Curious About Fenceless Pet Containment Systems?

As someone who has had a variety of dog breeds and personalities, let me tell you: some don’t give two shits to stay at home. They really don’t. The dogs that we’ve had who were “runners” are the ones who have a lot of energy or are super independent. We’ve even had a high energy independent dog and let me tell you – he was hard to contain.

We live in a rural community so we all don’t have fenced yards to keep our dogs safely at home. Sure, tying them up is one option but then Sarah McLachlan appears with a slide show of muddy tied up dogs asking for a dollar a day. Slathering us with guilt. So, then we debate buying a chain link dog run to put them in which also works but then hate it because your kids forget to clean the kennel all weekend and you get covered in shit-prints when you open the kennel door to take them for their walk.

*Cue me in a Willy Wonka hat singing “Come with me, and you’ll be…” while showcasing pet containment systems* Got the visual? Perfect!

We have been using PetSafe fenceless containment systems for over a decade. Today I’m going to share with you my experience using the buried wire system (aka In-Ground System) as well as the wireless system (aka Stay and Play).

“Whoa Amanda…do you mean to tell me your dogs wear collars that shock them!?”

Yes, my dear but before you summon Sarah – hear me out!

The collars are designed to beep as the dog gets a couple feet away from the wire (this distance can also be adjusted) so as your dog approaches the boundary, it’ll start to beep at them. Some collars vibrate as well so it’s really making an effort to communicate with your dog: Turn Back! If they continue moving forward, the beep speed increases and then will issue a shock (set at whatever intensity your dog responds to) and since your dog is trained, 99% of the time they wont cross it.

That’s right. I’m saying 99% because no containment is 100%. Cables break, fences can be climbed or dug under, collars snap, kennels chewed through…so there’s some room for error.

If the thought of your dog getting a shocked makes you weep, just know that I have yet to have a dog sit there and constantly test the boundary and get shocked for hours upon hours. Your dog is not a twit – they receive the consequence, make the association, and stay away from the boundary. So don’t think of yourself as a terrible dog parent for training them on either system. One zap to remind them to stay off the road is a kinder consequence than what a car will do.

Let’s look at the In-Ground System Pro’s and Cons:

Pro:

- You can make it any shape you want thanks to the wire and some systems can handle a 25-acre zone for your dog to roam around in.

- Let’s say there’s a flower bed in the middle of your yard that you don’t want your dog to have access to but the rest of the yard is ok. With this system you’re able to make that work!

Con:

-          It is a buried wire so that’s a lot of effort to install – but don’t write it off yet. I have some tips on that!

-          Being a buried wire, if your dog is on a dead run and is content to tune out the corrections, once the wire is crossed, it’s a jailbreak situation.

Wireless Containment/Stay and Play Pros and Cons:

Pro:

-          Super easy to install. You literally plug it in and turn it on.

-          If your dog crosses the boundary, and continues on, the collar will continue to give a shock for 15 seconds then time out. If they cross back into the safe zone within those 15 seconds the collar will stop correcting.

Con:

-          Its area is much smaller – ¾ of an acre or so. (BUT you can put it with another wireless system to create a figure 8.)

-          You can’t change the shape of the area; it just emits a big magic circle around the transmitter.

Both systems talk to special collars that your dog is wearing – rechargeable or battery operated. Personally, I like the battery ones.

The shock collars need to be checked on regularly – especially where the prongs touch your dogs’ neck.

Now, of course one should always read the manual and follow PetSafe’s recommendations of training and set up BUT…we’ve also stepped outside of their norm and tried some things. So if you continue to read on, and you attempt any of these methods: I am so not liable for you doing my hillbilly ideas. Nope nope nope. I refuse to buy you a new system, collar, or dog. Deal? Deal!

Here we go:

Usually, the collars are nylon but we’ve found with a multidog household, one may chew the others collar off so once that happens, we put the receiver onto a leather collar.

In the past, we’ve had one dog chew the actual receiver off of the collar so we took a soup can and placed it around the receiver and had no issues with it interfering with the system.

With the In-Ground Fence, we only buried it under the driveway and any gates. Otherwise, we just ran it a couple inches above ground, pounded into the posts of the existing barbwire fence, and through the bush at ground level (con: moose etc have snapped this wire in the past as well as had some critter chew it; so we’ve had to repair it lots).

With the In-Ground Fence, it’s a plastic unit that you plug into power, put the wire in, run the wire all around your property creating your boundary, and back into the unit again. We keep ours outside and covered from the elements in a rubbermaid year-round.

With the Stay and Play, we’ve had one system plugged into our house creating a big circle and then got another Stay and Play, put it in the bush making the figure 8 boundary shape, and kept the one outside in a Rubbermaid year round.

Each system comes with flags and instructions on where to put the flags but we’ve never used flags. I’d say flags would come in handy if you have a big open yard and giving your dog a visual as to which part of the grass is off limits can be really helpful to them but if your boundary is a driveway or close to a fence, those are great visuals for your dog so don’t stress about flags.

The In-Ground system has also been successful for people living in town whose dog digs under the fence or climbs the fence. You just run the wire along the bottom of your existing physical fence, train your dog on the system, and they learn to stay away from the fence.

Training the dog on the system is super simple and not as daunting as the instructions make it out to be. I feel like the instructions are written to make the human feel better about shocking their dog. If it was written for the dog, it would be like: Put the collar on. Walk until you hear a beep. Stop walking. If you keep walking, you’ll get shocked. Don’t do it again. Beep = stay away.

Every dog is different on how quick they make the connection and so patience is definitely required to train them on this. I’ve trained 10 dogs on the fenceless containment systems so if you’re hesitant to train your own, reach out and I can help!

PetSafe systems can be found at PetValu, PetSmart, Amazon, and Wayfair. Wayfair surprised me with the lowest prices at the time of writing this blog (nearing the end of 2021) so if I were ordering, that’s where I’d shop from.

One last interesting tid-bit: our dogs have 25 acres to fart around on and they still like to stick close to the house. It’s like once given the space it’s no longer so valuable. Outside of the boundary though? Oh that’s the Golden Ticket.