Dog Containment System Training

Many people have wondered about the safety and effectiveness of electronic dog containment system I would like to demonstrate by personal experience just how liberating it can be when one of these systems are correctly installed and implemented in your pet's living space.
Regardless of the size of a dog, a dog that is unruly and difficult to deal with, takes up a lot of space in a home environment. A dog that is a well trained and good house guest  takes up very little space in the home whether it be a Poodle, Scottish Terrier, Retriever, Jack Russel, or a Great Dane. Basically any size or breed of dog can be molded into a perfect house guest. It just takes the right tools and a well implemented training program.

Our Experience:
We have two Scottish Terriers which are perfect guests in our house after they had both arrived at the age of 6 months and with plenty of previous "hands on" house training we were ready to prepare them for "yard training". We installed the Innotek IUC-5100 contain and train system which as far as training and containment capability was unmatched by any other competing brand. Installation was fairly simple with only the use of a shovel, a drill with a long bit to bring the braided wire outside of the house and some latex caulk.
Installing the wire, we used the heavy duty 18-gauge boundary wire which was specially created for both underground installation and above ground installation. The 18-gauge wire was at least 2-3 times thicker than the standard wire normally offered by Innotek and offered far better durability as well as signal strength (the transmitter must be able to push the signal all the way around the boundary area and the larger the diameter of the wire, the easier it is for the signal to push all the way around the signal path as well as the better the signal transmission becomes.

Your Dog's Health Matters

Regular Exercise:
Please note that a regular exercise program and proper nutrition with your dogs is also vital to your pet's health and well being. Dogs need regular exercise as well as we do. I have listened to countless numbers of pet owners that really complain about their dogs getting into trouble (chewing things up, running away, barking, biting and the list goes on) especially in the mid to large size dogs or high energy dogs. You must take them on a walk or involve them in some form of exercise at least 3 to 4 times a week if not daily. When your dogs have a job, they have a purpose and a sense of direction and you then become the pack leader whom they respect and obey.

Proper Diet:
As far as proper nutrition, I would suggest you look into the B.A.R.F (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet which is a natural diet of raw foods that promote proper enzymatic action in the dog's digestive system. Grains are not good for your dog's digestive system and are a leading cause of physical ailments such as allergies, lack of energy, arthritis, weight gain, cancer and a long list of secondary ailments stemming from these primary factors and yet all commercial dog food suppliers use grain as the primary ingredient. Your dog needs uncooked meaty bones to chew on and get the natural enzymatic action going in the digestive system as well as building up strong neck and jaw muscles which commercial foods never address. Also it naturally cleans your dog's teeth preventing gum disease and decreasing or entirely eliminating the need for manual tooth brushing which in the end saves you money on vet bills. There are countless references as well to the B.A.R.F diet on the internet which you can explore.


Training Sessions Begin
We then began to train both dogs on the system by first having a few days of introduction to the boundary area by setting up the flags around the boundary that were included in the Innotek IUC-5100 kit and leading the dogs around the boundary with a rope lead. Whenever the dog would get too close to the flag he/she was prompted with a "bad flag" verbal cue and shaking the flag by hand, the dogs began to realize that there was something significant about the boundary flags and the boundary area. After a few days of introducing the dogs to the boundary area we then powered up the system with their collars on and again lead them around the boundary. This time when the dog would get too close we would allow them to hear the signal tone and say "bad flag" and pull them away from the boundary area before they got corrected by the system. The next phase was to let them feel the correction but still having them on the leash we would pull them back from the boundary after they felt the correction. Both of them yipped a bit when they felt the correction but it did not take more than 2 corrections for them to get the idea of staying away from the boundary area and training was pretty much complete other than training reminders about once every few months after the flags were removed.

A word about other brands:
We have noticed that by far our customers with dogs weighing over 10 lbs  have had the greatest levels of success with the Innotek containment systems especially since Innotek began producing the IUC containment systems.

PetSafe Containment Systems
We also sell PetSafe containment systems but were getting many reports that customers average to large size dogs were not getting enough correction stimulus from the standard PetSafe containment systems to stop them from escaping their boundaries (with the exception of the Stubborn Dog Containment System which has plenty of kick for the large or stubborn dogs).

One thing that we do highly recommend the PetSafe Containment Systems for is the very small and toy size dogs since the collars are the very smallest available on the market. Correction strength was adequate for most small dogs of this size except for the Jack Russell which as reported by our customers has far more energy and resistance to correction than what a standard PetSafe system can deliver with the exception of the PetSafe Stubborn Dog Containment System that as mentioned above has the extra kick needed for large or stubborn dogs. The added benefit of the PetSafe Stubborn Dog Containment system is that any of the collars that are used in PetSafe's underground fence systems can be used with the Stubborn Dog Containment System including the PetSafe Comfort Fit Deluxe Little Dog Containment Collar which is the very smallest and lightest containment system collar on the market. With the combination of the PetSafe Stubborn Dog Containment System and the PetSafe Comfort Fit Deluxe Little Dog containment collar you can have both your Labrador Retriever sized dog and a small lap dog on the same containment system. We have this system now packaged as the PetSafe Big n' Little Deluxe Dog Containment System.

The icing on the cake for our dogs was when we installed our Staywell Dog Door which allows them into the house but not other critters. Before that, we were constantly having to open and close the door to let the dogs in and out of the house. Now we were free to do other things with our time rather than having to be a constant door butler. I installed this door in the wall rather than in the door since both our front and rear doors both have secondary screen doors which made a fixed wall mount the better choice overall. There was a bit more work involved which required cutting through the brick outer veneer of the house and then framing in the wall cavity with 2x6 lumber stock and lining it with Masonite but the end result was definately worth it.


With the Innotek Containment System and the Staywell Pet Door in place, we have been able to go on vacations for a week at a time and have a neighbor come by daily to check on the dogs and we have never had an incident of problems. This level of trust had to be developed over time however and it will vary depending on the dog.

Chris Layton (CEO of the MyGoodPuppy corporation and K-9 Pet Productions)
Ebay UserID: mygoodpuppy    (an Authorized Innotek, Tri tronics, PetSafe, DT Systems, Dogtra, SportDog, and Staywell Dealer)