What voltage to keep a dog out?

[Runawaylobster]

Well... yesterday he finally did it. My #1, dog broke into the coop. I am amazed but nobody was hurt!! I still have all chickens, although I did find one campine hiding under my daughters car. I have named her speedy because she must have run very fast to get away from the dogs!

Billy is a big dog, and very smart (i'm not just saying this he can open doors and turn on faucets). For this reason I know that a couple of zaps from a small electric fence would teach him right away. He is always willing to please but is just posessed by instinct when he gets around the chicks. I know it was him because i found some red fur stuck on the broken wire!!

I think i want to put just 1 or maybe two wires directly around the coop and run, so the length would be only about 56ft per wire. I plan to use rebar with fence insulators for posts.

I don't want anyone to get hurt, so I am worried about putting the right voltage to deter him but
not hurt him (or the chickens, or other dogs or the cat or me)

I have been researching and I don't see fence energizers that are reccommended for this length
of fence, does the maximum voltage capability apply, and then it would go down depending on
the length of the fence used??


any advice would be helpful as I am totally new to this electric fence thing.


L

 

[chiques chicks]

To the best of my knowledge, amperage kills, not voltage.

I've grown up around electric fences and never known an animal to be truly hurt by one, except an insect. I've personally touch them while standing in water. It hurts, but does not cause damage.

I have a scrounged 30 mile charger running 800 feet of wire. No dead ot injured critters that I've seen. I have touched it and will admit it caused me to drop the phone I was holding, but the zap did not hurt the phone.

They are not continuousllu charged. They pulse and are actually off most off the time. Love to walk up to the fence when visitors are here and listen to the charger pulse, get the timing, and touch the wire between pulses, just to freak them out!

I've heard chicken's feathers actually insulate them from much of the shock but don't know if it's true.

 

[orumpoultry]

Do you have a TSC near you? If so, you need to look into the Zareba 2 mile DC fence. At that short of a distance, it'll put one heck of a wollump on the dog but it won't do any actual damage. The dog, and other critters, will think twice about going near that fence again. It's really the best one for dogs, won't hurt/kill the cats either. Just make them wish they'd have never met the fence.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Do you have a TSC near you? If so, you need to look into the Zareba 2 mile DC fence. At that short of a distance, it'll put one heck of a wollump on the dog but it won't do any actual damage. The dog, and other critters, will think twice about going near that fence again. It's really the best one for dogs, won't hurt/kill the cats either. Just make them wish they'd have never met the fence.

X2. Since you'll be buying one new, it's a good time to buy a smaller one. We have larger ones for our horses and to cover a lot of land. Even at that, we did unhook one and put it around a chain link fence that our german shepard was constantly jumping over. It was a much shorter distance than recommended, and it didn't injury our dog, but it sure did deter her from EVER jumping the fence again! I've touched it and yeah, it gives you one heck of a jolt, but by far is a good choice if you are wanting to protect your birds and animals. The dogs will learn the wire "bites" and stay away.

 

[Stumpy]

I think the intermittent kind is best because my first electric fence, a continuous one, killed three animals. (2 squirrels, 1 rabbit). I can't remember the voltage, etc., but I have recently purchased a pulsating/intermittent type.

 

[chiques chicks]

I was not aware they made continuous live electric fence. I would personally never use one for safety reasons. The pulse ones give a short jolt, but allow time to release or move away. Just my opinion.

I have heard some of the pet containment ones that run off flashlight batteries are not powerful enough to deter larger dogs. YMMV

 

[Euphillia]

I have an Alaskan Malamute and we just use a small animal set up. We got the box and wire at the farm store and it has worked perfect for keeping him out of areas we don't want him.

 

[Runawaylobster]

Thank you for all you advice. We don't have tractor supply here so I went to the website and ordered the Zareba ACC2. 1/4 mile aluminum
17 gage wire, a hookup wire and a bag of insulators.... next stop home depot for grounding stuff and rebar.

i'll post a pic when it's done...

here is the culprit..... looking innocent as usual..

 

[Euphillia]

I hear ya. My boy nailed one of my first girls a couple weeks ago. Sucked.

 

[Runawaylobster]

I hear ya. My boy nailed one of my first girls a couple weeks ago. Sucked.

Yep, I didn't realize how awful the reality would be if/when it happened. I count myself very lucky that I had no
casualties and I learned a good lesson from it. Sorry to hear you lost one of your chickies.