My dogs are trained for an electric fence. When they were puppies I purchased an Innotek Contain and Train SD-3000. Innotek has come out with much fancier systems now, but I’m still happy with what I have.

I like Innotek — they stand behind their products. The collars are the most expensive part and if one fails (and they have) you can do a trade-in at a much lower cost than buying a new collar.

This system also comes with an adjustable transmitter. The dog collars beep well before the dogs gets a shock. The width of that area where it gives the warning beep can be adjusted. I love this feature. My dogs hear the beep and high tail it back into safe territory.

Previous install

The house in Texas was an easier install for several reasons. It was a smaller yard. There were large ground cover areas that I could just run the wire through instead of burying it. But most importantly it had a concrete driveway with seams. I designed the layout for the fence incorporating one of these seams to run the wire through.

I put all the flags out, and did a lot of training, but my girls were so good they’d never cross the line to see what happens. I hated doing it, but I had to take them across the line so they’d get zapped. One zap was all it took. Neither of them will continue when either of their collars beeps. 

The bad part — forget taking your dog down the drive to go to the street for a walk. They would look at me with an expression that said “Uh, uh. We KNOW what happens if we walk up that way. No way we’re going.” They won’t risk getting zapped again. So I have to load them in the SUV and go to a park. Not a bad thing. Safer on paved trails anyway.

Next install

I brought the transmitter and collars, purchased more wire, and faced a much more difficult install. I had a lot more yard to cover and no ground cover to cheat with. I also had an asphalt drive way to cross.

I would advise sitting down and drawing out where you want the fence to go, where you’ll access the electricity, and what obstacles you have to get around or through. The wire has to be a continuous loop for it to work.

The transmitter is not water proof so I put it in the detached garage and drilled a hole through the wall to run it outside.

Where ever you put the transmitter you have to start there, go around the yard in a circle and return to the transmitter.

The man who is mowing my grass (in lieu of buying a riding mower) graciously offered to loan me a gas edger, so I used it to dig a little trench all the way around the perimeter. It did a good, but not perfect job, so while burying the wire I had to do some digging in places. But all together so much better than doing it all with a shovel.

My big dilemma was still the asphalt driveway. I figured I wasn’t the only person to face this so I started researching on the internet and found there were ways to protect the wire running over the drive. I ordered the product on the left from Amazon and it’s perfect. It’s black so it looks good on the drive and it sits over the wire and protects it from car tires. And it doesn’t slip

around. I’ve had it out for a few weeks and it’s staying put.

It was a full two-day exhausting project, but it’s in and working. Most of that time was scooting along the ground cramming the wire down into the crevasse. I figured out some tools that made it a little bit easier.

Not to worry about cutting the wire in the future. I regularly check to make sure the red light on the transmitter is lit. If it’s not it could very well mean the wire has been cut. If did anywhere near the wire, I always check to make sure I have cut the line. I’ve had line cut before and fortunately there’s a way to find the break and repair it.

I’ve now made the same mistake on two installations. At the old house if the walked to close to the front door their collars would beep. I think it was 2 years before my younger dog would retrieve a ball from that particular corner. I apparently didn’t get the wire far enough from living room corner of the house here and if I forget to remove their collars they will get a beep in the living room. Not a good situation, so make sure you get the wire far enough from all points of the house.

We’re all glad the fence is in

This house is on a busy road and there’s no way I would let my dogs loose so they’d been on a leash to do their business since we moved here. I could tell they were really tired of it. They’re happy to be back on their collars and have time to leisurely sniff around the yard. I’m happy knowing they can’t end up on the road to get squished. I just have to check the batteries in their collars to make sure they’re still signalling the dogs when they’ve walked too far.

Training

When I first installed the fence my dogs were so good about not crossing the line that they never got zapped. I ended up dragging them each across the line so they could see what happened. One time was all it took for my Labs — they never wanted that to happen again.

There’s an inconvenience to this type of fence. Because I had the line across the driveway, there was no way to exit the yard to go for a walk. Walks entail loading them up in the vehicle and taking them someplace to walk. Not an awful problem if there are walking paths nearby.

An inconvenience for the dogs – squirrels figure out the dogs can only go so far and will stand just outside their perimeter and chatter at the dogs, really taunting them. I never would have guess that would happen.