I live near Atlanta and have a large dog that can squirm under our chain linl fence.

I want to install a dog rated electric fence (electrified wire) at the bottom of the chain linl to give her an anoying shock when she tries to leave.

I have everything that I need for the job but I have a question.

Do I need to keep grass, weeds, ivy etc off of the live wire?

Yes it will discharge to the grass or weeds... got the same problem and solution. Good thing is dogs learned quick.

Thanks@

Get a low impedance charger such as this one from Amazon

Low impedance chargers handle heavy weeds on the wire, they are what I use. It will actually kill vines and weeds that touch it, so it kind of takes care of itself.

Finally got the fence live.  Zelda bumped into it.  Zgirl was not happy.

She will learn to respect that fence quickly 

Z boy dog met the fence this evening.  He's a retriever so I think that he liked itl

Had a retriever growing up, pretty sure he considered it his mission in life to defeat whatever type of fence he was put behind.  Electric, wood, chain link, didn't matter.

LOL dogs and electric fences. We have 7 acres fenced off for cattle. Each and every dog has learned to respect the fence. When they are new we warn them to stay away but they just have to sniff it or touch and lesson learned.

My brother stopped to visit and brought his dog along, an 8 year old golden retriever. We walked out to look at the cattle and his dog was going nuts when we got close to the fence. Best we can figure is he remembered getting zapped years ago and was doing his best to warn us about it. Good doggy lol.

They are just like kids, you can tell them not to touch something hot, but they will do it anyways and learn something.

ETA OP "weed burner" fencers can handle some weeds, they should kill them and not short out the fence.