Inquiry for Dog Owners

[joymorgan]

Do you guys have any dogs at home? Have you ever tried to use an underground dog fence? Is this product a great alternative to a traditional wood gate? I have tried to look for It online and I must say that e-fence is way cheaper than wood barrier. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that my beagle needs to wear a shock collar.

Edited April 26, 2018 by joymorgan

[tymmur]

I think it would be bad to give your dog a shock. Imagine if it's you who would have to learn that you get electric shocks whenever you approach some area and the only way to figure out where is by trial and error. I'm also not fully convinced it can't get a false positive, which would be horrible for your dog. For all I know, turning on your vacuum cleaner could make an electric field, which could trigger the shock collar.

 

While it's not the cheapest solution, a proper fence is the best solution. It would be good to avoid contact between your dog and wildlife. Depending on where you live, you may or may not have hedgehogs wandering around your garden, usually, but not always at night. If a dog and a hedgehog meet, then it's bad news for the hedgehog. It will go into defense position and if the dog is hurt, it might attack. Alternatively it might decide to just carry it to somewhere else. Either way the hedgehog can come in contact with dog teeth, get a scratch, which will then turn into an infection, which can kill it in a few weeks. The amount of hedgehog fatalities due to dogs is significant, which is bad considering hedgehogs are endangered and protected animals. Besides hedgehogs are beneficial because they eat a bunch of bugs, which would otherwise cause damage to plants and crops.

Ideally you should train your dog to leave hedgehogs alone. However I have yet to meet a dog successfully trained for that. The second best solution is a fence, which prevents hedgehogs from walking into the territory of the dog, hence preventing them from encountering each other.

A proper fence also prevents other dogs from suddenly entering your garden to start a fight. It happens once in a while that some dog runs away from home and before it's caught, it enters the property of somebody else and attacks the dog.

[blendedfart]

Better for your dog to experience a bit of a shock rather than a passerby getting bit.

[Pomelo]

Based on personal anecdotes, they don't appear to be especially effective (and, as Tymmur pointed out, do little to stop wildlife coming into contact with your dog). We have a fence, though, so I couldn't really tell you other than what I've heard. 

[joymorgan]

I guess I would go for a traditional wood fence then, thank you guys for all the meaningful insights.