I have two medium size mutts. Chase is laid back but loves to run and play and Rufus is a very timid and scared of alot.
First off let me say this make sure the range is adjusted on the box before putting the batteries in the collars. My husband was holding the collar in his hand inside the house (far away from the lines) and got shocked on the 5th level! Ouch! We readjusted the range to two feet from the line and truned the collar down to level 2 after that.I think the range came out of the box set on 40 feet
I took chase out on a leash and let him lead me to the perimiter rather than me taking him over there and tossing a toy or treat across the line like youre instructed too. It only took him 2 times of trying to cross over the fence before he realized that he didnt wanna go anywhere near those flags. He LOVES playing fetch but you better believe if that ball goes NEAR that fence he will NOT even try to go get it! We did have one incident the other day where there was a cat in the back yard and Chase blew through the fence and did not even flench when he was getting shocked! However, ever since then he has been even more reluctant to get close to the fence so I think the level 5 shock hurt him enough that he wont be doing that again (The shock level increases as they cross the perimeter).
Rufus was a different story. I let him lead me to the perimeter just as I did for Chase and once he got shocked he was terrified of his yard. We would lead him around and show him all the places he could go but he would never leave our side. When we would let him out by himself he would not even leave the back porch. We tried for 2 weeks to get him used to it but he never did. I called the company for advice and they instructed me to start over. Here is what the customer service rep informed me to do incase anyone else has this problem. Give him a week or so to get used to being in his yard without the collar on. I put Rufus back on the runner we were using before we installed the fence. After he is comfortable in the yard again put the collar on but dont put batteries in it. After a few days of doing that turn the vibrate only function on and see how he does with that. Once he is comfortable wandering around the yard you can turn the shock back on to the lowest level to correct him if he tries to leave the perimeter.
Another issue we had is that if you lay the line within 3 feet of any wire (telephone,cable,electric,etc) the signal can apparently transmit to that wire and mess up your range. We noticed that sometimes when we would let the dogs out the back door their collars would vibrate like they were nearing the edge of the perimeter. The back door is in almost the very center of the perimeter so we couldn't figure out why this was happening. The customer service rep told us we would need to dig up and move the line further away from the house so this wouldnt happen anymore.
One more thingI apparently misread some information about this fence because I thought the collars continued to shock the dogs when they were outside of the perimeter until they got back inside of it. That is not true though. The collar only shocks them when they are inside of the range you set. So if you set a 2 foot range it will shock them 2 feet before the line and 2 feet behind the line. Once they get out of that zone it will deliver the static charge.
Im sorry this was so long but I understand what a big decision it is so I thought I would give you all the details. Overall I love this fence and have alot of trust in it and my dogs response to it. I would definetly recommend it to anyone looking at this as an option. I hope this was helpful!
Researched in ground fence systems extensively and purchased the SportDog system for my ¾ acre property. Glad I did. Easy to install with quality hardware........unlike other systems I looked at. Purchased primarily for our Lab puppy, but also purchased two smaller compatible collars for our two miniature wiener dogs. It maybe took a day or so for all of our dogs to associate the flags with the boundary. System has multiple settings, so you can set a vibration, beep, then mild shock. I think our dogs were shocked once each. Now, when they get close to the boundary flags, the (non-shocking) vibration is enough to alert them to turn around. $220 is a bargain for the peace of mind in knowing that my dogs will stay in the yard.
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I have a Labrador retriever who is about 4 months old and an adult boston terrier. We had trouble with them going to neighbors houses to get petted, or the boston would run after other dogs in the neighborhood. So, we decided to go with this underground fence after extensive research of other brands. I'm very satisfied with our purchasethe installation took about 3-4 hours total.
We installed the fence on approximately 3/4 of an acre. My husband used his tractor and lowered 1 of the 4 plow feet on a box blade attachment to dig the trench around the yard. This was VERY simple and took about 20 minutes. Then we just placed the wire in the trench and buried it, which took about an hour and a half or so. Take note, we had to twist wire back to the box across a spot in our yard so the dogs could run across it without getting shocked. We also had to place it across our driveway, so my husband used a skill saw with a masonry blade to cut a line across it. After laying the wire in the line, we covered it with asphalt patching compound (caulk-like substance). This took about an hour. Then the easy part-placing the flags. This took about 20 minutes.
We used the collar that came with the system for our lab, and then we bought the Petsafe PUL-275 In-Ground Deluxe Ultralight Collar with Radio Receiver for our boston terrier, which is a great fit. It is compatible with this Sportdog system. Our lab caught on VERY quickly. She got shocked about 2 times, and that was enough for her. When she hears the beep now, she runs back into the yard. Our boston on the other hand is a stubborn guy, and he got shocked about 7-8 times before he finally realized "hey, maybe I shouldn't go past those white flags!". They both understand the boundaries now, and we plan to leave the flags up for another month or so to make sure. It's such a relief being able to drive away without them chasing after me. I highly recommend this product if you're looking to contain your dogs.
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I have this Sport Dog Unit installed on 3 acres of my property. Each of my four German Shorthairs has a collar and I have never had any issues with them leaving the yard after the first week of installing the underground fence. There are a few main reasons I bought this unit over the many other brands and models out there.
First, the collars by Sport Dog use a 9 volt battery. The batteries seem to last about a year. Many of the other collars on the market use large watch batteries and don't last more than two months.
Second, the sending unit has an adjustable power output. There is a hi low switch and a variable gain dial. This is really important for training and also allows you to adjust the unit for the method you chose to install the wire. For training, you can turn the gain up which will increase the distance, up to about 50 feet, that the beep and shock start from the wire. Once the dogs are used to the concept, you can turn the gain down so it goes off closer to the wire. I have mine set at about 7 or 8 feet. The other more important part of this is for the install. First, if you are going to install this in a large area, greater than one acre, I would not use the wire that comes with the unit. I bought a 2500 foot roll of single strand 12 gauge copper wire for $60.00. I would recommend doing the same as the wire that comes with the unit is very thin and breaks easily. You can install the wire with a shovel or a ditch witch. I put my wire down about 14 inches with a ditch witch. Because of this, my gain is turned up higher as the wire is deeper in the ground. If the wire was 2 inches in the ground like most of the professional fence companies put it then the gain would be turned down for the same effect.
Third, this unit has a very load noise that comes from the unit should the wire break or get damaged. This is nice as things do happen, utility companies, tree roots, corrosion, etc... If you put the main unit in your garage attached to your house you will definitely know if something is wrong with your connection.
If you are looking for an underground fence, this is the best unit available.
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I can't recommend this enough. The collar is built like a tank, it vibrates along with beeping before the shock (most just beep), and it takes standard 9 volt batteries. Personally, I didn't want to have to buy special batteries for the other collars, and I didn't want to have to worry about waiting for it to re-charge should it ever run dead. The transmitter in this package will also work with most PetSafe collars, so if you have more dogs for which a smaller collar would be desirable, they are also options (our English Setter doesn't seem to mind the weight of the included collar). We also liked that we were able to mount the receiver for this unit on a collar of our choosing our dog likes cloth collars better, so we're going to move the receiver from the stock plastic/rubber collar to a cloth collar.
We called Invisible Fence and they wanted $300 for the collar, and $300 for the transmitter, and more for the training. We were a bit nervous about training our English Setter by ourselves, but after just one session, it became clear that the pup was going to figure it out very quickly. We started out showing him the boundary for ~5-10 minutes with the collar in vibrate only mode (during which time he mostly ignored it), and after that, we moved on to the instructions that are included with the unit, and set the collar to the lowest shock level (I tried it on my hand not that bad).
After one or two shocks, our dog pretty much got the hang of it. Amazing. We're still planning on following through with the rest of the instructions, but after 20 minutes of training he already knows that beep & vibrate means "turn around".
Super easy to install & set up. I also bought a lightning strike protector separately seems like a good investment, although if you choose to ground the transmitter (I did not), it shouldn't be necessary. Since this transmitter doesn't have a batter backup, I bought an uninterruptible power supply from newegg for $40 should keep it going for a few hours so that we can bring the dog in should the power ever go out.
Total cost of this unit with a few accessories (flags, splices, lightning protector, etc.) was less than $250. Considering that Invisible Fence wanted over $750 for a transmitter (installed), collar, and training (but no wire we already had that), this thing was a steal.
One more note unless you truly have tons of land, although this is a great system, you probably don't need the added range that it offers (although it does work just fine on smaller fences). We have ~12 acres, and I bought it "just to make sure it had enough power", and with ~3 acres fenced (we plan on expanding it), I have it set to about half power in the "low" range. This creates a correction zone about ~25-30 feet wide (we want him to have to go through a lot to escape we live on a 55mph road).
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I bought this for my 12 week old puppy. He LOVES it. He chews even more on the things I spray it on. I literally sprayed it directly in his mouth and he wanted more. It's like a treat for him. Must not taste that bad.
