Invisible Fences – Good or Bad? | Jo Jacques

We have several small dogs, they are used to fencing in our large, great yard. We will soon be moving to a new place, same town, but will want to be investigating Invisible Fencing.

Our dog is not with a puppy but 4 years old, so we are curious how older dogs can adapt to this. How long does it take for the dogs to become familiar, and how trustworthy is it.
Any info you have is useful as we do our research to consider this. Our dogs have had free run of their large fenced yard.

thanks,
Invisible Reader of DogBoston

Hi Invisible,
You have hit on a subject I’ve done a LOT of research on, as I’ve had many clients who’ve used these.

It is very popular right now, especially with the large subdivisions that have gone up — mostly because it’s relatively inexpensive. While it does have its good points — it doesn’t detract from your property, it’s inexpensive for large areas, and you don’t need to take your dog out on a leash.

But, the bad points FAR outweigh the good with these devices, I’m afraid.

Let’s look at the physical aspects first:

1) they don’t stop anything from coming INTO your yard to take or hurt your dogs.
2) they are susceptible to damage from electrical storms.
3) the collar units have a very high rate of malfunction, especially in this area of the country — malfunctions that can (and have) caused the collars to shock (yes, shock — these are SHOCK devices, remember) their dog repeatedly, causing physical (and emotional) damage to the dog.

That leads us into the behavioral problems with Invisible Fencing (IF) — an area that I see a LOT. Small dogs, especially, seem to have more issues, due to the fragile nature of their neurological systems — sometimes, the neurological damage is lasting to these little guys.

1) Since dogs take the entire environment into consideration when learning, they really don’t know where the pain is coming from so they see what’s around them. If joggers run past, or you have children in the yard, or if YOU’RE in the yard when they receive a shock, they are very likely to redirect to that stimulus and develop deep-seated fear responses that are incredibly difficult to remove. Even if no one is outside, I’ve worked with dogs that refuse to go out in their back yards to eliminate after receiving a shock.

2) You never know just how much shock the dog is getting at any given time. Not to mention, dogs — like people — are all different, and have different pain thresholds. The more sensitive a dog is to the shock, the more likely the dog is to develop redirected pain aggression — there are quite a few lawsuits (the IF folks don’t like to tell you about those) regarding previously wonderful family pets (like goldens) attacking the family’s kids when outdoors with the fencing. And, you can’t tell how sensitive your dog is before you use the collar, or even while you are using it in most cases — dogs, as a species, do not show pain as we think they would. In the wild, an animal showing pain is usually attacked as being weak.

3) When it comes to training with the fence, most dogs very first experience being leash-walked by a stranger is when the installer puts the leash on and takes your dog out for training. Research has shown that this training can have a serious lasting effect on a dog — a huge percentage of these dogs develop an intense fear of strangers while on leash, culminating in aggression issues, requiring hours upon hours of remediation and in a lot of cases, medication to keep the dog from attacking others while on walks. You end up with a HUGE emotional and legal liability.

There is plenty of scientific and legal research out there showing the dangers of these fences. As well, many well-known veterinary behaviorists, such as Dr. Karen Overall and Dr. Ian Dunbar, have come out against their use. These devices are banned in many countries as being inhumane; many feel they will be banned here, too. I, for one, won’t be upset if they are.