I remember growing up in the country. Everyone around us owned a dog, and there wasn’t much traffic to worry about. There was a lot of space between homes and plenty of fields and woods for roaming. That’s why you could see your neighbors’ dogs all around the area over the course of the day. A lot of the dogs seemed more like they belonged to the neighborhood than to any one person, but they all knew where to go for dinner and bedtime. When I started driving at age sixteen, I even picked up my dog about a mile away from home. It was obvious that she’d had a great day running through the woods and getting into trouble, but she was also pretty tired and happy to see me.
I do have some pretty happy memories of those times, but I also understand that it doesn’t work like that today. Our streets are far busier than they used to be, and people are a lot more concerned about other people infringing on their space. Dogs may no understand clean street laws, leash laws, and property rights, but people do. Irresponsible dog owners mean that we even have to worry about lawsuits about our dogs. This is why most areas now have laws that say owners need to have a way to reliably keep their dog in the appropriate space. Even though I have some great memories of times when this wasn’t the case, I have to admit it’s not a bad thing.
To make sure your dog stays where he or she needs to be, there are a lot of different options. These range from traditional fencing and leashing when dogs are outdoors to an outdoor kennel or a cable. There’s also wireless fences available, which use radio frequencies to establish an invisible boundary that your dog won’t cross. There are pluses and minuses for each method described here.
Let’s take a look at some of the good and bad things about each method of keeping your dog where he or she needs to be.
Traditional Fencing – This is very effective with dogs that don’t tend to dig or climb, but doesn’t do the job if you accidentally leave the gate open. This method of containing your pet is also really expensive and limited to the back yard only in most cases.
Cable tethering and outdoor pens – These can be extremely restrictive, and cable tethers can cause harm to your dog if he or she gets tangled up in them. Dogs mostly stay in one spot in the majority of these situations, even with long cables and large pens. Using this type of setup can cause a lot of stress and turn into behavior problems later.
Wireless Animal Fencing – This relatively basic technology will help you train your dog and teach him or her where the boundary is. It also provides some encouragement for your pet to stay in the yard.
Since everyone understands how the traditional methods work, I wanted to elaborate on the newest method and explain how it works while addressing some common questions.
Why Wireless Fences?
There are many reasons to choose this option for containing your pet. Most obvious is that in some areas of the country traditional fences are not allowed because a decision was made to keep an open look to the area. But, even in areas that allow chain link or other traditional fences, an wireless fence can still be a necessary or desired choice for the dog owner. Dogs contained with this method will not be able to dig or jump through it, will have access to the front yard, and will stay contained even when a gate is 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 lots of things you need to think about when you own a pet, and safe, successful containment on your property is one of the most important. Opening the door and allowing your pet to run where he or she pleases could be really dangerous. We need more today to be responsible pet owners than we used to, and a wireless fence can help.
Tags: catcare, ragdollcats, pets, cats
