Invisible Fence

[Juliana]

Yay? or Nay? I live in an area that is very difficult to fence and I'd like my 9 month old GSD to have more space than a dog run offers. An invisible fence seems to me to be a really good idea. I'm willing to invest the time to train and I am home much of the time so though not directly he'll be somewhat supervised. But if he does get through it the fact that I'm home doesn't make a huge difference if he's going after a car and gets hit. (he for sure is a car chaser, he was hit a couple weeks ago when he tore down the drive after an Audi. I'm not sure how he's going to react to autos now but I don't want to take any chances, he came out of this with miraculously few and minor injuries

[KOPcaroline]

Hey Juliana,

I think invisible fences are great for situations where the dog will still have good supervision and training at the start of the fences use, so that things so smoothly and you dont end up with a startled dog or one who's trying to get through the fence randomly. I dont have personal experience with them, but know a few people who use them and they really enjoy it, and they work really well for some families. It sounds like you're invested in making sure things go smoothly, so I think it could work really well for your dog!

As far as chasing cars - be sure you can watch your dog for the first while of having the fence, to see what happens when cars go by. Certainly some dogs are put off of chasing cars after being hit once, but some just carry on :P You might look into planting trees or bushes, or putting a privacy fence of some sort up on the front of your property, just to help break the visual of cars going by, kind of a secondary precaution to go along with training on the invisible fence. You might try desensitization to cars with your dog - keep exposing him to them passing by in situations where you can control him and make sure he doesn't chase - train him on "no" and "stay" so that if you see him in the yard looking like he'll chase you can give him a command he'll listen to.

Hopefully the fence goes well and your dog enjoys having more freedom to run around with it.