Homeowner installed dog fence

What is the overall cost of the dog fence? Make sure to include annual battery costs as you compare costs across companies. Do you offer a containment guarantee? A professional dog fence installer should offer a money back guarantee if they can't contain your pet.

What is your warranty? Professional dog fences generally include a lifetime product warranty, but the extensiveness of the warranties varies across brands. Also, make sure you get at least a one-year warranty on the installation. How will you install the wire? A pro installer should bury your wire at least 1 - 6 inches underground, including where the wire crosses driveways and sidewalks. Unless you have unusual requirements, beware of an installer that suggests stapling the wire to your fence or to the ground.

What training support do you include? This doesn't mean that the installer will do the training for you — training is always your responsibility. Who will help train my pet? The trainer should have at least one year of experience training dogs to understand an electronic fence.

Luckily the invisible fence ended a couple of feet or so from us. The dog was much smaller than Rio but I can only imagine what would have happened if we were standing any closer to the invisible fence. The dog continued to lunge and bark at us.

But she just gave me a naive wave as I struggled to pull Rio away from the yard. This did not turn out not to be an isolated incident. We quickly discovered that our new neighborhood has several houses with invisible fences. Many of the invisible dog fences are in the front yard and allow the dog within just a few feet of the street.

Some dogs made their presence known well before we walked by their yard. Other dogs would stand still and just wait for us to get close before they sounded the alarm and charged at us.

There is even one dog who gets down low and slowly crouches toward us — just like a lion attempting to stay undetected while stalking its prey. Rio was anything but relaxed after our neighborhood walks. Water the area where you are planning on trenching about an hour before you start to make the job easier and less messy.

Make two or three light passes with the lawn edger. You will put less wear and tear on the machine and your back. Mow your grass short before you install the dog fence wire. This will make it much easier to operate the lawn edger, and also make it much easier to place the wire in the trench.

If you come across areas that are difficult to edge or dig, just use ground staples to secure the wire to the surface. A mixture of the above and below ground is fine as long as the above ground wire is not in the way of lawn mowing or foot traffic. As you are edging make rounded corners, sharp angles will make turning the machine difficult. Sharp corners can also create cancellation of your signal field in the corner as the wires are too close together.

Making the Trench: Start the edger at the end of your neutral or twisted dog fence cable. Follow your predetermined boundary line making a shallow trench all the way around your installation path. In double loop layouts, remember to separate the trenches by ft. As you approach corners, tree roots, walkways, and driveways stop the machine and move it to the other side then restart the machine and proceed trenching.

Refer to Crossing Pathways for detailed instructions. Placing the wire in the trench: Start at the end of your neutral or twisted wire. Tie the end of your wire spool to a stake or garden staple and begin unspooling dog fence wire, following the path of the trench you cut in the previous step.

Keep the wire as close to the trench as possible to avoid having too much excess wire that will make it hard to press the wire into the trench. As you approach rounded corners and pathways unspool extra slack and secure it with ground staples to keep it from moving as you continue along. Test your main loop: Before permanently securing your dog fence wire into your trench temporarily connect all your splice points and test your transmitter.

Testing the fence function now before burying the wire will save you boatloads of time and energy later if there is an issue. Permanently secure the electric dog fence wire in the trench: Starting at the end of your neutral or twisted wire, push the wire into the ground all along the trench you cut. As you push the wire into the ground cover it with soil, tamping it down as you go.

Pro Tip: instead of using your feet or a shovel to flatten out your trench, use a wheel barrow to follow the path of your dog fence, around the perimeter of your dog fence. It helps to put some weight in the wheel barrow, the front wheel is wide and can aid in flattening out the secured wire. A riding lawn mower will also work just as well if not better. The most common means of burying a dog fence wire is by hand. Although time-consuming and physically demanding a shovel and a strong back is the cheapest and most flexible means of burying your pet fence wire and eliminate the cost of renting a wire trenching machine.

Always remember to call your local to call your local utility company before digging. Dial for free utilities marking service nationwide. Your local utilities company will come to your property and make your Electric, Cable, Water and Sewage. There is no charge for this service but plan on at least a 3 day wait until all the local companies come out. Private installations such as sprinkler systems or low voltage electricity are your responsibility to locate and mark.

If you or a previous owner has installed anything underground take caution when burying your dog fence cable. Pro Tip: Before digging, remember to run your electric dog fence lines as far back as possible from cable and electric lines. Some electrical and magnetic output by these utilities can cause dog fence interference. If you have a smaller yard install your fence wire as far back as possible.

Digging the trench: Start digging at the end of your neutral or twisted dog fencing wire. As you encounter roots and large rocks pull them out of your way with your axe. When crossing driveways and sidewalks stop at the edges and dig a trench a little bit deeper on both ends of the walkways.

We recommend a depth at minimum to avoid lawn edgers, lawn mowers, and snow plows from pulling and tearing your dog fence wire out of the ground. Continue your hand digging around the perimeter of property until you reach the other side of your neutral or twisted wire. Placing the wire in your trench: Secure the end of the wire to a shovel or garden staple fixed to the ground at the point where your twisted wire will join the boundary wire.

Walk the perimeter line unspooling wire and laying in or close to the trench you dug. Remember to leave plenty of extra slack to ease the placing of the wire in the trench in the next step. Pay special attention as you approach your corners to give yourself plenty of slack wire. It is always a good idea to secure the wire to the ground with garden staples so you are not short when it comes to placing the wire in the trench. Securing the dog fence cable in the trench: You will have to get down on your hands and knees for this part and pair of knee pads will go a long way in making you more comfortable.

Beginning at the twisted or neutral wire, push the dog fence wire into the trench with a flathead screwdriver, stick, or your fingers all the way around the perimeter. As you are pushing the wire in the trench use your other hand to close up the slit you made, covering the wire and securing it in place. Remember the dog fence wire does not have to be buried to operate. Burying the cable protects it against trip hazards and lawn maintenance.

Most visible wire will hide itself as the grass grows and the leaves fall. Keep a good supply of garden staples on hand. Use these staples in conjunction with a hammer to push the cable into the ground and secure the wire from moving as you are working on the loop. We actually recommend not burying the dog fence wire at all when you can get away with it. Refer to our section titled Easy Installation method. We do not recommend burying the dog fence wire any deeper than 2 ft.

Burying to such a level should only be done if you have a large enough property that you can adjust your dog fence transmitter to compensate for the depth. Remember every inch you bury the electric dog fence wire you will lose an inch of signal field.