# "Invisible" dog fence and goats?



## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

I've tried everything to keep my goats from destroying the fence, and nothing works -- they've put holes in heavy gauge horse fencing. They've pushed fence posts completely over. (Sandy soil.) They've destroyed gates. 

I HAVE electric fencing up, but this only slows them down -- I have one goat (named Houdini, of course) who hooks the electric wiring carefully with his horns and rips it loose, then tears up the fence for fun. And, if they get zapped, they sure back off in a hurry, but if the electric goes OUT they know instantly and all four of them take full advantage of it. 
I had a brain storm today, when I was adding up the cost of buying new fence wire yet again ... it would be cheaper to run an "invisible" fence wire around the top of the existing fence, which is sagging and beat up but still "okay" and buy four collars for the goats. 

Any flaws in this solution that ya'll see? 

Leva


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## Tracy (May 2, 2002)

I have invisible fencing for my dogs. I love it but I am not sure if it would work for goats. My collars [they run about $160.00 each] have up to 10 diffrent settings for shock factor [10 being the highest, you would probably need that for goats]. and also it gives off a warning beep before it will shock. This warns the dog to back off. If they continue then they get shocked. The thing is if they continually push the boundry and are constantly getting a warning beep then they will wear the batteries out quickly. I replace battteries on the dogs every 4-6 months. 

The other thing is the collars have to be pretty snug so the metal has contact with the animals skin. I thing if the goats got caught up on something this could be a hazard unless you had break a way collars and then replacing these collars all the time would get expensive. 

Invisible fencing also runs on electric so if they know the electric fence is out they probably would figure out the dog fence isnt working either as they would not get the warnign beep. My one Dane is very smart and she knows if the fence is not working.

If you decide to try it this company is where I bought my fence and costumer service has been excellent. The transformer went on mine and they replaced it free of charge for me with next day shipping. www.radiofence.com 
Maybe try it with Houdini if he is your destructive one before you invest in a lot of money on additional collars. 

In theory if it works and you actually trained them with the flags [like how tyou train dogs] you could move the fence and flags and have portable areas for bruch control,etc. If you try it post and let us know how it goes. You could always sell the unit on ebay if it didnt work.

I keep my goats in 3 strands of electric fencing and dont have issues. The key to electric is that you have to have a good ground. At least 3 ground rods ten feet apart and ideally in a wet area. When we only had 1 ground rod the fence would not hold the goats.


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## tkrabec (Mar 12, 2003)

Your goats may learn to take the collars off 
But I have the radio fence for my dogs and I love it.

-- Tim


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

I have a REALLY hot electric fence (cattle charger rated for 25 miles, grounds sunk in my septic tank leach field), so the electric fence is not at issue. Houdini gets zapped regularly by the fence when tearing the wire loose with his horns (and it's enough that he bawls) but he's learned the zap only lasts for a second and then he has the fun of hooking his horns in the no-climb fence and tearing it up! (He deliberately puts his horns through the no-climb and pulls on it.)

Re: taking it off -- that's possible, since I would make breakaway collars w/ snaps. (Collars unsupervised around goats with horns are a bad idea. Mine are pretty savvy about getting "hung up", particularly the packers who get stuck all the time on the trail, but would probably freak if another goat was suddenly attached to them by the neck.)

Petsmart has some inexpensive setups -- my corral is only 130X50 feet, so I don't need a very powerful one. (It also occurred to me after posting that it will prevent damage to the gates, which are difficult to effectively protect with electric.)


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## GoldenMom (Jan 2, 2005)

Cygnet said:


> I have a REALLY hot electric fence (cattle charger rated for 25 miles, grounds sunk in my septic tank leach field), so the electric fence is not at issue. Houdini gets zapped regularly by the fence when tearing the wire loose with his horns (and it's enough that he bawls) but he's learned the zap only lasts for a second and then he has the fun of hooking his horns in the no-climb fence and tearing it up! (He deliberately puts his horns through the no-climb and pulls on it.)
> 
> Re: taking it off -- that's possible, since I would make breakaway collars w/ snaps. (Collars unsupervised around goats with horns are a bad idea. Mine are pretty savvy about getting "hung up", particularly the packers who get stuck all the time on the trail, but would probably freak if another goat was suddenly attached to them by the neck.)
> 
> Petsmart has some inexpensive setups -- my corral is only 130X50 feet, so I don't need a very powerful one. (It also occurred to me after posting that it will prevent damage to the gates, which are difficult to effectively protect with electric.)


I've got a couple of different transmitters I'd let you have (you pay shipping  ). You'd have to get the wire and collars, yourself though. Both are in good working order. I upgraded from the one (Petsafe-about 7 years old) and the other came with the property we moved to (Innotek Contain and Train-3 to 5 years old). I didn't like the collars that the previous owners had for the Innotek system (the dual purpose collars). I like the Petsafe one and the collars are pretty reasonable, depending on which one you get (I think you can even get them at Wal-Mart sometimes). I'll have to check, I may even have some of the heavy duty wire left that I'd let go pretty cheap. PM me for the details, if you're interested.


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## NewlandNubians (Jul 10, 2003)

Your main problem is your goat(s) have horns (you probably realize that already). Is there any remote chance of removing the horns? If the goat were young, maybe a year or two or less, you could have the vet surgically remove them. Is there a vet in your area that could help you? It would be worth it to do if he's that much trouble... Should you decide to go this route, a word of warning. Make SURE they know the precise dosage for rompun (sp?) to knock them out. Too much and they're dead. Goats are pretty sensitive to anestesia. If you were to do it this year, depending upon where you live you may have to do it ASAP. The flies will be out soon in our area - don't know about where you are. Since surgical removal of horns is major surgery, that's why it's best done when the flies are not out.

Another expensive option right up there with the dog fence you are asking about is board fences and/or concreting in your posts since your soil is so loose. Actually, concreting posts in would not be that expensive, just a pain in the you-know-what if you ever want to move the posts! Ask me how I know <grin>. It will involve a good yard tractor or a big tractor...

May this be a lesson to all who don't want to disbud their kids!!!


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