Invisible Fences--An Unnecessary Evil
Comments on article "Invisible Fences--An Unnecessary Evil"| Name | Views and Comments | Date |
| Naomi | Jeez, you're obviously not a country kid. Otherwise you'd had grabbed onto your fair share of electric fences. It's really not that painful, just... "shocking". Much better than being hit by a car. Furthermore, I'd like to see you put up a normal fence around a huge yard on a farm. | 12/7/2011 |
| Dave | How many kids did you have at the time? Were you both wworking full time? | 1/3/2011 |
| Emily | "every time your dog gets too close to the invisible fence, he or she is electrically shocked on the neck". This makes it sound as if the dog is getting constantly shocked. The dog hears a warning beep when it gets too close to the fence and, having been trained, knows to retreat from the boundary and thus avoid getting shocked. Yes, the dog probably has to experience the shock a few times during training (not all dogs do though) but if trained properly they should never get shocked again. The shock is certainly unpleasant but the collars can be adjusted so that your dog gets the lowest possible shock to make the point. My very vocal, expressive dogs barely flinched but learned after 3 shocks not to challenge the warning beep. I would rather them get a couple of unpleasant shocks in controlled circumstances versus hurt themselves trying to get under or over the traditional fence as they used to do, or worse get hit by a car on the busy street we live on. For the record I do take them for long walks at least twice a day (a challenge with a 10 month old baby and a husband that is away a lot) and also take them to off-leash parks several times a week. | 10/24/2010 |
| marlane | i saw a dog being shocked for about 15 seconds by an invisible fence.he stood there quivering in obvious electric shock all that time and my heart just broke. why anyone would do that to anybody they love is beyond me. shame on you people. you don't deserve pets. you deserve the same thing done to yourselves. | 5/31/2010 |
| Jason | If anybody understands about loving and caring for a family pet, I do. I think however, some people take this too far when it comes to physical discipline whether it be to a child or an animal. Growing up it took only one or two whippings with a thick leather belt by my Dad to make me think twice about doing anything other than the right thing! Slowly through the years people have come to the conclusion that spanking is bad and the only punishment that should be used is either talking or non physical means. Look at the youth of today, I help out at a local Junior High School and I tell you that the glory days of real discipline or apparent. This leads me to the Invisible fence debate above by a guy who obviously feels like any type of physical discipline is wrong, well I completely disagree. Don't get me wrong, I have Zero tolerance for any kind of abuse on any living thing but what we are talking about here is a conditioned response. One thing is that the dog will get shock maybe once or twice once started on this system, after that he will not want that again, I promise you. I had a 116lb German Shepherd who lived his entire life on 3 archers of land and an Invisible Fence System and from a pup he learned the control area and as he grew up to be full grown he never once came near the area that would give him a shock, not even when he was tempted by loose dogs or small animals outside that control area. The point is, if you as a dog lover learn to realize that this system works and will at the most shock your dog once or twice in his or her life time, it is not a bad system. If you are one of these people that thinks that absolutely no physical discipline is necessary for training a dog or your child, then you will have alot more to worry about once those two get older than a couple of little shocks. | 10/27/2009 |
| Dog Owner | So when your dog kills the neighbors little terriers, be sure to let them know you're going to do even more training...That'll comfort them. | 6/13/2009 |
| Oberon | I agree with this article completely. I think that invisible fences should be outlawed as cruelty to animals. | 5/8/2009 |
| Figment | i must say this article was interesting, but i think you missed your own point. when you got to the house with the electric fence and decided not to use it, you found your self required to be out side every time you dog went out regardless of weather. i have had a dog for many years, she is trained for and electric fence, her collar beeps when she gets close then emits a second beep before shocking. i have shocked my self and yes its quite a shock, but after a year on the collar, my dog has not had to wear it for the last 12 years of her life, except for one week each year in the spring, during which she never get shocked. Yes all fences have problems, the only fence i know of that didn't was an 8 ft tall cinderblock fence that came with my first house. but the view out my back window is well worth, the training it took to get my dog to respect the boundary. now i am training a new puppy on the fence, and she has been shocked maybe two times. yes it will take me month or two to get her to the point where i don't have little pink flags out lining my property, but in the interim she is allowed to come and go though the dog door when ever she needs to. as to the baby thing. i have never met a toddler that can out run one of my dogs, or my self. |
10/19/2008 |
| killer | Its either that or beat my dog senseless until the stupid mutt gets the point to stay in the yard...so far...that hasnt worked...BUT, the invisible fence has, and shes still alive. so save your bull | 7/25/2008 |
| Vanessa H | I think this article is great! i love it, especially how u used a life experience |
5/7/2007 |
| Alicia | I hate the thought of causing my German Shepherd any pain, but I am at the end of my rope. I have a 6ft stockade fence because the shorter wire fence was too easy for him to jump over. So, he now either digs under the fence or literally rips off planks of wood and goes through it. I have tried putting bricks, big pieces of concrete, and objects in front of the fence or buried under it but he still figures out how to escape. If I get one spot fixed, he finds another. Since I am alone and can not always be home with him, your solution won't work for me. Fortunately, my dad lives down the block and when the dog gets out, he heads straight there to play with Dad's dog. Still, he's destroying my property, my neighbor's property, and I am afraid he'll get hurt, hurt someone else, or I'll get sued yet. The electronic fence seemed like a possibility, but I have read that some Shepherds go through it anyway - I'm thinking he'll be one of those. | 5/5/2007 |
| Shannan | So I'm in the situation where we work during the day and have cats, so the dogs are outside while we're at work--they have access to a doggie proof garage so that they can get in out of the weather if they need to. They stay inside with us when we're home. We have a 6 foot privacy fence around our very large back yard--the largest in the neighborhood. And lately we have had rabbits running through our yard and under our back fence. In an attempt to get at the rabbits, the dogs have figured out how to break the slats in our fence to create a hole big enough for them to get through. We are considering an electric fence on the inside of our privacy fence until we can build a new fence or fortify the one we have (we just got hit big time by taxes so this isn't something we can do in the immediate future). In the meantime, we keep replacing slats and are researching ways to fortify our fence, on top of the frequent trips to the neighborhood park where we typically find our dogs splashing after the duck in the pond. If an electric fence isn't the answer for our situation, then what is? | 4/27/2007 |
| MJ | I found this article while investigating invisible fencing. Clearly, I think that an actual fence is better so that your pet is "shocked," however, another writer was forced to get an electric fence in addition to their conventional fence because of one dog digging under the fence and escaping. I think it's unfair to compare how you treat a child to a dog, considering training techniques are quite different with dogs and that they respond differently to stimuli. I also think that the author is not considering that many people rent properties and cannot install a conventional fence. I don't have a problem walking my pet and playing outside with it, but I find it unfair to a dog to be cooped up indoors all day long while I work, so want to have an option to allow her to go outdoors while I'm away. I cannot install a conventional fence, so I am investigating an invisible one. I think that a pet is far better off in a loving home with an electric fence than in a shelter. By the author's logic, if I cannot be home to walk the dog during the day and I believe it's unfair to contain the dog inside all day long, then I shouldn't have a dog. Even though there's a huge pet population waiting for adoption. Give me a break. I think I'll keep investigating the feasibility of an invisible fence. | 4/24/2007 |
| Steve | Firstly, you left out the warning beep. The collar will beep before it shocks. So after a couple of times the dog will realize they need to back up when it starts to beep. Secondly, these are dogs, you seem to be forgetting this. It's not safe to allow your dog outside without some kind of fencing. Even the best trained dog will take off if it sees a rabbit or something. After a short time the dog will know where to go and where not to go without even getting shocked at all. | 4/19/2007 |
| JRT | Article=pure BALONEY!! Just one comment, a dog=child, hmmm a real comparison, then agin some kids these days, of course kids don't get the discipline they use to either. | 4/9/2007 |
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