Will a Good Hunting Dog.....

[TM7]

stay inside or heed a buried perimeter dog fence? I've had this discussion with a friend and he says yes, but he has had labs. I've had Beagles and I say no...if the Beagle, at least the ones I've had, got on a trail if a rabbit happened by then they're gone. But I don't know for sure because I never had a buried electric fence and collar system.....maybe if you super shock them they will heed.

......TM7

[Wynn]

The buried wire and collar system is working great on my 10 month old bloodhound that is training on deer and my 5 year old cur that is a all purpose hog dog. Both of them were escape artists and a regular fence would not contain them. I do not like keeping my dogs 24/7 in a kennel. This way they at least get daily exercise in the yard but are not roaming the neighborhood picking up bad habits. It also serves to keep my 3 acre property very secure. They learned their boundaries in less than a week and did not associate the correction with me.

[beemanbeme]

They work.  You have to properly introduce the dog(s) to them however.

[Ahab]

My standard poodles learned to stay inside our property (3 acres) after a few walks around the perimeter and telling them no when they strayed off. Don't need no stinken wire.

[rockbilly]

Ahab.  Your dogs may behave great while under voice command, but what happens when you go in the house?  Animals do not know boundries, they go where they wish when unattended.  I have near fifty years experience working and training dogs, for hunting, for police work, and for the military.  Dogs generally respoind well to a handlers commaand while under their control, but once the handller is gone, the dog acts on instinct.  If a rabbit, or another dog comes by they WILL chase it.  They may come back, but that depends on the homing instintc.

The electrict fence is a fairly good method to control dogs, but is not truly effective 100% of the time.  The only way you can ensure 100% control is to have a proplerly constructed and maintained fence.  The fence should have a barrier to prevent digging under, be constructed to prevent going over, and be sturdy enough to hold the breed intended.  I always liked to overbuild for the peace of mind.

Bottomline, electric fences are effective to a degree, but are not 100%.  If I had beagles, I would not trust it to hold them if a rabbit, cat, or another dog came by.

[moxgrove]

Most of the time they will stay in. However given a good incentive they will take the shock and go for it. I tried this with a wirehair. He was fine unless a cat or bunny went by the perimeter. I went back to the six foot high fence. So much for saving money and hassles with mowing. If your dog isn't aggressive it may work. How many hunting dogs aren't motivated and aggressive that way though?

[Don Fischer]

I never owned one of those electric fences and never will. A couple have the answer I'd surely agree with, use a fence. I would suspect that if you had one of those things and the dog was well used to it, a rabbit might pull your dog out of the yard but the electric wire may well keep your dog from coming back in the yard when the chase is over. A dog running at the thing would be thru it and gone befor it would get much of a shock.

A thing I used to teach in obedience classes was to never take the dog for a walk down town or along hiways off lead. Even the best dog screws up now and again and showing off is a set up to get a dog seriously injured or killed. Build a fence!

[txray22]

build a high fence.  Keep the dog in and people out.  There are people out there that will steal a good hunting dog.

[Don Fischer]

Well if you really want to use electricity, Buy enough 1/2" hardware cloth to go all round the yard, 4' wide. stake it out, flat, 6" off the ground and hang it on insulater's. Hook it up to an electric fence charger! Probally keep the kids in also!

[victorcharlie]

Don't know about the underground fence......I've got 4 acres enclosed with 47 inch woven wire...........and an electric fence about 12 inches up on the fence and around the top as well........Gallagher unit.....with four ground rods.......peaks about 8000 volts or more and I'm sure I'll never touch it again to test it........

Dogs nor cow will challenge it anymore......

Nothing bigger than a rabbit gets in.........nor out.......

Good fences make good neighbors......provided your fences are horse high, cattle strong, and pig tight...........

Best money I ever spent........solved a lot of problems..........

[Wynn]

Actually, I have essentially the same set up as VictorCharlie. It still took the buried wire and collar system to keep my dogs contained. Where my property is located, wild hog, deer, turkey, coyote, etc. are sited outside my fence regularly and get my dogs pretty worked up at times. they had learned to jump the 54" fence without touching the hot wire. The buried wire and collar put a stop to the fence jumping. At night they are in their individual 6x10 ft kennels. I have been keeping the current turned off and observing the dogs closely. Yesterday they went nuts over a feral pig outside the fence but the dogs still stopped at the 8' point where the collar sounds a audible warning when the current is on. This system is working well for me and has not effected their performance in the field.