🚀 go-pugleaf

pollock@milton.u.washington.edu (Joe Pollock) writes:
>For those of you unfamiliar with the "Invisible Fence(tm)" system, the
>owner doesn't just strap on a shock collar and turn the dog loose in
>the yard.  The collar  is a receiver sensitive to pulsed currents sent
>through a wire loop at the perimeter of the yard.  The collar beeps
>about six feet from the wire, and does not deliver a shock until the
>animal is about three feet from the wire.

>There is an extensive training regime the owner must  put the animal
>through: it involves a white cord inside the perimeter to mark it for
>the animal, and several weeks of training, where the owner walks the
>dog near the wire on a lead and issues appropriate commands.  The goal
>is to train the dog to the perimeter and to the beep, not to the shock.
*----
I contend that if you go to all the trouble this training regimen
requires, then you don't need the shock in the first place.


>My experience with this has been with a friend's dogs, which I occasionally
>care for when he vacations, etc.  The dogs have absolutely no apparent
>adversion to the collars.  They will stay inside the perimeter even if
>the fence is off (we had an awful time finding a break in the 1500' of
>wire one week - I finally built an audio detector to trace the loop), 
>and know that if they are not wearing the collars it's OK to cross
>the perimeter.  Yet, even if they are chasing a ball, they halt before
>the collar even beeps.  The training is the key to the process -
>the dogs will otherwise learn to make a running leap.
*----
My experience is with dogs belonging to my parents' neighbor.  They
frequently run right past the "invisible barrier" and then can't get
back in without getting shocked (so they play in the street until
somebody gets them).
--
	Mike Berger
	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu