Electric Fence?

[scrambledmess]

We have a crazy border collie who must herd, all day, every day, rain or shine, dark or light, feast or famine. The problem is that we have NOTHING currently for her to herd. Thus she has become the Great Escape Queen who insists on herding every vehicle that passes our house. She has been bumped once by a truck and has grabbed the pants leg of our neighbor while on his motorcycle. This isn't safe for her or anyone else.

So, I am looking to run electric fence on top of our 3.5 ft chain link fence.

I know absolutely nothing about how to do this or what I need.

My sister told me that they used an old garden hose for insulators. They just cut it up and wired them to the fence and rain the wire through them. I think I can handle that part.

I have no idea about what kind of battery/charger I should get just for a determined dog. I surely don't want to zap her so badly it would knock her out or down.

Does the fence have to go full circle or can it be set up like a C without the wire coming all the way round (if that makes sense?)? It would be very hard for us to have the wire form a complete circle around the yard.

Thanks for any input. Other ideas are appreciated as well

 

[enjoy the ride]

The circuit with hot wire is between the hot wire and the feet on the ground- that is why hot wire sometimes does not work too well with dogs- if they jump and are off the ground when they touch it, no shock.
I will say that the few times I have used hot wire as emergency containment to my dogs when workmen need to keep the gate open, the dogs have been petrified of the wire- they huddled in the middle of the circle of hot wire and wouldn't move, so if they have experienced it, they will avoid it.

You might try running hot wire at nose/body height and close spacing and one on the top with a ground wire parallel to it so that if they touch the one on the top, they must also touch the ground one. The one at body height will ground from the ground (remember you need a grounding pole too.)

But dogs jump really well.

I have never tried to hotwire dogs except for the temporary ones for an hour or so, so don't know how well it works. I would suspect it is pretty hard because more people would do it if it was easy.

 

[patandchickens]

On the one hand:

First, don't use old garden hose as insulators. Actual Real Purpose-made insulators are pretty cheap, and they will reliably and for their whole lifetime insulate against the 4-5,000 volts that your fence needs to carry to contain a dog. Old garden hose comes with no rating, deteriorates in time, and is usually it sooner or later (often sooner, often nearly immediately) let the wire short thru it to the post, especially since this is a metal fence we're talking about, at which point your fence will no longer be sufficiently well charged to contain animals.

You actually do not want an electric fence to be a complete loop. So your C shape will be fine.

The chainlink fence itself will provide an acceptible neutral wire (like what enjoy the ride is suggesting) as long as the chainlink itself is well grounded. If it is only lightly on the surface of the ground and/or is on wooden or cement-footed poles, then it might be worth a little effort to ensure good grounding of it and make sure the soil stays moist. But as long as the chainlink is well grounded, the dog will complete the electric fence circuit even if she climbs up the chainlink (the zap will go hotwire to dog, dog to chainlink wire, chainklink wire to soil, soil back to charger) and the dog will get the zap. Although, note that electric fences perform much more poorly once the ground has started to freeze.

For charger selection, I would suggest either buying one labelled expressly for dogs, or (if you don't mind that you won't be at the um most budget-minded end of the spectrum on charger prices, although their products are excellent) phone up the customer service folks at www.premier1supplies.com and see what they think. Nowhere else gives such good advice. Their electric rope/tape/etc fence prices are quite good for their quality, too, btw.

But on the other hand:

Dogs jump. Dogs jump real good. The biggest problem that I can see is that 3.5' is probably well within the scope of a motivated border collie. Electrifying the fence will do no good at all if she just hurdles over it.

Frankly the dogs I've known that people have attempted to contain with electric have not been contained all that *well* by it. I think because they were all Very Highly Motivated dogs, which of course is *why* the owners rigged the electric fence in the first place, but the dogs spent every second of their day looking for a way to defeat the fence or a moment when it was not on or its charge dropped. So, I dunno. It really works a lot better for keeping dogs and predators OUT of things, and livestock contained, than for keeping dogs in, as far as I can see from observing other peoples' experiences.

So I really dunno. I'd suggest going more in the "other ideas" direction, although I don't have anything intelligent to actually suggest other than keeping the dog in a secure, roofed kennel pen for her own safety (and I realize there may be a lot of reasons you don't want to do that).

Good luck,

Pat

 

[MorelCabin]

We have a wireless fence for our dog...it was expensive, but worth every penny!

 

[scrambledmess]

Fortunately I don't have to worry about freezing

Thanks for all the input so far.

No, I just couldn't put her in a small kennel. I have seen way too many BCs lose their minds in one. They really and truely have to be able to give chase.

She really needs a job, but on 1/2 an acre I can't get enough of anything to give her one. Thus the electric fence is the last option. Hopefully, it will work.

Editted to add: We had one of those invisible fences for our German Shepherds many years ago on a different property. We loved it. But I don't think it would work for her.

 

[patandchickens]

Could you build the fence higher? That, plus electric, might work...

I agree, the wireless fence is not going to do much for a border collie really intent on what it thinks is its job.

Seems like border collies can be tough to keep safe and happy if you don't have lots of land or a buncha kids.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[scrambledmess]

Just wanted to update. We finally got the fence in. One area we had to raise the fence. Another area we had to reinforce the main fence. She was pushing on it and crawling up the chainlink behind the live wire. She was very good at finding many weaknesses. But we have managed to keep her in the yard for January, so far Hopefully, we have got everything covered. Well, until the fence shorts because something is touching it.

 

[FarmerChick]

scrambled

glad she is being contained.

but email the Dog Whisperer.....lol.....cause I know this is a behavioral problem.

Your dog is not relaxing. She is on high energy mind all the time.

True and tried dog training will work....but I know....it is big commitment of time etc. and we need to know the correct way to fix problems.

best of luck to you!

 

[patandchickens]

You can get a light that attaches to the fence that'll go off if the fence loses its zap. Not too big a deal for most purposes, but when you have stock (or in this case dog) that's really WANTING out, and seriously must be kept in, it can be very worthwhile. Just get in the habit of glancing at it every time you'r at a window on that side of the house. Beats standing out there 24/7 with a fence tester, anyhow <g>

Good luck,

Pat

 

[enjoy the ride]

Good to hear you've made progress- dogs and cars don't mix.