My husband has a lovely (although stubborn!) bull terrier bitch (aged 7 months) who has just worked out how to jump our fence. Now every time we put her outside, she heads straight for the fence to get out. Previous experience with bullies has shown us that you can put up an 8-foot fence and they will still find a way out! I have heard about the 'Smart Fence' & 'Instant Fence' (which involves a transmitter and a receiver in a collar and uses radio signals to submit a light static energy pulse when the dog gets close to the boundary of your garden). Does anyone out there know anything about this and how safe it is to use? It sounds brilliant in theory, but we would not like to get anything that might hurt her, and would like to found out as much about this as possible.

Rather than using a 'negative' reinforcement on your dog try putting an overhang on the fence. I have put one on mine as one of my terreirs can do a six foot vertical leap but has yet to master the six foot up and 18 inch out before getting over leap! This way is safer and kinder all round. And once they realise they cant get out that way they give up!

Thanks for your advice - could you explain how you did that? The other thing is, how do you make sure that they don't jump over the gate?

I had some angle irons made up and put small holed chicken wire between them. My gate is as high as my fence so I just passed it striaght over the top of that too!

Thank you - so simple ! My husband's actually had to stay home today because of Jessie - she was out again yesterday, and although we considered leaving her inside the house, she doesn't like that (becomes very destructive and whines constantly to go outside!).

Isn't it great how when the dogs are naughty they because 'their' dog, yet when they're good they're 'my' dog. It's the same with children too.

Fiona

That's true - but in this case, it IS actually my husband's dog - a present to him from me ! I do have my own dog (a lovely - but also naughty!) White GSD. They are both like children though. You have to love them !

Shels

Hi - my cousin in Australia has something like this to keep her Aussie Cattle Dog (?) in and it works very well for them but I'm afraid I don't know anymore than that about it. All I do know is he has never escaped and is not (supposedly) stressed by it . He probably learnt and doesn't go too near the boundry now so therefore no shock or whatever. Seems quite a few use this method in their area.
Sara :)

I have heard of some fencing called jackal fencing, which is like what Bec is suggesting. Its just a 2ft overhang set at right angles to the fence facing inwards towards your garden. It practically impossible to get over because although the dog can scamble up, it can't lean back to get over the top and consequently falls off. Never seen Jackal fencing, probably dosn't even come from this country but you can rig something up very similar and I've heard it works well. I've also heard that some dogs won't leap fences that have that up and down wavy trellis on the top, can't think whats its called but I've seen it on Ground Force!!

Sara - Thank you - at least someone else has heard of it ! I've asked around at various places, including pet stores as it's supposedly a retail item, but they've never heard of it before !

Alie - thanks for your suggestion as well - I can't find anything related to Jackal fencing, but will not give up ! I know exactly what you mean by the stuff on Ground Force (it's a favourite programme of ours) - might be worth a try.

We are starting to get worried about her now though - she doesn't seem to be happy with us anymore. She didn't eat anything last night or this morning, and isn't as playful and friendly as normal - she seems to just want to go outside now.

Shels

We have installed a freedom fence as one of mine had a touch of wanderlust and being a 'country bumpkin' he was an accident waiting to happen on the road a couple of times and can jump REALLY high.
I would reccomend them, the dog wears a special collar and then if it gets too close to the fence it experiences a warning buzz, if ignored and the dog goes beyond this then he gets a shock. My dog only needed a couple of shocks before he got the message and has not got out since. He now just keeps away from the boundry and never even has a warning buzz.
You can ring fence any area you like a whole farm if required( shame a public footpath runs through ours!) I dont think it would be practicle in a small garden though. Amos doesn't go out of the gate unless I take off his collar and call him through now and I am sure it has saved his bacon.
Ted

The more common name for a light static energy pulse is electric shock :) It is my understanding that these type of fences are not suitable for terriers. They have a high pain threshold and if something really drives them to pass through the field i.e. a cat or squirrel they will do so. Once the chase is over though, assuming they have survived the traffic etc, they cannot get back in as when not hyped up they don't fancy the shock treatment. I would definately go with the overhang on the fence.

Hi,
Yes I know something about them, I use a remote static electric training collar.

The problems, if any, with the effectiveness of static fences is the fact that some dogs will try a few times to pass them, the static charge is not pain as such and once the dog has to many repitions the SURPRISE part of the shock (which is what deters) is lost, the dog does not get frightened cause it has learned no harm comes to it and consequently it might ignore it.
This might be more so with Staffs because they have a high pain threshold. Remote traing collars work diferently because you are allways in control of the levels and moment, but once trained in this way you rarely if ever need use them, they replace normal collars.

Sorry folks but using electric collars is NOT training! Ugh! I know I am sounding like I am getting at you, which is not my intention but please, just step back and think about it? E-collars etc may seem to 'work' but any proper trainer worth their salt (who actually knows about cognitive canine behaviour) knows that these devices work by subduing the dog, by frightening it!
Lazy training is never positive, only negative. Is that right? And before anyone says "Well its a choice between that and euthanasia if i want to cure the problem!" Whatever happened to Control and Management? I have 7 dogs, including two previously accomplished escapees! I worked with those two dogs - a lurcher and a Jack Russell cross by observing their methods of escape when they went outside and counteracting them by raising fences etc and denying access to anything that could be used as a climbing block to freedom! (Like the kennel roof! Simply fenced around its roof with chicken wire so they couldn't jump onto it!) I also made the garden and dog run much more interesting by providing a digging pit, interactive toys and hidey holes in which to put toys and treats for them to find.
Please go to this site to read a tongue in cheek write up about e-collar use then scroll down that page for some more serious links.
http://www.scallywags1.freeserve.co.uk/proteam.html

Hi Caroline,
Please tell me how electric collars are used/work?
Thanks Frank,

Hi Frank! Rather than me go into the details here, why not copy and paste the link that is right at the bottom of my posting? The actual write up there is a bit of a send up but below that are loads of links to follow if you want to be better informed. :)

Hi Caroline,
I did try that but it did not say how they were used..I saw lots of criticisms but no one explains why...
So I want to know how they are used....I mean what is supposed to be wrong with them?
Have you been trained to use them?

Basically Frank, the handler has a remote control device in his hands and waits for the dog to perform the undesirable behaviour. The dog, wearing the collar with the receiver on, then receives a zap of electricity - a shock- from the transmitter when the handler pushes the button.
With an 'invisible fence' the dog wears a collar with a receiver on, the 'fence' is a cable buried underground. When the dog nears the 'fence' there is an audible sound. If the dog does not heed the sound and passes over the buried cable, he gets zapped with a shock.
Trouble is, dogs don't understand why they are hurting when they perform the wrong behaviour. With proper training, and/or proper fencing, there is no need for electric devices to 'train' (and I use that term loosely) dogs!
No I have not been trained to use them, I use proper methods, kind, fair and effective ones to train dogs.
Hope thats helped you. :)

Looks like I've opened a bit of a can of worms with this one ! Thank you to everyone for your input - I really appreciate it. We're currently looking at various things that we can use to keep her in (can you believe that we found her standing on top of our fence (which is a narrow wooden fence) trying to force her way through the hedge on the other side (most of the fence is surrounded by the hedge, there's just a small section by the gate and a slightly larger section by the back door that isn't blocked by the hedge. She's driving us crazy right now - she doesn't want to stay inside the house (where she is at the moment), whines constantly to go outside - and then tries to jump the fence as soon as we let her out. Even taking her for long walks until she's exhausted doesn't help - as soon as we get home she whines and cries to get out again ! We hate leaving them locked up inside the house when we go out, as both dogs don't like that. Even when we're at home we can't leave the door open for them anymore to come and go as they please, because then Jessie makes a bid for freedom !
Sorry, didn't mean to carry on again !

Shels

My first dog a Belgian shepherd Groenendael was like this, and no amount of excersise made any difference, she had a taste for it after the firsrt time. I raised the height of fences, and made the gate 7 feet with overhang, tried her on a running line attached to a cable run between fence posts, but she jumped over the fence and nearly hung herself. If the garden is big enough you can put in two posts the distance away from the fences that the tie out chin is long, so that this cannot happen, they then have the run of the gsarden on a tram line. Really though the best thing is to have the overhang right round your garden using those post ends for security fencing, but stretch mesh between them rather than barbed wire.

I couldn't afford to dothis so kept to the tie out, but one morning I let her out without for a qucik pee, turned my back for a second and she was gone! I ran out the house and called her name, she came running, I got her in and she was panting hard and wild eyed, I gave her a drink of water, and as she put her head down she started hqaving convulsions and colapsed, I ran to neighbour and got her to vet within a few minutes, but she was gone! She was only 3 1/2 years old, and it still brings tears to my eyes 10 years later. :(

Thankfully my Elkhounds have never even tried to escape and even the four foot gardne partion fence is enough to keep them in, though all my fences and gate are 6 foot! I don't mean to scare you but this is serious!!

I'm so sorry to hear that - it's heartbreaking to lose a pet under any circumstances, but especially something as sudden as that. We have considered the running line option, but were also afraid that she'd try to jump anyway and then end up hurting herself even more. It also just doesn't seem fair - it's so restrictive ! Although I guess it's less restrictive than her being cooped up in the house all day and night, especially since she loves being outside ! It also doesn't help in that every time someone walks past (especially children), they tend to stop at the gate and call our dogs to them to give them attention - which is great that the dogs are friendly, but not so great in that Jessie then wants to follow them for more attention. I can't understand that people can be so thoughtless - not just for the fact that they don't know if the dogs are friendly or not, but also for the fact that's it's not fair on the dogs to be called to a gate and then left behind ! So far we've been fortunate in that kind neighbours have taken her in and watched over her for us the 3 times she's gotten out, but we're extremely afraid that we won't be so lucky the next time. The overhang definitely seems like the best idea - I can only hope that this is just a phase that she's going through and that she'll settle down and be happy with us again.

i know you have her as a house dog, but wouldnt a kennel and secure run offer her some sort of freedom but stop her escaping, -you could put her in the run when she wanted to be outside, then when shes clapped out perhaps she might want to come in and spend some time with you, it would give you peace of mind. although not really what you wanted it would help,--shes not just due in season is she???

Apart from the fact that quite a few people, myself included don't like this kind "Smart Fence" on principal, if your dog saw something outside the fence and chased it then its impetus would carry it outside the fence before even realising it was there. The fence would then, instead of keeping the dog in, would in fact be keeping the dog out! The other thing is that it would have no effect on other dogs wanting to get to your dog. All in all they are not a good means of securing your dog.

Regards, John