Training with electric fence

[AnimalLoverCatRescuer]

My sister and her husband have just installed an invisible fence in the yard. They are trying to train the dogs to know the boundaries. My sister is trying very hard to follow the instructions and has asked me for help. At first her husband was "in charge" of training them and he turned the zapper on right away and is basically expecting them to learn immediately. He got so frusterated that they wouldn't learn it in a day (by him yanking them hard by the collars and raising his voice and basically doing everything wrong) He first turned the zapper on full and let the dogs go to discover the boundaries on their own.

Well my sister has now completely took over when she realized what her husband was doing. She is trying to start from the beginning but now the dogs are afraid to go outside even and when they do, they cower and stick closeby.

Help please. I know this is going to take a lot of repair and to basically start over. Suggestions??

[Doberluv]

What a shame. That's what ruins dogs....the stuff her husband did. What is it with some people that they don't get it that we're dealing with animals? Not humans. And humans are suppose to be so intelligent? I'm sorry if I'm sounding harsh, but it just makes me mad and sad to see someone do that to a dog.

I don't think those fences are very dependable anyhow. I don't know what she can do now except turn the thing off and take them out on a leash, trying to re-associate being outside with a safe, trusting, fun time. And come back to it later, preferably getting a real fence. I know they're expensive, but perhaps less expensive no climb fencing and some T posts.

[Brattina88]

^^ yea...

the only thing I can think of is some recall games. When the dog approaches the boundries a "eh eh, this way" and encourage the dog to come/stay in the inside of the yard

:(

[dr2little]

I'm sorry but your post just made me cringe. I'm glad you came here for help so I have to be honest, I hate those fences.

I was with a new client before Christmas who's puppies (2 beautiful GSDX's) were badly burned wearing the EF collars and not understanding the boundries. They had also lost their older dog to coyotes because of course the EF does NOT keep them safe....anything can get in. Their poor old dog was torn up so badly, this is a fairly common problem associated with EF's because the animal inside the fence line is watched and stocked, an easy target for preditors...horrible. Even just the risk of other dogs getting in is reason enough to make EF's a bad idea.

Why not recommend a regular fence and a little kindness and understanding for cainine behavior. This must be hard for you and your sister....her husband needs to step back and chill out.

[Love That Collie]

My neighbor 2 doors over has an invisible fence.
I was outside one day and walked over to talk to the neighbor.
I was a little more than 3 feet inside of the boundry line and I reached over
to pet Duchess and I shocked her, she yelped. So I moved in 10 feet more and she didn't want me to pet her. That was 4 years ago and ever since then I swear every time I pass in front of their house she growls. She associates me with hurting her.

[silverpawz]

An IF works very well provided the dog is trained properly. The issue here isn't the fence, it's the lack of the training that caused the fearful behavior. Of course they'd be unsure and afraid if they suddenly got zapped and had no clue why.

I agree to turn the fence off, and get the dogs used to being outside on leash again. Then hire a professional to come out and train them to the fence the correct way.

[AnimalLoverCatRescuer]

Ok I told her to sign up for an account on here so that she can relay what is going on and ask her own questions. She can use all the help she can get with these two dogs. She has been really stressed out by this because her husband keeps making comments about dropping them off at the pound. I am pretty sure he wouldn't do that but the jokes just aren't funny. She is upset with him about that and the fact that he is leaving it all up to her now and she has a 2 month old baby.

About installing another fence, that might be what they have to do if the invisible fence doesn't work out. They are staying with my parents, they just returned back from living for a year in Arizona. I don't know how my dad would feel about a large fence. There is currently a smaller 3 footer that my sister's husband put up when they got here for the dogs. The one dog jumped right over it though.

I think the other big problem they had was that he took both dogs out at once to walk the perimeter of the fence to learn it. He did this with the collars ON I believe and when the dogs crosses too far over it, he jerked them back. When the one dog took off (off-leash) over the fence boundary, he dragged the dog back across the line with the collar still on... :mad:

My sister and I know he did this all wrong. She just needs serious help right now in correcting it. If that is even possible. I will try to help her if I can when I go over there. Maybe hiring someone to come out is a good idea too...

[Doberluv]

If her husband doesn't get over his temper tantrums and stop taking his anger issues out on the dogs, they would be better off being dropped off at the pound. I'm sorry, but the guy doesn't have a brain if he thinks those dogs know right from wrong and know anything about not leaving the yard. How the he!! are they suppose to know? Dragging the dog back over the electric fence so he further gets terrorized is just sadistic and cruel. If he were my husband, well....he wouldn't be for long. I'd be dumping him off at the pound.

[Rubylove]

Yeah well said.

I often do role-playing games with my clients to help them understand the mistakes they can inadvertently make with their dog. The games usually involve putting them in a new situation and then trying to teach them to understand it the way they have been teaching their dogs. I usually do it in French, so they know what it's like to be spoken to and not understand a word except their names. Putting this man out the back with a collar and lead, walking him around the garden, yanking on the collar and screaming at him in French for a while would go a long way to making him understand the damage he has done.

It works a treat and really helps people understand what they are doing wrong in just expecting their dogs to know what they want without showing them properly. How I wish I could get my hands on this guy! :mad:

Now that your brother-in-law has instilled this fear in the dogs, they will have to be untaught, and like SilverPawz said, retrained by a professional. The problem I foresee is that the second they are finally over their fear of being outside/the fence and whatever else they are afraid of, trying to use the fence again will just bring it all back to them and you'll be back at square one.

It's like having a dog that has been hit with a tennis racquet as a form of `training'. You finally get them over their fear of tennis racquets and then all of a sudden out of the blue you hit them with one again. All good things in the interim go out the window at that point. I am concerned the same thing will happen with your sister because she'll have to work to regain the trust of those dogs, and to shatter it again by using that fence once they finally trust her is a high possibility - and it will be a lot harder the second time to get that trust back, if she ever does.

Oh it just makes me want to cry, reading stuff like that. Those poor dogs. Someone really needs to sit down with that guy and explain some things to him - what's he like as a person? Is he as aggressive with your sister as he is with those dogs? Because if so, I'd be talking to her about more than just how to train them.

[AnimalLoverCatRescuer]

Oh no he is really great in person and to her, he just treats the animals in more agressive ways then most normal people would in this particular situation. I know he screwed up on this one really badly and so does my sister. I doubt he will admit he did anything wrong and so now that is why its all up to my sister to do things right.

I realize it is going to take a TON of time and work to undo this. I personally think she should just give up on the electric fence and me and her will get together on the weekend and put up an bigger fence. Or just take them out on a leash from now on. But my sister is taking them outside and they are already a lot better at going outside period. She walks them continuously on the leash around the perimeter where the fence is with the electric part turned off of course. I told her it will take a long time to even try to turn the fence back on again and she understands and will be patient. And I will help her the best I can.