What is the most important part of an electric dog fence?
Is it the wire? The transmitter? The containment collar? something else?
All 3 physical parts of the electric dog fence system are equally important for containment success.
- You must have a transmitter that works well and is reliable during power outages…
- a collar that is adjusted properly so that the probes from the collar make contact with the dog’s neck.
- and a good solid wire that will bring longevity to the task of keeping your pet safe!
However the most important “part” is really not electronic.
It is the proper and complete training of your dog. Proper and complete training takes between 2 and 4 weeks on average, but may be shorter or longer depending on a number of factors including your availability and the personality of your pet, and whether or not the training is done properly.
The more often you take your pet into the yard and he doesn’t get a shock or correction (you read that right), the quicker their training will proceed, generally. This is assuming that you, the dog owner are the ‘good guy’ and that the trainer is the one the dog is associating with the corrections, warning flags and beep.
Taking your dog out about 10-12 times a day for just 2-3 minutes each time helps your dogs comprehension and speeds up training. Lots of short sessions in the yard.The best method of training follows the format of two roles: trainer and good guy. The “good guy” is a role best filled by you. You are your dog’s best friend and most trusted companion, after all! While you show your pup that the yard is a safe and fun place to be, one of our expert trainers will teach the dog that they must stay within the boundary of the yard.
Training is more than a word. Its more than giving the dog a few ‘shocks’. It’s a lot more. It’s exposing the dog to the stimuli over time he will encounter in his yard and train him the way to proceed is away from the flags and perimeter not towards them. Even when what they want is on the ‘other side’ of flags. Its reading the dog’s behavior and body language and preventing him from getting a correction if he is scared in the yard.
It’s this and more.
Proper and complete training takes time. Dogs WILL be fearful or scared in the early stages of containment training. Why? Because something ‘bad’ just happened to them in their yard. Although we know and understand, and even our children can understand the concept of ‘stay away from the flags/beep/shock’ the way dogs learn is experiential: Paws To The Ground.. We can not explain to them verbally what they need to know so the only way they learn is the way all animals (that can’t understand complete verbal communication) learn; through their experience.
The best, and fairest way to train is to have an experienced behavioral trainer doing the containment training and the owners be the ‘good guy’. This way the dog associates fun and trust to the owner and not fear and the connection to an unpleasant stimuli.