Wabbits in the Mist

[jhetley]

Wandered out to the kitchen of the Undisclosed Location this morning, preparing breakfast while the world slept. Bunnies browsing the dew-pearl'd grass in the back, fading into the misty forest primeval with the dawn.

Neighbor has a couple of dogs, corralled by one of those "invisible fence" systems. Between the wabbits and the Bambi Brigade, I wonder how strong the deterrent must be to keep a hound from chasing hell-bent across the active section, natural instincts of the chase overriding any small discomfort from that collar.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of the last chapter of Snow Crash.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

If I've read that one, I don't remember it. (Read a hundred or so books a year for thirty or forty years, they start to run together on you....)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Suffice to say that there's a cybernetic dog who hears a friend calling out in distress. He goes over a 30 foot wall that he's not supposed to go over, realizing after he's outside that he's not supposed to be. But then since he's not supposed to go over the wall he decides it's OK to stay outside, and to take off at 700 mph to help his friend.

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

Our little huntress, Fratzi does not break out of the invisible fence to chase deer or bunnies, or other creatures. Fratzi will kill anything she can get at inside the fence but will not go through it. It did take training. The "correction" is not painful. We know, we tried it on ourselves before we put the collars on the dogs. It just serves a reminder and then eventually they don't need the correction to remind them. The bark collar we sometimes use at night on Fratzi works *without* the battery in it.

The only thing that got the really old dog we had for a while to break out of the fence turned out to be flour not creatures. Luvvy had gotten in to a bag of flour and after we took the rugs out and beat them against trees outside of the fence range, she ran right through the "fence" to get at the flour again. Who knew flour was doggie crack cocaine. I still have no idea how an ancient arthritic, short dog got the flour (which was in a ziplock bag) off the counter in the first place.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Having never had a dog since I was maybe six, I don't even know how those systems work. Does the "fence" line define a safe area inside which the collar stays inactive, or does it trigger a response if the dog gets too close? If the latter, I would expect the dog would be able to run through the electronic field and reach a point where the collar shuts up again.

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

If the dog gets within a certain distance of the buried wire the collar makes a noise. If the dog goes further, it receives a mild shock. Training (starting with showing were the line is with flags) is what keeps the dog from running through to the other side. The dog is on a leash, when it gets near the flags you pull the dog back and tell it no. Repeat around the entire perimeter for 7-10 days.

The system does not work for all dogs but it works well for many, including us. Though poor Luvvy was deaf so she never heard the warning tone. Still she stayed inside the fence until the flour incident. She never went outside the fence after that but of course we never dumped flour in outside the fence again. ;)

The bunnies know just where the line is if we let Fratzi out when they are inside the fence they will leisurely hop across it out of her range. She can see and smell the bunnies but will not chase them across the fence. The deer stay outside of the fence but within sight and smell. I think they just keep away from the doggie smells that are inside the fence. They just walk away if they see/smell the dogs in the fenced area.

We have 10 acres with ~1 acre around the house for the dogs (now just one dog) to run around in. Lots of room for the dogs and the critters. Deer and raccoons used to come near the house but now stay outside of the invisible fence. So the fence works both ways. It keeps the destructive animals out and the dogs in.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Sounds like so many aspects of dogs or pets in general -- well-behaved pets are a function of well-behaved humans....

(My attitude toward the doggie world is severly prejudiced by my bicycling.)