Starting Over
FF suggested we borrow my parents shock collar and get some of those little white yard flags to serve as a visual aid for her for the area she's to avoid. I'm not against the shock collar training system, but I don't know anything about it. Thoughts? Pros? Cons? We also considered invisible fencing, but the quotes I saw were absurd for such a small area.
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
NSOR: Thoughts on shock collar training?
Does anyone have experience with shock collar training for dogs? FF has a large yard (awesome!) but there's a 20' section between the house and the driveway that isn't fenced in. My dog is pretty good about avoiding it when we're outside with her, as we tell her to stay in her yard. However, I feel bad that she's on a 30' lead when we put her outside, when she has this big yard to run and play in.
FF suggested we borrow my parents shock collar and get some of those little white yard flags to serve as a visual aid for her for the area she's to avoid. I'm not against the shock collar training system, but I don't know anything about it. Thoughts? Pros? Cons? We also considered invisible fencing, but the quotes I saw were absurd for such a small area.
Re: NSOR: Thoughts on shock collar training?
I wouldn't want to be shocked myself so I can't see myself doing that to animals.
Can you add a fence to that 20' section?
X had Duke professionally trained with one (against my wishes). Worst.Mistake.EVER! It messed him up and he actually bit a little part of the front of his tongue because of it. Now he is scared of small "remote control" looking things, vibrating noises (the collar was a vibrating one) and he was trained back in 2005.
My sister had an invisible fence and her dogs kept breaking out of it. They were always going to the shelter and paying $$ to get their dogs back.
With that said, when I lived in my house and I was outside doing yard work or whatever, I had them on a lead and it was fine. They just wanted to be outside with me.
They see us rollin'...they be hatin'.
I had a feeling these would be the responses
We can't fence in that 20' section because it would need to go across the driveway before you get to the garage and be a giant PITA (if that makes any sense).
She currently is put on a 30' lead that is on one of those steaks in the ground and she really does have a lot of room to run around. Whenever we're outside she's with us and she's good about staying close by. I just feel bad she doesn't have full reign of the yard like she did at my old house.
My XILs did the invisible fence for their 2 dogs: 1 older, 1 younger. The younger one figured it out right away and after crossing the line twice, she figured it out and knew where the lines were.
The older dog however just didn't care. She has her spot in the yard that she likes to sit at when she is outside. The invisible fence crossed that spot, so she would sit there and get zapped by the collar, not caring about it because she had to be on her spot. They took off the collar and resumed using a lead for her.
I'm not going to lie, the bolded part made me giggle a little bit. I mean, it's not funny about her getting zapped, but the fact she kept sitting there because it was her "spot" is cute. Dogs are funny like that.
My dog can be kind of timid and skittish, and I don't want to traumatize her. But, on the other hand, if she "gets" it fairly quickly she won't have to ever be shocked again. I don't know...I'm still torn.
I do not know much about them, but I agree that I wouldn't want to be shocked and I wouldn't want to do that to my dog.
Can you maybe put some landscaping up to cover the area? Maybe some bushes or small trees (lilacs, rose of sharons...)?
I think there's something similar to a shock collar that they wear around their neck, and it's tied to this perimeter cord that you bury in the yard. We had one for our dog because he would jump the fence. As he got close to the perimeter it would give him a warning beep and beep faster as he got closer. You can adjust the settings up or down so the effects would be mild if she did get too close.
FYI: XH tried the collar out on HIMSELF first to make sure that the setting wasn't too high. Too bad I didn't have the fortitude to crank it up just before he did that
My parents did this, too. It is very possible to set it at a level where it's a deterrant to the dog, but doesn't hurt him/her.
I'm trying to understand what you're proposing. What I'm getting from your post is that you want to put the flags up like there is an invisible fence, put a shock collar on and shock her when she gets close to the fence as if she were on an invisible fence. Basically faking a cheap invisible fence, yes? Unfortunately I don't think this would work as well as an invisible fence. The collars for invisible fences give off a warning sort of beep when the dog gets close. Most dogs who are smart enough to learn the fence are also smart enough to figure out when it is on v. off. My neighbors dogs were well contained by their fence when it was on, but the minute the electricity went out (all the damn time) they'd be out running through the neighborhood. You also have to carefully train most dogs to obey the invisible fence by walking them along the property line, etc.
I have mixed feelings on invisible fences b.c. my general experience has been that they require a lot of training most people aren't informed enough to do competently and they still don't work for a lot of dogs. More importantly, they may keep your dog in the yard but they don't keep people, aggressive dogs, wild animals, etc. out of your yard. And heaven forbid your dog left the yard it would then be scared to come back in and get shocked. The whole concept is kind of flawed to me and we live in the middle of nowhere with a hound who has no respect for property boundaries so I'm sympathetic to your situation. One of our dogs will usually stay in unfenced areas if we're with him,. but that took us a year or so of working on recall. Can you take her to dog parks or hiking so her only exercise isn't on lead in the yard?
Thank for all of the input ladies!