MY wife and I are in search of a new home and many of the ones we are looking at don't have a fenced back yard. We have an 18 month old boxer we need to keep in the yard but $3000-$4000 for a fence right off the bat may not be an option.

F'n invisible fences. how do they work?

Also, if you have built or had a fence built, how much was it, or how hard was it to build? I have seen prebuilt sections at Home Depot, but they looked a little pricey.

Cost of materials or total cost of having one built????


Something like this. Style not specific, but something in a 3ft with slightly spread slats.




Pic of goofy 70lb Boxer for reference.

The invisible fences don't give you as much privacy.

Really, the privacy isn't so much an issue as allowing the dog to run free within a limited area.



 

Could a boxer jump that fence?
Privacy fences are easy to put up with the panels , but like you said a little pricey.

i think i love your dog , but ,, you gona need a bigger fence

Well for dogs, there is the option of burying a wire that triggers a shock collar if the dog gets too close.





My best advice is to budget for a vinyl fence.





DIY fences aren't especially hard to put in, but getting it right is another story, and you'll be mixing A LOT of concrete.


Having a fence installed will yield better results, with some sort of warranty...


which brings me to my next point... if you buy your lumber at home depot, you'll hate it and yourself until the day it falls down.





Finally, wood needs to be preserved, which means treating it at least every two years minimum.


I don't care if it's pressure treated... it needs to be maintained.





If you don't buy good shit and maintain the hell out of it, you'll have warpage and splitting out the ass.





Vinyl is maintenance free. It's worth the investment. Especially since you're just thinking small picket fence type.





eta: for some reason, lumber isn't what it used to be.
 

Damn that dog is ummm damn

Nah he's cool. He's 4th generation AKC Registered and healthy as a horse.





He's just a complete Goober, which is synonymous with Boxer.




 

Will well maintained lumber still split and warp or is it just a constant effort in maintaining it?



 

The absolute most inexpensive, sturdy, maintenance-free fencing is chainlink. And it's easy to DIY install.

Problem is we are looking at <10yr old houses and there are typically neighborhood rules about chain link, if not a full on nazi HOA.



 

Good lumber shouldn't warp or split at all.

But if you go to home depot and compare prices to a real lumber yard, you may get sticker shock



Anyways, if you do buy the good stuff, and you seal it yearly or every other, it should last a very, very long time.

Similarly, if you get some pros to build you a fence, and they're worth a shit, they'll be using quality wood and you'll have a very long life fence.



I think it's worth having installed personally.

If for nothing else than if worst case scenario happens and in a year all your wood is a mess, they'll stand behind it.
 

Makes sense.



Anyone used the invisible fences?





 

I tried the invisible fence and was not impressed.  It took a good bit of training and work with the dogs and then only lasted about a year before the dogs were running through it.  Another downside is that it will allow your neighbor's dogs to come into your yard.

I did the 6' cedar privacy fence and it was money well spent for my mongrels.
 

We had a wall around the back, but used this system for years to keep my English Springer (RIP )  from leaving through the drive or walk gate or eating wicker furniture.   The info is NOT new, but if this system is still made, I would reccomend it.  
Welcom to "duh". but ... YOUR dog is not protected at all from others.  Any dog can come in.

INNOTEK PET CONTAINMENT SYSTEM       Call  1-800-624-6378
OR   from  Cabela’s 1-800-237-4444

INNOTEK PET CONTAINMENT SYSTEM        Item:   IC-220502   200W    Price: $199.99
for dogs 5-60 lbs. And up to 5 acre yards

make sure this is the system that has the collar you just set on top of the control module ...
You don’t need to remove the batteries from the collar to charge them


Stay safe

While results/opinions on invisible fences are mixed, one constant seems to be that people with pedigree working dogs, or extremely hyper/over active dogs tend to have less success. I have seen dogs that just ignore the shock, or even continually "test" the fence until their collar unit is dead, then take off.

More often i see bigger or more active dogs that understand they will get shocked if they leave the yard, and for the most part avoid the shock, but in situations of especially high motivation they might decide the shock is worth leaving to chase a rabbit, cat, or neighbor kid.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.........



How big is your lot?



 

About 13-14 years ago my son brought home a nice lab, so we suddenly needed a fence.  Our yard is about 1 1/2-1 3/4 acre, pie shaped on a corner.  The total perimeter is a little over two thousand feet, so any kind of traditional fence , wood/vinyl privacy or chain link would be very costly.  I could not find anyone local so a guy came over from Louisiana, over 200 miles one weekend and put in an invisible fence( that brand) provided one collar and showed me how to train the dog to the fence.  About 3 years later we acquired another lab mix, and bought another collar.  

The invisible fence brand is good, has an excellent gurantee.  We had a power surge which damaged the control unit that plugs in the garage, so he sent me a new unit there, no cost.  This was about 4 years into use.  The acutal collar is not guranteed , but the receiver/shock unit is, I think for everything but loss.  If the dog chews it up it is replaced, falls off and gets run over by car replaced  ect.

They do make some money on batteries for the shock unit.  We get 4 batteries a year at a cost of $15 per battery.

Cost of the fence installed ran me $900 then,  Chain link would probably have been 5-6 times that,  wood more.  One big plus is that you mow right over it, no cleaning around a fence.   Downsides are no privacy and it will not keep other dogs/ cats out.

Some folks who have dogs that will either dig under or climb/jump over the privacy or chain link install invisible fences to keep their animals away from the primary fence.

.34 acre.





 

Jesus, there goes my hopes of enclosing my yard, its just over an acre...

Invisible fence works great, just buy it online and install it yourself, nothing to it.



Keeps my two idiot dogs (Springer and Chocolate Lab) in the back yard.

Thanks!!



 

Just wondering how?





 

Such as?



Tell us this isn't hoa related...



 

No HOA's in the houses we have viewed so far, but you can look around at a bunch of beautiful brand new houses and see that chain link would not be welcomed.



 

 

I just installed a 6' cedar privacy fence for about $2500 last summer, including 4X4s, concrete and gates.



The area was about 60'X100'.

I tried the invisible fence with one of my dogs who was jumping my original 4 foot chain link fence. She has a very high prey drive and I would watch her move up to the line until the beeping started and then just blast over the top of the chain link as fast as she could to minimize the duration of the shock. The collar was on the highest setting and she would just gut it out to get to what ever was taunting her on the other side. I then put out about 1400 more to replace everything with a 6 foot cedar, which she managed to almost jump on the first day it was up in front of my wife.
Knee surgery has decreased her jumping ability since.

I'll break his legs before I deal with all that.



 

I REALLY need answers on this.

I have close to one acre.
I self installed a "Wireless fence" type.
I changed the wire from the supplied to a larger wire.
My hard headed Lab/Coon hound mix learned fast.
I have failures of the ring due to constuction in the area but my dog knows his area.
He will go outside his area, but he is mostly good.
I see the wireless fence as a training aide.