Wireless dog fence systems

[springer02]

Help!

We installed a wireless dog fence system for our girls, a 10 year old Springer who loves to go have breakfast (cat food) at the neighbors and a 1 year old wild thing, terrier, poodle, schnauzer?  We watched the video, installed the transmitter, put out the flags and did the first part of the training, walking them to each flag and saying a firm NO when the collar, which was in our hand, beeped.  Tonight was the first night they wore the collars and we walked to each flag and turned them around when the collar beeped.  Both dogs got zapped and both yowled like crazy.  I thought that the beep came way before the zap?

I'm hoping someone out there has used this system.  Did it work for you?  Any tricks or secrets?  This originally seemed like a great thing for them to be able to play outside more and for us (me) not to have to stand on the porch in  pj's early in the mornings but I'm not so sure now!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Tena

[Jim in Michigan]

No suggestions really, since thats how our dog was trained.  We used the Invisible Fence company to install it and train our dog so when she was shocked, she didn't associate it with us.

The time is really quick from the beep to the shock.  That is by design so the dog associates the beep with the pain immediately.  A dog understands territory really well so at first when they see the flag, they know to avoid it.  As you slowly increase the space between the flags by removing every other one over time, the dog will associate the space with the buzz and eventually will avoid going to the space.  This takes time so be patient.  It may take several attempts to train the dogs so don't throw the flags away for a few months until you are sure your dogs know the territory to avoid.  My neighbors dog is dumber than a barrel of sand and he took three full attempts to finally get it but he is fine now.

One point we learned, if you are taking the dog through the perimeter (i.e. without collar and on a leash for example), always pick the dog up and carry it over the wire.  They don't make the correlation with the collar and shock, so it will become untrained if you do that after a few times.

Be patient, when our dog was first being trained, the fence went out because of a power outage and we mistakenly let her out without checking if the fence was operating.  When we woke up the next morning, we discovered she had chewed up all the flags in an act of defiance I guess.  We replaced the flags and continued the training and we were able to have all the flags removed in a few more weeks.

[MommaMia]

Some systems have an adjustment knob on the transmitter box.  When you turn it up, it makes the warning area smaller... the shock happens sooner.  When you adjust it down, the warning area gets bigger.  If yours has it, start with the warning area bigger.  It takes a couple weeks working daily with the dogs before you can let them out unattended.  

One tip... we had a dog that didn't seem to really react at first to the shocks, but we found that her fur was so thick, she wasn't feeling the shocks.  Make sure the collar is tight enough to keep the prongs in contact with the dogs skin.  We ended up having to use the longer prongs provided and had to shave a little spot of fur on her neck so the prongs would touch the skin.

[campinmom]

Just a couple things to keep in mind. If your dog decides to go after a critter of some sort, sometimes they will "take the hit" and go. Then, once OUTside your property area, they can't come back in because of the shock. The adrenalin (from chasing the critter) is no longer there and they won't risk the shock. This happened with my first dog. It took us hours to catch him. Even though he had a great recall, he kept running from us (I assume because he thought we were going to make him go back over the line with his collar on).

Another concern is this - there is a fine line on how tight to keep the collar. Too loose, it doesn't make contact with the skin = no shock. Too tight, the dog ends up with holes in his neck. Any time there is constant pressure over an area of skin, blood flow is decreased. A pressure ulcer can form and because of the fur, you'll never know it until the dog has huge, painful, ulcerated holes in his neck. We helped treat a friends Dane that had the same problem. She needed daily dressing changes, and being a nurse, I was able to do it cheaper (read free) then the vets office. It was quite a few weeks until the dog was back to normal. Best way to avoid this is to put the collar on the dog when it goes out to potty, remove it when they come back in.