Electric Dog Fences and Containment Systems - The Basics

Dog Fences - The Reliable Way to Keep Your Dog Safe

Dog containment systems, also known as electric dog fencing, invisible dog fencing or in-ground radio fencing, have one main purpose - to keep your dog safe in your yard.

Dog fences are the most effective and reliable way to keep your dog in your yard because there's no way your dog can dig, jump, chew or pass through boundary. Keeping your dog safely contained dog prevents your dog from escaping the yard which may lead to being hit by a car, being picked up by the local pound/animal control officers, entering a neighbouring property or getting lost.

Dog fences are entirely customisable to suit your property layout. Whether you need to protect beautiful garden beds/vegetable gardens, create a boundary across a driveway, cover a standard house block or cover a large acreage property over 100 acres, dog containment fences can do it all.

The fence wire can be buried under the ground, secured to the ground surface with fence staples (be careful not to mow over the wire), attached to existing fencing and even run under water. The wire is completely safe to touch, making it safe for children, adults local wildlife.

The Components

All dog containment systems come with 3 main components. The transmitter, wire and receiver collar.

Transmitter Box

The transmitter box sits in your house or garage (somewhere out of the weather) and continuously emits the radio signal through the wire. 

The transmitter box:

1. Emits the radio signal through the wire
2. Allows you to adjust the signal width
3. Alerts you if there's a break in the wire

Insulated Copper Wire (and Flags)

The wire carries the radio signal around your boundary 24/7. The wire for dog fences must run in a complete loop from your transmitter, around the boundary area and back to the transmitter. Most Invisible dog fence systems include 150m of wire. If you need additional wire we have Boundary Kits available. There are two zones of stimulation emitted from the wire - the warning zone and the stimulation zone.

Receiver Collar

The receiver collar is worn on your dog's neck. If your dog enters the warning zone, the collar delivers an audible tone to let your dog know that they're near the stimulation zone. If your dog ignores this warning tone and continues towards the wire into the stimulation zone, the collar will deliver a safe static stimulation to remind your dog to retreat into the yard. Receiver collars are available in different sizes for tiny dogs up to giant dogs.

How a containment fence works

Your containment fence transmitter needs to be set up in your garage or shed (anywhere out of the weather) and plugged into mains power. The transmitter emits a radio signal through the boundary wire around your property. As your dog approaches the boundary wire and into the radio signal field, the collar will deliver a warning tone and vibration to warn them that they are about to enter the stimulation zone.

If they ignore the tone and vibration and continue towards the boundary wire, the collar will deliver a safe static stimulation to remind your dog to retreat back to the 'safe zone'. The strength of the static correction can be adjusted on your dog's collar and the radio signal distance range from the wire can be set anywhere from on the wire to a couple of meters - this is adjusted on your transmitter.

The Containment Fence Process - 4 Easy Steps

Step 1 – Select the Right Dog Fence

There are a number of different types of dog containment systems available today. To make a good decision, we should consider the features or options that are applicable to your situation, things like reliability, rechargeable or battery-powered collars, waterproof or weather resistant collars, and factory set or adjustable correction settings - it is prioritising these features into importance and priority. This will help determine the best dog fencing for you and your dog.

To assist you with this, please read our article "Making Sure You Choose the Right Dog Fence"

Step 2 – Find a Suitable Location for the Fence Transmitter

Generally, people use the laundry, garage or a shed as the ideal location to plug their transmitter in and keep it out of the weather. When trying to find a suitable location for the transmitter, being close to the boundary will save on the amount of wire needed to reach to the boundary. In planning the layout of your wire try to avoid areas with lots of metal as this can interfere with the radio signal.

Step 3 – Lay Out the Boundary Wire and Flags

You can now go about laying out the wire of your electric dog fence, don't secure it in place straight away though. You are better to test it with the collar and ensure that the collar responds and the boundary width is set to an appropriate level. Most dog containment systems include splices that contain a gel substance to ensure the copper wire does not corrode at any joins. Make sure you do your wire joins properly as this is vital for a consistent radio signal! You are about ready to start using your dog containment system. Once the wire set up is complete, place the white flags in the ground every couple of meters apart.

Step 4 – Train Your Dog How to Respond to the Dog Fence

This is the most important step. When the fence set-up is complete, you need to train your dog the boundary area and how to respond to the static stimulation they receive when they get too close to the boundary. The reason for this is because dogs will naturally have a flight or fright response when they initially receive a static stimulation without any training. Training your dog ensures your dog knows. 

All hidden fence dog containment systems come with training manuals and/or DVDs that show you how to teach your dog to react to the new dog fence. Be sure to follow them! These systems are very easy to install without professional assistance. So if you have an escaping dog and cannot afford to structurally fence in your dog, please consider an electric dog fence. You owe it to your dog.