive this stimulus a small handful of times in his entire life (most during the initial week of training). In exchange for this handful of negative experiences your dog will obediently stay in his own yard and avoid the possibility of truly serious injury or possible death from getting hit by a car. In addition, your dog will avoid spending endless hours at the end of a cable or chain or prison-like confinement in a pen.
If you already have a regular fence, you may wonder if you need this technology. You might not, but there are a number of reasons you may want to have it anyway. If you dog always stays in the yard and is unlikely to leave if a gate is left open, you may not need this type of deterrent. However, many dogs feel like a regular fence is a puzzle they need to solve. They learn how to dig, chew, or push through a traditional fence. I’ve even owned a dog that could break welded wired fencing and pull apart chain link fences. When a storm was approaching, he could even climb some fences! If a traditional fence offers successful containment for your pet, you may still want to get some of the benefits that wireless fences can offer, such as access to the front yard and a deterrent to running through open gates.
There are many things to consider when deciding to own a pet, and one of the most important is how you will be able to contain him safely in your yard. It is no longer a choice just to open the door and let him run. Responsible pet ownership requires more today than in the past, as it should.
Related posts:
- Wireless Dog Fence System
- Installing A Wireless Pet Fence
- Wireless Pet Fence Tips
- Should You Get A Wireless Dog Fence
Tagged with: cats • dog fence • Dogs • family • home • pet • pet containment • pet gate • pets • pets_and_animals
Filed under: Dogs
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