GPS electronic fence/ training collar. Any experience out there?

Ed Askew

Ed Askew

Well-known member
While I'm showing off pics of my pup, let me tweak the brain of the collective for any experience folks might have with electronic collars that also function as a fence. We spend a lot of time away from home, and most of that is on a very steep lot that is a mountainside. I don't want to run wire on it, and I don't want to put a physical fence for sure, but I am getting the message from this puppy that she is going to run off chasing a turkey or a deer one day if I don't contain her some how. I know about those radio efence collars, but I understand they don't work on a steep lot (it drops 100 feet over a distance of 300 feet) and they shock the dog if the power fails, which it does all the time up here. So I'm looking at GPS collars. The Dogtra Pathfinder looks good to me, but before I pull the trigger on it, I thought I would elicit comments from those with any experience.
 
ED, I have no person experience with containment collars, only training use collars. That being said, I have always been suspect of invisible fencing and similar for any Sporting/Working breed. I believe the attraction will always be stronger than the desire to return. That being said, if they run through the correction in chase mode, then more than likely will not drive through it to come back, and certainly they will not understand why they are being corrected when they try to come back. So the research into a GPS tracking collar makes a lot of sense to me. Keep us posted on what you find and decide. I have been out of dogs for quite a few years now but feel the tug on occasion and will have to have a pup again at some point.
 
I have never seen great success with the fence collars. Next door neighbors Labrador would lay next to the fence boundary and let the collar beep until the batteries would wear down then jump the fence.

I had a dog that would run through a wireless fence and just accept the shock to get to the neighbors dog to play.

Rick
 
What about putting up a kennel/run for her while you aren't at home? That isn't a total physical fence as far as a fence line but it allows her to be outside while you are gone.

GPS collars work pretty well, but they aren't any good if the batteries die. I haven't used the Dogtra but have heard from lots of people that think they are great. My Garmin Alpha has a range supposedly of nine miles. I know for sure it has worked to 1.5 miles. I do know that with my collar, I have to make sure the collar and the gps are synced together upon turning them on. I don't think my alpha handheld will find the collar if it is on and on the dog and the dog is gone but you are just turning the handheld on.

I don't know much about the efences but I too have heard of very smart dogs that just wear the batteries down, or just run right through until they quit getting zapped. I might be able to put you in touch with an efence installer that you could ask questions of if you are interested. He has been in the business for a long time.
 
I have had great success with the in ground wire fence a Beagel and a Chesapeake no breaking through. It does take a good month of
training basically boundary training. I have also helped 2 friends set up and train thier dogs one a Golden Doodle and the other a mix breed, both
very succesful. I have thought about a GPS one for an 18 acre piece of property I have just have not done it yet, if you have any questions please
ask or send a PM.
 
Thanks to all. I wouldn?t leave the dog out in a small fenced area totally unsupervised because of bears. We have more than one really big black bear, as big as a small car, in the neighborhood frequently. Surprisingly, I?ve never seen them, but my neighbors have lots of pictures. If I am around I?m not worried about it. I only plan to use the electronic containment when we?re out with the dog. It would nice to be relieved of the need to be constantly watching her. Otherwise the dog is inside with us, or we generally take the dog wherever we go. The property is about 1.3 acres and is surrounded by larger wooded acreage (hence the bears!). My last dog didn?t need that kind of thing. She stuck to me like glue. This one is different.
 
One of my neighbors has one on their Aussie. Not sure about the model but seems like I remember them mentioning a Cesar Milan model? Anyways the dog ended up at our house when it was outside alone and a storm rolled in. It had an auto-shock feature when the dog left the radius but I didn't care for that because 1) you don't know why the dog left, and 2) it keeps popping. I'd much rather have just a passive gps locator collar than one with e stimulation that can be activated remotely.
 
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