Give Wildlife a Brake Week on October, 2024: Question about the Invisible Fence?

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I have had this type of fence for almost 10 years.

Huskies are escape artists. We have 14 of them. The only thing that I have found that they can't go over or under is invisible type fencing. Some folks say that it doesn't work on Huskies. They don't know what they are talking about. You can't buy the cheap stuff, like what they sell at Lowe's or Home Depot or PetSmart etc. The best I have found is the Smart Dog 2100 by Innotek. Innotek now owns Invisible Fence brand.

The key is taking the time to train your pet. I have known of people to pay big money to install a fence, strap the collar on their dog and then complain that the fence is junk when the dog blows right through it. Also, you do not mention the breed of dog. Longhaired breeds require a longer contact probe on the collar (these are included with the system above). Training may take awhile, one of ours took 18 months (she was a bit stubborn) before we trusted her, most were pretty good in a month or so and we have one that it only took 3 days! The amazing thing is that we can take the collar off, put them on a leash and when we head towards the perimeter their brakes come on immediately! To take them out of the yard we have to put them on a leash, take off the collar and put them in the truck and drive them off!

When hurricane Isabelle came through we had no power for 3 weeks, the terrain was changed with all the fallen trees, and the underground wire for the fence was damaged and NONE of the kids even tried the fence. As I said earlier, the people who say that it doesn't work don't know what they are talking about. We have 14 Huskies (15 until we lost one over the summer due to medical reasons), all free to run around, contained in our 6 acre yard. And no I am not a dealer ..... just a satisfied customer with 14 hardheaded Huskies most of them rescued as adults. We can leave them outside unsupervised for hours with no problems though they are put in the house when we leave.

It will not keep other animals out including the neighbor’s brats. Neither will a 6 foot stockade fence ... this I learned when I lived elsewhere and was attacked by a neighbors dog in my back yard. As far as people being scared of dogs, well if a 15 to 20 foot barrier field isn't enough, neither would a chain link fence be. Besides, if the pet stays on your property who cares if they are unreasonably scared. As far as a dog running through ... well yes, that could happen, however, with proper training it is unlikely. Huskies have an extremely high prey drive. Where we live we have a lot of wildlife, large and small. The kids will line up along the edge of the field and watch the rabbits, geese, deer etc. They won't challenge the fence. The deer and geese have learned where the kids can and cannot go and will stay just outside "Husky country". Sometimes within 5 feet of the kids. As I said it does work. The key is training. That is the most important part of the installation of the fence

25 years of being owned by Siberian Huskies. I currently have 14 Huskies most of whom were rescued by us from people who didn’t know what they were getting into..

What is ground work .....?

I start my greenies with touching them, if they are truly green and don't even 'allow' human touch. I put their feed down and if they want to eat it, they let me touch them. If they would rather avoid my touch AND their food, then I offer them the option of just my touch - I follow them calmly trying to touch them, in the biggest area I can offer, An acre is good. If they want to eat, they stand still for touching. It doesn't take long for the horse to choose, to decide for itself, that nothing I want to do is worse than leaving food. Once the horse has made that decision - come to that conclusion for themselves - the rest is gravy. First saddle - yeah, whatever, can I please have my hay? Cinching up? So what - where's the grub? This is why I prefer to work with the greenest horses I can find, because if I can make that first impression, everything after it is a piece of cake.

If I have the misfortune of having to work with a horse that is already halter-trained, I've missed that window of 'first impressions', but there's still a lot of 'blank slate' to work with. Leading offers a world of training opportunities that many people overlook. Taking a horse for walks teaches it that you are in control of the situation, regardless of the situation. Leading along a road, they learn that you are not afraid of those cars, bikes, dogs, and the baby carriages on the sidewalk. If you're so confident walking alongside them, they can see that the scary things aren't really worth all that energy it takes to worry about them. Going down the trails, they can see that you are a fearless leader when the loose dogs come around, when wildlife pops up unexpectedly, and when there's a bridge to cross. This gives the horse a ton of confidence, having you at its side to face these monsters together. It's also an opportunity to teach the voice commands walk, trot, and whoa, and gee and haw for right and left, if you're so inclined.

From there, we go on to longeing. We reinforce and refine the voice cues to crisp precision. I like to say the horse's name as an attention-getter, then say 'now', then the actual command. This works as a half-halt, so they are prepared for the command when it finally comes. I think it works pretty well, because I got on my 2 yr old colt in the pasture with nothing else on him - no saddle, halter, or bridle - and started back toward the barn at a good run. We certainly hadn't done any "reining" work, only consistent voice work with about of 10 minutes a day of longeing, 3-4 days a week, and transferring those voice cues to 30 minutes to an hour a day, 2-3 days a week of slow ridden work.

So we are headed back to the barn at a run, along the groomed harness-racing exercise track - soft footing. I said "Joey" and his ears flipped back to ask "You rang?". I said "Now" , and he gathered himself in preparation for whatever I was about to ask. I said "Whoa" and 'sat deeper' with my seat and legs - and he slammed on the brakes, sliding the prettiest number 11 into the dirt. Oh, what a thrill that was!

Any educational activities with the human's feet on the ground, is ground work. If you like to chase a horse around a round pen, that's ground work (if it's truly educational, otherwise it's just chasing a horse).

I like to play 'chase me, chase you' with my horses. Joey, again, was the king of this game. Turned out of his confined stall life (which I refuse to subject a horse to now, but at the time I didn't realize the detrimental effects) into the small arena in the dead of a Pennsylvania winter, he was full of energy. I would chase him away, he ran to the far end of the arena then zoomed back toward me. I crouched as if in fear, until he got fairly close, then I jumped up and waved my arms. He slid to a stop, wheeled away and only after he was facing away from me he reared up, then took off running again. He learned that he could play with me, but any threat to my being was absolutely not tolerated. That I am fun to be with, as long as he is careful to mind his manners. With this in place, the typical line about "respect" is utterly immaterial, because you already have a much more meaningful basis for the horse-human relationship. When you consider that most of the "respect" they talk about is based in fear, domination, and aggression, I much prefer this relationship.

Ground driving is another form of ground work. It helps the horse understand the reining cues, without adding the issues of rebalancing with the rider's weight or the stresses of carrying extra weight.

As others said, any training for non-riding work is also ground work - hoof handling, trailer loading, general manners, confidence building, etc.

what name brand invisible fencing is the most user friendly/ easy to install yourself/ reliable, etc?

I have had this type of fence for almost 10 years.

Huskies are escape artists. We have 14 of them. The only thing that I have found that they can't go over or under is invisible type fencing. Some folks say that it doesn't work on Huskies. They don't know what they are talking about. You can't buy the cheap stuff either like what they sell at Lowe's or Home Depot or PetSmart etc. The best I have found is the Smart Dog 2100 by Innotek. You can find it on line for less than $300.00 with 2 collars. Extra collars are about $80.00. The kit has everything needed. The collars are rechargeable (unlike the "Invisible Fence" and most others where you have to buy the batteries every 3 or so months), has battery backup for the transmitter, run through prevention, water proof, etc. Innotek now owns Invisible Fence brand. Be sure to use heat shrink type splices in the wire if needed. They are available at marine supply stores. Do not use the "weatherproof wire nuts" from Lowe's etc. They will not work for this application. Use an edger to dig the "trench" for the wire. The wire only has to be buried 1 or 2 inches down.

The key is taking the time to train your pet. I have known of people to pay big money to install a fence, strap the collar on their dog and then complain that the fence is junk when the dog blows right through it. Also, you do not mention the breed of dog. Long haired breeds require a longer contact probe on the collar (these are included with the system above). Training may take awhile, one of ours took 18 months (she was a bit stubborn) before we trusted her, most were pretty good in a month or so and we have one that it only took 3 days! The amazing thing is that we can take the collar off, put them on a leash and when we head towards the perimeter their brakes come on immediately! You can also block off areas of the yard that you don't want them in. When hurricane Isabelle came through we had no power for 3 weeks, the terrain was changed with all the fallen trees, and the underground wire for the fence was damaged and NONE of the kids even tried the fence. As I said earlier, the people who say that it doesn't work don't know what they are talking about. We have 14 Huskies (15 until we lost one over the summer due to medical reasons), all free to run around, contained in our 6 acre yard. And no I am not a dealer ..... just a satisfied customer with 14 hardheaded Huskies most of them rescued as adults. We can leave them outside unsupervised for hours with no problems.

It will not keep other animals out including the neigbor's brats. Neither will a 6 foot stockade fence ... this I learned when I lived elsewhere and was attacked by a neighbors dog in my back yard. As far as people being scared of dogs, well if a 15 to 20 foot barrier field isn't enough, neither would a chain link fence be. Besides, if the pet stays on your property who cares if they are unreasonably scared. As far as a dog running through ... well yes, that could happen, however, with proper training it is unlikely. Huskies have an extremely high prey drive. Where we live we have a lot of wildlife, large and small. The kids will line up along the edge of the field and watch the rabbits, geese, deer etc. They won't challenge the fence. The deer and geese have learned where the kids can and can not go and will stay just outside "Husky country". Sometimes within 5 feet of the kids. As I said it does work. The key is training. That is the most important part of the installation of the fence.