About 10-years ago at The Home Depot I bought a "Radio Fence" kit consisting of transmitter, wire, training flags, and a receiver collar. I installed it myself on a 1/2 acre lot and have been very pleased.
Training instructions were included. The flags are set at the buried wire. The dog is then walked on leash to the perimeter and trained to run back to the house when the collar alarms. It only took one shock for both of my dogs to not challenge the boundary again. The system has a ground on the transmitter. From research I learned that good grounding is very important for the unit's survivability if lightning strikes nearby. I installed a separate ground rod dedicated to the unit. There have been a few close strikes and I have had no problem. I used a walk behind powered yard edger to gig a shallow narrow trench for burying the wire. The transmitter alarms when a break occurs in the buried wire. Chipmunks bite the wire in two at least once a year. To locate the break I use a portable AM radio held very close to the ground. A buzzing static noise is heard when the radio is directly over the wire. The buzzing will fade about six feet from the break. I then pull up the wire in the vicinity, join the broken ends, water proof the joint with silicone caulk, and rebury the wire. - Gil Laster, Charlotte, NC [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
