We have a PetSafe dog containment system to keep our dog on our property. People sometimes call it an “invisible fence”. It consists of a wire run around the perimeter of the dog’s area, a box that injects a signal into that wire, and a collar that beeps to warn the dog when it’s too close to the wire.
It was a pretty simple system to set up, and it works well even on fairly large properties. I think ours can handle up to 2 km of perimeter.
Once in place, you have to go through a training regime with your dog to teach it not to linger near the boundary. The audible warning tells the dog when it’s close, and if it continues toward the fence it gets an electric shock from the collar. One or two hits from that, and they stay well back – just like pigs with electric fences.
When I mowed the lawn last week, though, I caught the wire with a wheel of the mower and broke it. The signal box beeps to warn you if the wire is broken, so at least you know straight away.
It’s easy enough to repair a break, and a couple of repair kits come with the containment system, but it’s difficult if you haven’t left any slack in your boundary wire. Luckily, I left a few strategic coils in it just in case:
So I pulled some extra wire back to the break, then stripped the ends…
…twisted them together…
…put a connector on it…
…and then inserted the connector into the provided weather-proofing capsule:
The capsule is full of a non-conducting paste to keep water out:
It simply snaps shut when you’re done:
I then mount the joiner on the fence, with the opening facing downwards to prevent rain getting in:
Simple!