My acreage is part field, part woods (not too dense, but out of sight)
Ask Biden..................
Don’t stand near the dog when it’s first learning where the perimeter is. It will look at you when it gets shocked like you did it. (Indirectly, you did).
My daughter has 3 golden labs. She weighs maybe 120 lbs, in her early 40s. The dogs are about 80ish pounds each. They live next to a forest. They have one of those underground fences, installed by a company. The dogs wear electronic collars when they’re outside. They work pretty good. They break out now and then chasing animals.
I would not recommend it. I saw a story where a small dog suffered a terrible scare and ran out of the yard with one of these collars. When it tried to enter the yard, it would receive a shock. It ended up starving to death outside it’s yard.
I don’t mind the GPS part. It will help you locate your dog when it does get out, but nothing beats old fashioned fencing.
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I have a friend in CO who uses the GPS geofencing successfully for 3 Karelian bear dogs.
My brother had an electronic fence for his dog (neutered Brittany Spaniel) & his partner had one for his Chesapeake Bay Retriever (not neutered).
Both dogs figured out they could run through the fence & although they knew they would get shocked, they were willing to take the ‘hit’. The partner’s dog, being a stud, was highly motivated to run through the fence to find females. The partner said you could see the dog ‘steel himself’ for the shock just before he ran through the fence.
My brother’s dog was not motivated by finding females, but he was a hunting dog & was always looking for something with feathers or fur & once he figured out the shock was temporary, the fence didn’t hold him.
Could you fence off part of the acreage for the dogs to roam? Include your door, of course, and any area that’s easy to see and monitor. ??
There’s a few. You can set radius. I think a company in Texas makes ones you can adjust and program a shape into.
Ask oblama... oh no, wait, he eats dogs.
Works well. My wife tried one out. The collar gave quite an attention getting jolt the first time… but now I rarely escape the perimeter.
You should be good
Some dogs like American bulldogs and Dogos are unfazed by jolts
Years back a friend set one up to stop his dog from running and jumping on to the boats in the marina he owned. He set it up then let the dog loose. The dog ran right off the dock into the water and they never saw the dog again
My sisters lab used to stand back, get a running start and fly through the barrier. You would hear a yelp as he went through and then he was off on one of his treks.
I tried one of these with my 50 lb lab mix. It was the Halo collar.
It’s big, and heavy, and needs to be charged each night.
The contacts irritated my dog’s skin. She has very thin fur on her throat.
I sent it back after the first week.
Note: The are “smart” collars. They will shock the dog when it leaves the yard, but immediately stop as soon as the dog starts heading back to the yard. They aren’t like the older “dumb” collars that shock when the dog crosses a perimeter, regardless of direction travelled.
I have the SpotOn collar for our Gordon Setter. It works very well. He will stray the boundary at times, but turns right back. Unlike buried wire systems, it does not shock the dog coming back. The boundary goes into a wooded area; the tracking feature lets me know where he his. It also has a call back feature, I don’t use that very often.
Its battery life could be better. I lasts about 14 hours. I usually put the collar back on the charger around midday when the dog is inside.
I also considered the Halo collar. I don’t recall why I chose one over the other.
I have one for my Mountain Cur. Its a Wiez programable collar. It uses gps and you can set small to larger perimeters.
It vibrates, then beeps then shocks. It has different strengths you can set.
I put out visual flags for the perimeter while I trained her. The little flags they use for construction work well. I showed her that when the collar vibrates or beeps, it means go back.
She’s a very smart girl and learned quickly. Now when I put her collar on she just stands at my side with her head down. She doesn’t see the purpose of being outside if she can’t run off where she wants. :)