Which Electric Fence Energiser?

[Animal House]

We rent and the new place is on 3/4 of an acre, which backs onto parkland, which is frequented by dog walkers morning, afternoon and night. Most of them have their dog off lead, and of course, my dogs run up to the fence and protect "their" property by barking, and making a right old racket.

The fence is a typical rural type fence, pine posts, 3 wire strands and chicken wire at the bottom, about 4 feet high.

Now, my staffy can easily jump out if she wants to, and has on half a dozen occasions. Or my other dog will test all the chicken wire and just push through under. They usually do this when I let them out for a pee late at night, or first thing in the morning if they are feeling particularly adventurous.

This has turned the corner though from being adventurous to potentially dangerous. Just yesterday my girl ran up to the fence to bark at a dog going past (offlead) and then leapt over in a second before I could get out the back door and call her. Luckily, the other dog was friendly, and mine just played girly dumb dog and rolled over, but if the dog had been aggressive, she no doubt would have been in a fight. :D

Naturally, they can't be left in the yard alone (I keep them in the run or inside when I'm not there to supervise) but I would like them to have free run of the yard, but need to keep them from going near the fence.

So....I don't want the radio collar containtment, I was looking at the Ping String dog fence or similar.

I need about 70 metres length to do it, and seeing as we also have a farm type back gate, I would need it to be joined up on the other side of the gate as well, if that makes sense?

I would run it off a battery, seeing as mains power is no where near the back fence.

Do you think a single strand is sufficient?

I plan on putting it about 10 feet inside the fence, to stop them getting near the fence itself.

I have a Staffy, and a slightly smaller mutt. Smaller dog won't jump, Staffy can jump, but won't go near anything zappy once she gets a ping.

Has anyone got the Ping String fence? Is it a wire or a white tape? Cost wise, what am I looking at?

Is there something similar you can DIY cheaper?

Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post.

Edited July 14, 2010 by Cazablanca

[OSoSwift]

I haven't used The ping String, but I got the four feet tomato stakes ( I think that is how tall they were) and had three strands, one so no-one could crawl under, one around mid chest height and then a taller one that would be harder to get over.

My dog got zapped once, then didn't go near it after that. If you have a dog tha sails over and one that goes under I think you will need more than just one starnd as it needs to be high enough to deter the jumper and low enough to deter the bulldozer

[Janba]

I have a ping string wire around my entire fence line as I have diggers and one bad side fence it works very well. Mine is the model that works on mains power with a battery backup. Its a plain wire and costs about $400 for the basic kit wich does about 100m easily. You can bury the insulated wire to go under ground under the gate and join to the live wire either side.

I got the ping string despite having other electric fencing equipment because of the RSPCA and what happened to Rozzie.

[Nekhbet]

yup 3 strands are better, you can get the tread in posts for about $5-6 each

which tape or string you get will depend on your distance, power pack and soil conditions. I used the ping string as it was cheaper but worked very well. You will also need to get some star posts and make sure your fence is earthed properly or the further you go the less zap you get.

Power packs, plug in, I got a Speedrite for a couple of hundred and it packs a punch. Gallagher make batter operated ones that are fairly decent, Thunderbird is another good brand. I like my Speedrite but the powerpack is massive compared to the other brands

probably looking at about $350 if you haggle a bit or shop around.

[jm266]

I used polywire for my 3 strand fence that enclosed about 1/2 acre. The polywire broke fairly easily so I would use hot tape or plain wire next time, it was set up so that the wires ran from the energiser both directions to the front gate.

I also initially used a battery energiser but found that when it ran flat, the dogs would know, so changed to a mains powered energiser, much better and the dogs stayed right away.

I used star pickets and existing fence posts to put the insulators on.

[Clyde]

I know you are planning on fixing it, but just a word of warning that council can get involved if someone makes a complaint that they feel threatened just walking past your property. The dogs don't even have to be out. Just a heads up.

[Animal House]

I know you are planning on fixing it, but just a word of warning that council can get involved if someone makes a complaint that they feel threatened just walking past your property. The dogs don't even have to be out. Just a heads up.

Really? Geez, I walk past a property where there is a cattle dog (who can get out anytime, because his gate is chewed through) and he snarls and growls, but never comes out.

[Animal House]

Okay, its so confusing.

I don't want to break the law, so I'm guessing I could go with the basic Ping String budget kit (I have a brand new car battery to run it off)

http://www.sureguard.com.au/buy_420.html

To do my fence I was quoted about $333, including the underground cable.

Or I could go with a Gallagher B11 (just the energiser) which is around $195 and then buy those tread in thingies, earth stake, and the polywire/tape, plus the join up underground cable for the gate.LINKY

I think I will run the 3 strands.

Which do you think is better?

There is no way I can get a mains one, as there is no outside power points, and the house is 100 feet from the fence. :D

[Nekhbet]

galagher is a better brand then sure guard. I run mine off mains, battery can run out or short