i trained 4 great danes to an underground fence. it only took one "jolt" for them to get the idea. i fenced 7 acres with it so they had tons of room to run. the difference with my situation is that i live way out in the country with no neighbors so i don't have issues with other dogs or strays.

it's all in the training. if you take the time to do it right, you'll be successful. i agree with the trainer, let them test the boundaries and if they go far enough to get the correction, they'll learn quickly where they can and can't go!

I have some experience thru my son who used an underground fence in the past with his dogs. Do you still have the flags up? If not I suggest you put them back up. Some dogs learn quickly and others can take weeks. An example of how well the flags work: I was working in my son's yard one day and the dogs wouldn't leave me alone, so I placed a few flags in a circle around my work area. The dogs would not cross the flags!

There was one interesting thing that happened with my son's dogs: when they were in the kitchen, with the collars on, the dogs started avoiding the area around the fridge. They called the installer and was told that one of the wires was touching something outside the house, which was sending a signal thru the fridge. No beeps went off but it was causing their collars to shock them. I believe it had to do with 'grounding'. You may want to hold one of the collars and walk around the yard to see if you get any unwarranted shocks.

One suggestion on the rewarding. You may be giving them mixed signals if you reward them when they hear a beep or get shocked. If you're outside and you see them turn away once they hear a beep, then yes, you can reward them. But if you hear a beep and suddenly call and reward them before they react on their own, they're making the wrong association.

Also, are you always outside with them or do you let them out on their own?

i should give a little clearer explanation re: training. for me, the training lasted a full 5 weeks of NEVER letting the dog in training outside off leash. this meant leash walking ONLY for potty time and no "free run" fun. to get some good exercise during fence training, both physically and mentally, i'd put them in my van and drive down the road to some open fields to let them run and play.

every day, twice a day, i walked the dog on leash around the perimeter where the flags were set, as time passed, getting closer and closer to the beep and then closer and closer to the correction. once i was sure they understood the concept, they were let out off leash. not one of them ever blew the boundary. the training was exhausting and intense but worth every minute!

i don't recommend doing this for obvious reasons but after a few months on the underground fence, my dogs were so trustworthy that the majority of the time, they didn't even wear the collars. :)

Hi Ann and Nina!

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH FOR THE ADVICE!!!! This makes me feel a lot better. And yes, don't worry, they did walk us through training on a leash so we did that :) Sounds like it'll just take time and more patience on my part... along with less worry since it's more of a learning process for them than I originally expected. It makes me feel so much better hearing your thoughts and experiences about it, the help is so very much appreciated! I hope you and your fur babies have a fantastic summer!!!

All the best,

Beth

it sounds like you're on the right track, beth. like i said, the training was exhausting and the daily walk x2 was a killer on my old back but the results were amazing. too many times, i hear people say their dog never respected the boundaries of the underground fence but i usually found that those were the people who slapped a collar on their dog and simply turned it loose with no training whatsoever. for sure, a person can't be lazy when it comes to this kind of training. done right, the rewards are so awesome!!

this is eden, she will be 8 years old in a couple of weeks and she's just too lazy to wander away from home. even a deer out in the pasture or rabbits in the yard barely get a reaction from her. lol

this is pippin, my wild child and the youngest dane i've ever had. she just turned 15 months old and has been here about 6 weeks. i still have the underground fence but with my bad knees, proper training just wasn't possible for me so i ended up fencing about 3 acres of my back yard. she's great off leash but i wanted her to be safe on the few days during the month when i'm away from home for a few hours. :)

it didn't take her long to figure out the dog door. haha!

Hi Nina, sorry it took me so long to respond. Thank you so much! I feel a lot better knowing this will be worth it too. A few are wondering and played fetch in the yard and didn't cross the boundry when the ball went over (oops). So that was good! One will barely step on the grass still but everynight we're enticing him around with treats so we're hoping he'll pick up soon that most areas are safe. We decided to leave the flags up until he catches on even though the others are probably ready to have them start coming up. None of them have been zapped more than 3 times though, they are very cautious. Makes me wonder if spending all of that money on an electric fence wasn't necessary, maybe all I needed were some shock collars! That's ok though. Long term I'm sure it'll be worth it. OH! AND the big news is that it IS working with the neighbors barking dogs!!! They haven't been going nuts at the other dogs since they can't get their noses to the fence right next to them. YAYYY!!!!!

Anyway, your babies are ADORABLE!!!! I met a few great danes once, a friend of a friend had some. They were some of the absolute sweetest dogs! Just giant teddy bears, huh? Eden is gorgeous. And Pippin looks pretty comfy for being there only a short time. Congrats on the new pup! The dog door picture is HILARIOUS!!!

Thank you so much again!!

i'm glad i could ease your fears about this fence not working! it sounds like it's a perfect solution for you! i left flags up for months after my danes were trained to the fence and just started removing one every so often until they were all gone. never had a problem! your guy who is still hesitant will come around in his own time. he will get braver and braver as time goes by and he'll figure it out especially when he sees the other dogs getting used to it. i'd leave the flags up until he is more confident.

thanks, these girls are more entertainment than a barrel of monkeys (not that i've ever had a barrel of monkeys but i suspect they'd be pretty funny). for being such a young dog, pippin is really well-behaved! she pretty much sleeps through weekly nail grinding sessions so i hit the jackpot with her!

the dog door thing...happens almost every time she uses it. not crazy about her letting flies in the house but hey, whatchya gonna do? lol

Thank you Tooky

Eek Stax! She must’ve been pretty upset with the fence installers. I walked around the perimeter with a collar and tested them all myself so luckily we don’t have any issues with that. Ours also beeps before a shock. I tested the shock on myself, we keep lowest settings. It actually doesn’t hurt me at all, more of a startle. The fence is in a confined area and the side with the house doesn’t have the fence active. They’re getting better though. Lots of treats. Again, thank you all for your input. Have a great holiday weekend!! :)

They shouldn’t have to if it was installed and tested correctly

Oh for cryin' out loud!

Thank you all for your advice and input. I will not be checking this post further so any advice given will be for whoever stumbles across it at a later time. Hope you all have a great week!