Thread: electric collar boundary fence

Very good on ya. Used apropriately they are a fine tool. But you absoluetly need the basics trained first (STOP, and here)

If you can afford it, I don't think you'd lose much buying and maybe later selling a garmin "track and train" system. It does require you to have your finger on the trigger though.
On an alpha 100/200 unit you can program a distance alarm, and then you can set what corrections to give the dog (vibrate, tone or shock) and push the button.
At home I have a 60 meter and 80 meter radius set, When the handhelp beeps I can look and see where the dogs are and whether it needs my attention. Most of the time they'll go out to the boundary and come back, but if they're barking up the neighbours or they're going on the road they get a tune-up.
I would generally say never shock a dog that you can't see.

One mistake I think I made in training was that I called them back in on all three corrections (tone, vibrate, shock) whereas if I was doing it again Vibe would be "slow up" - but you have to remember when they're excited about something else they may not even feel it. Shock would be "stop" and tone would be "here"

I can't even feel the collar until level 3 (it goes to 18) and when the dogs are calm they will respond to that but I have had to wind it up to 9 once when my boy was scrappy. You'll have to see how sensitive the dog is to it, and remember when they're calm vs when the blood is up will be different.

The yanks seem keen on training retrivers with "continuous" shock - a low level shock from when they get the bird until they come back in to sit at heel. It seems effective and could possibly work for boundary training.

I have no experience with the buried-wire collar setups but I have heard that once a dog breaks over them, they're free, and probably less likely to break back in.

I also have a neighbour who bought a distance-based (chinese) shock collar for their bitch, but didn't spend any time training it, so it would come in to heel by me at the gate or driveway, but still be getting shocked. A collar used badly is probably worse than a wandering dog.

It's not a fast-track, the dog needs to understand the required behaviour first, a shock collar just extends the distance of your relationship/authority.
No point in yelling "get in" and shocking it while it's running down skittish sheep and ignoring you. Gotta remember you're never "punishing" a dog, only correcting them, and you should be attentive enough to head-off unwanted behaviours before they even happen.


In terms of training, I'd walk the thing on a leash around the boundary, let it sniff and mark, correct any attention it gives to stock. Even doing this daily or twice daily for a week could get the program.
As above if you're going to introduce a shock collar you really need to be watching it to make sure you're correcting the right behaviour at the right time and not confusing the dog.