I am looking into this as an option to installing a fence in the yard. Have a 3 mo Vizsla and she needs some running room, tie outs stink.
I would appreciate all the experience with the systems you have had and any advise/opinions of manufacturers and wireless or wired systems, etc.

me too

We just got finished installing our Petsafe invisible in-ground fence. We've only worked with the dogs with it for about 10 minutes each for just today, but so far, it's effective.

I have a lab and a lab/GSD mix that are both great dogs, but they lack discipline off-leash. One is food-driven, the other is toy-driven. The mix is a 6 month old puppy, the lab is a 2 year old. So, they are vastly different dogs in personality. My puppy, a female, chases and attack the older male. He likes it, and eggs it on, but sometimes takes off running from her. In this case, I can't catch up to them, and once it's on, no voice commands work. I attribute this to a lack of proper training and ownership on my part, not to the dogs. This "fence" is a crutch to correct that behavior around the house until such time as I can really work with both of them to fix it for real.

That said, after only a total of about 20 minutes, I believe the fence to be worth the time, money, and labor involved. As of now, both dogs are timid when it comes to going outside off leash, where they used to be very excitable, and their attention was hard to gain outdoors. I believe that, even though we followed the training guidelines from the fence company, our dogs were in for a shock, literally. They have never had any sort of corrective action like this, and it surprised both of them to where they are probably nearly afraid to go outside. Since we have had very little time to train, they do not yet make the right associations between the flags, the boundaries, the collar, and outdoors in general. After a while, I hope they will figure out that it is the BOUNDARY that causes the shock, not the collar, not me, not outdoors. And I hope they will figure out that if I want them to leave the boundary, that my command is what makes it okay, not the lack of a certain collar.

I knew that since we didn't already have a fence or anything to which the boundary wire could be attached, we would have to trench the yard to lay the wire in. This was far more involved than I had led myself to believe. We had to go to Lowes to buy an edger. I bought the cheapest thing I could, a Black & Decker Edgehog. It worked well, and was $90. It's electric, so I didn't need to buy any gas cans or mix any fuel or anything. The big thing I was looking for was low cost and returnability. I ended up returning this item to Lowes for a full refund. My reason was that I bought a gas powered edger. I lied. I did have to replace the blade once before I was done. I didn't use enough of the replacement blade to warrant buying ANOTHER blade, so I just returned the edger with a slightly used blade. No problems doing so. I washed the edger off before I returned it, because it was quite dirty and grassy.

Okay, so I had an edger. Here's how I used it. The B&D Edgehog has a landscape trenching setting. I used that to trench maybe at most 1.5" deep (all the blade would adjust for) around my yard. The distance trenched was probably about 450 feet of perimeter, just under the 500 feet of wire that comes with the kit. I wanted to do more, but didn't have enough wire. I can always extend it later, but I'll have to "rent" another edger. I had to re-trench some areas due to blade wear and rocks that prevented full-depth trenching. This work could NOT have been done with a shovel. Too many rocks.

Once the trench was dug, I mounted the transmitter on the wall inside my house. I initially bought a 5/32", 6"-long drill bit, thinking that this would be enough to go through an exterior wall. It was not. I had to go back and buy the next best thing I could find, which was a very long, 1/4" bit MADE for fishing wire into houses. It has an eye on the end of the bit that you can use to pull wire through the hole. Neat. I used regular clear kitchen/bath silicone caulk to seal the hole later on, from inside and the outside. I made the hole THROUGH a stud, which also made threading the wire from the outside to the inside much easier.

The setup I used was a full, single loop around the area of my property I want the dogs to stay. I have about an acre, but not nearly that is cleared. I have an average front and back yard. I did have to cross a driveway to complete this loop. To do so, I utilized the expansion joints (they're not the kind with the fiber board in them, just open expansion joints made in the wet cement by a tool). I laid the wire in the joint, then covered it with Quikcrete crack seal. This is the large bottle, not the squeeze tube. It takes several applications to really cover well, but it definitely works to cover and hold the wire in place.

Placing the wire in the trench took several hours spread out over two days. In order to get the wire to the bottom of a very thin trench, you have to use a tool of some sort to push it. I started out with a flathead screwdriver, but realized that this was possibly damaging the insulation on the wire. I switched to using the flat, rear-end of the very long drill bit I had used to put a hole in my wall earlier. This worked very well, though the bit was difficult to hold onto at times, and my thumb was definitely sore both days. I switched hands a lot, and really had to work on a technique, but once you figure out how to press the wire into the trench without pulling on the wire already in the trench, going is fairly smooth, though tedious and rough on the lower back, legs, hands, and feet. I'd say a good pace was pushing in about 2-3 feet a minute, but that was not a sustained pace all the way around. I have some very hard, bare ground in areas. In those spots, the trench was actually too wide to hold the wire down. In other areas, there is an abundance of clumps of crabgrass. When the trench runs THROUGH a clump, it really makes it difficult to push the wire down through the grass.

In the areas where the wire could not or would not seat itself, such as in wide trenches, or along the edge of the driveway (I simply edged along the driveway, and laid the wire in the groove), I used regular play sand to pack these areas and hold the wire down. I've yet to have any rain or other weather, so I don't know if this will be a permanent fix. In fact, in general, I'm hoping that the trench fills and/or grows over quickly, instead of eroding out the next time it rains.

As I said, this was a LOT of work, over several days. The system, plus an extra collar, cost a total of $255 before tax from PetSmart's online shop. MUCH cheaper than an actual fence, which was what we had wanted to do. We bought this system after fence shopping, and becoming very disappointed with the fact that we couldn't afford a real fence right now. I had wanted to just put up a field wire fence (we live in a fairly rural area, so it fits), but even that proved to be too expensive and labor-intensive. When we do put in a regular fence, we'll just uproot this fence. We could attach the wire to a fence if we wanted to, but our dogs do well inside fences. This is an option for people with fences and dogs that dig, climb or jump the fence. You just staple the wire to a wood fence, or weave it in and out of a wire/chain link fence.

We bought the "stubborn" version of this system, because I have a very high-energy lab/shepherd mix puppy, and a very hard-headed lab. I figured that they would need the extra correction level over the regular version. That will probably not be the case. Level 1 is just a beep and vibrate. Levels two through four are a warning beep and vibration, followed by the shock (bigger shock for bigger numbers). So far, my dogs are on Level 2, and have not wanted to exit the fenced area. Hell, they really don't want to go outside right now.

If you back up the mechanical system with human supervision, they can be great tools, however...

One day, your dog will be motivated enough by "something' to break through the field while unsupervised.

At that point, the mechanical system has failed and your dog is loose. If your pooch decides to try and come home, he will be punished for it everytime he tries to cross the threshold. It can mess with their heads.

Not all dogs should be considered candidates for electrical collars or invisible fences.

My dog has a wireless setup. Every time he gets too far from the xmitter, it beeps 1st then shocks him. He knows his boundries.

petsafe.net/catalog/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=96&xc=16

Originally Posted By SevenMaryThree: If you back up the mechanical system with human supervision, they can be great tools, however... One day, your dog will be motivated enough by "something' to break through the field while unsupervised. At that point, the mechanical system has failed and your dog is loose. If your pooch decides to try and come home, he will be punished for it everytime he tries to cross the threshold. It can mess with their heads. Not all dogs should be considered candidates for electrical collars or invisible fences.

True. This system is only intended to keep my dogs in my yard while I'm outside with them, or nearby enough to correct any problems like the above. I did not get this system with the intent of using it to retain my dogs while I am gone or unable to check on them for long periods of time.

Thanks all.

I decided on the Invisible Fence system and negotiated a deal I couldn't pass up so they are installing it.

My intent with it is to allow the pup some "supervised" room to run and keep her within bounds to keep her safe and my mind at ease and I think this system will allow that until those days come where I can trust her to be off leash and stay nearby.