Hi,

This post pertains to country dogs on large acreages only. This is a different dynamic from city dogs or dogs that are confined to small areas. This idea would not be at all appropriate in those scenarios. That's why I'm posting on a homestead forum.

We have always lived in the country and have had dogs for over 20 years. We and all our neighbors have 20-80 acres with horses. We have fences for the horses, and our dogs can get through. We're all friends. None of us mind if our neighbors' dogs come on our property, but that rarely happens. None of us have ever had one hit by a car, but the area where we live is getting more populated and the road is getting busier. It's starting to almost feel like suburbs. We love that our dogs can get all the exercise they want, and they have rich and rewarding lives. Of course they're in our houses most of the time, but they do love their freedom when they go outside. We don't want to build fences that confine them to small areas - allowing our dogs to have freedom is one of the best things about having acreages.

Our house is about 50 feet from the road. The land where our dogs run is behind the houses, back in the pastures.

Our 14 1/2 year old heeler mix passed away from cancer recently, and we're considering a puppy. We have a 9 year old heeler mix left and would like to get a puppy. We don't want to get a puppy until we figure out how to keep her away from the road. A physical fence wouldn't work - it would need to go in front of our neighbors', and have gates for the vehicles to get in and out.

Does anybody know of a way to run one of those invisible electric fence lines (the ones used with collars) just parallel to the road, rather than around the perimeter of a yard? I know electricity has to travel in a circuit - would it work to double the wire back on itself so it made a very long narrow circuit, like a line?

If this would work, we could run it in front of our house and the neighbors'. I've heard it's easy to train dogs and keep them from going near the fence line, as long as they have plenty of room to run and stay occupied elsewhere. Our dogs don't go out the front door, so when we let them out they tend to head toward the back to check on the horses etc anyway. We're considering training our older dog to stay away from the invisible fence line well before we get a puppy, because the puppy will want to run around and wrestle with her. Then we would keep an eye on them when the puppy was out.

They make GPS collars that you can set for large acreages, but I'm not sure how that would work since the center of the range would need to be in the center of our property, not where the house is. The house would be near the edge of the range and I'm afraid the collars might beep in the house. Plus I've read reviews that say the collars lose the GPS signal when the dogs go in barns. Then when they come out of the barns, the collars beep while trying to find the signal again. That would be an issue.

Any thoughts?