How to keep your dog on your property!

This question arises from some I’ve been asked recently - about electric fencing - not the sort round cattle fields, but the secret menace people embed in their gardens to give their dog electric shocks. 😱

For some reason people seem to think this is A-ok. And it’s not! An electric shock, however given, is a punishment. It breaks down the trust your dog and you should have in each other.

And it’s a lazy option.

Regular readers of Brilliant Family Dog will know my opinion on electric shocks! If you wouldn’t do it to a toddler, you shouldn’t do it to a dog.

Teaching by punishment is not teaching. It’s coercion.

And the daft thing is that it’s just as easy to teach your dog to stay on your property without doing this! 

My fencing is just over 3 feet high, with inviting fields beyond.

In one part of the garden there’s just a single wire 2 feet above the ground.

Because I teach matwork from the start, and use crates and playpens and baby gates for my puppies, they understand very early on what boundaries are.

They could easily hop over those fences. But they don’t. The fence is simply an indication that this side is ours and the other side is not.

Once we’ve established the principle of a boundary, they’ve got it! They don’t need to be continually told. And they definitely don’t need to be continually punished.

Invisible fence hazards

It seems to me that there is some very efficient marketing going on with these “invisible fences”. Naturally enough, only the ease - being able to dump your dog in the garden and never having to supervise her - is emphasised.

But there are also hazards with these “invisible” fences. And you should be aware of them!

Only an animal with a collar on will get the shock. So that means ANY dog, cat, coyote, deer, mountain lion, or anything else, can stroll onto your property. Your dog will be at their mercy.

There are documented reports of horrible results from this.

And as any animal can get onto your property, day or night, they could also defecate there, leaving a rich harvest of worms, flukes, tapeworms - all kinds of disease.

There’s also the chance of your dog developing coprophagia. 🤮 OOER! Even if you clear up immediately, the eggs are still there in your grass.

The worst thing about “invisible fences”

The worst thing - and this is something particularly apposite for the people who actually want to work with their dogs, rather than against them - is the fear effect of an electric shock.

If you were eating an ice cream and got a violent shock from it, how soon would you be happily enjoying another ice cream?

(I love Chinese food. And once after a meal I got horribly sick. Despite the fact that I am an intelligent human with strong reasoning powers, I was unable to eat another Chinese meal for a good couple of years! How would this type of aversive experience affect a dog, without our level of knowledge?)

If your dog sees a dog, horse, child, cat - and gets an electric shock at the same time - how is he going to feel about what he was looking at when it happened?

You’re in danger of creating a new fear, a new reactivity, that you will now have to manage and live with.

I understand there are some properties in the world where you are not allowed to build a fence.

This is incomprehensible to me! What about children playing in the garden?

All I can say is that I would never consider living on a property I couldn’t fence and make safe for my family and my animals.

But it only needs to be a low fence! A hint of a fence!

Want to learn how to teach matwork? You’ve got two options - there’s a book and audiobook called Calm Down! here or there’s our free Workshop on getting your Dog to LISTEN! here.

Your dog may be your greatest teacher!

I am firmly of the belief that we are sent the dog we need. The dog who needs to teach us.

And if your dogs all seem to misbehave in the same way, it’s because you haven’t yet learnt the lesson the first dog was trying to teach you! So you get the “same dog” over and over again.

This is not confined to dogs, by the way. We all know people who keep having failed relationships with the “same person”. And folk who persist in the same way of communicating or working which always results in the same disappointment and frustration.

Who is your best teacher?

It may have been an actual, official, teacher. Or your mother, your grandfather, the man in the corner shop, trees, a child, the sky, yourself.

And the lessons may not be the lessons you expected! You are being shown what works, and what doesn’t work.

As James Wedmore puts it,

You either get the result you want, or the lesson you need to learn.

There is no failure, in other words. You always get a result - but it may be a surprise to you . . .

Is your best teacher your dog?

Let’s look at your dog again.

If your dog is ruling the roost it’s because he’s teaching you better than you’re teaching him!

I’m perplexed when I see how people mistakenly treat their 8-week-old puppy as if he has the knowledge and wisdom of the ages.

He doesn’t!

He knows nothing!

I know they’re not nasty people - they have been misled into this way of thinking, by tv personalities who claim to be dog trainers, and by popular perception and old wives’ tales..

But expecting him to “know”, or to “behave”, is as unreasonable as expecting the same of an 8-week-old baby.

In every interaction, one participant is shaping the other.

That is to say, one is calling the shots and the other is complying. This never has to be nasty - imagine you’re dealing with that small baby. There is no assumption of right or wrong, no blame, no shame - just getting things working well, for both of you.

I never want to enforce obedience. I would far rather manage my dogs so that they choose to do what I would like them to do.

And it’s entirely possible!

Though you may need to make some mental adjustments yourself:

🐾 Ditch the concept that you are superior to your dog.

🐾 Ditch the idea that others must obey your “commands”.

🐾 Scrap the thought that failure to comply is outright rebellion and must be quashed! 

Have a look at what this Brilliant Family Dog Academy student had to say, two months into her program:

I’m delighted and love that the dogs seem to be deciding what it’s best to do, so that life is calmer and simpler, and a proper partnership. Thank you, Beverley. MC

Want to know how she achieved this?

Watch our free Workshop to get your dog to listen, and find out just how much of the learning is for you!

Once you change what you’re doing, your dog will automatically change. Exciting!

And when you reflect on all of this, you may find you could do with a bit of help and healing in order to change where you are in all aspects of your life.

Drop me a message and we can have a conversation about how you can achieve what it is you truly want in this one precious life of yours!