Hmmm article on invisible fences - Page 2

 

Invisible fence works if the training was done correctly. If it is not done correctly then the dog will  learn to run  through it and you have waste of money and dog on the wrong side of a fence. 

I would invest into good strong properly installed chain link/cyclone   fence. I would not even sell a dog to someone who admits not to have good solid physical fence or wall. Another problem with the invisible fence is that  your well trained dog will stay behind it but people and other dogs may not and that can lead to people who do not deserve it getting bitten and dog fights. 

 That is the reason I never do not recommend invisible fence. 

Bubba, excellent post.

 I will note.   I live in the country, so for me, IF is working very well.   If I lived in town, I personally think there are enough limits to IF that I would  not  use it.

The -only!- time I have seen invisible fences work 100% is when they're installed in conjunction with a physical fence. In these cases, the owners had existing fences, and escape-artist dogs. In those cases, they had the invisible fence installed at the base of the physical fence to deter the dog from even attempting to get near the physical fence. The people I knew who did that chose that option because zoning or installation issues prevented installing a hot-wire along the physical fence. But to rely on an "invisible" fence as a sole containment system? I've seen more cases of fails than success.

One of the folks who had an invisible fence plus physical fence lived in a subdivision with a homeowner's association that didn't allow fences above a certain height (it was 4ft, I think), and didn't allow chainlink or dog kennels. The invisible fence in conjunction worked very nicely to keep their happy, fence-jumping mutt from going near the fence.

I lived in a subdivision that didn't allow fences over 4 feet too. I never thought about installing both a physical and an IF, but that sounds like a good idea and could have made life easier for me with my first GSD.  Dylan did a lot better after we had his receiver beefed up, that stopped him from running through the field. For a  while I had to keep him on a long lead in addition to the IF. My second GSD took ONE correction and he never went anywhere near the barrier and nothing could tempt him to do so.  

Anyway, not an ideal containment for any dog, but it can work if you err on the side of caution, train your dog to the fence, keep the collar tight, batteries fresh, not do something stupid like cuting the wire when using an edger, and you must OB train your dog to come when called. If an owner wants to contain a dog that has had no training and just open the door and let it run, it's not going to work.