Roaming dogs & electric fencing

[Henry&Friends]

Neighborhood dogs continuously come back to pick off my flock. So we put up a PE2 polywire fence over half the yard, with chicken wire behind it. Its not closed, it’s a wall dividing the yard in half, from tree line to tree line (I would enclose them, but I don’t have the fencing or money to do that now.) The shock is not strong, but if you grab the fence for a second you feel it. I need this fence to pack a punch, so dogs will touch it once and think better, but I don’t want it to be deadly to my birds or cats. What fence box should i get? What fence box do you use?

 

[annaBsChick]

The shock generated by any of those solar livestock control fences are not going to be deadly. I would use the better product.

 

[azygous]

Any electric fence charger will do. Mine delivers a 10,000 volt pulsating zap that is plenty strong to deter humans, bear, bobcats, raccoons, and dogs. The secret is to bait the wire with something the predator can't resist testing with their nose or tongue. I generally use peanut butter. I've seen a bear test this with their nose and do an immediate 180 and race off, never to return. It also helps to keep the ground wet under the hot wire so the predator is well grounded when testing the wire.

It's important to ground the charger adequately. I live in a very arid climate and I need constantly to be wetting the ground around the grounding rod.

I have been shocked by my own hot wire on numerous occasions when I accidentally contact it. If I'm sweaty, oh lordy, what a surprise. It feels like being hit with a 2 x 4 and the pain lasts for 30 minutes. But it never leaves a mark.

 

[hayley3]

Neighborhood dogs continuously come back to pick off my flock. So we put up a PE2 polywire fence over half the yard, with chicken wire behind it. Its not closed, it’s a wall dividing the yard in half, from tree line to tree line (I would enclose them, but I don’t have the fencing or money to do that now.) The shock is not strong, but if you grab the fence for a second you feel it. I need this fence to pack a punch, so dogs will touch it once and think better, but I don’t want it to be deadly to my birds or cats. What fence box should i get? What fence box do you use?

I bought a Gallagher S240...it was $250. I thought it was a dud but Howard (on this forum) told me to touch the ground with my finger and then touch the strand to make sure it was working and it about tore my arm off. Because the animal will not be wearing rubber sneakers like I was he will get a good shock.

 

[Papmike]

It sounds like you a bad ground. As azygous said grounding a fence can be challenging at times. Two years ago it was so dry I could not ground a portable fence so I ran a ground wire from the charger to the creek, about 30'. Maybe you can ground it in your pond.

 

[azygous]

What I did to greatly improve my grounding post in my arid soil was to take a few tall soup cans and cut the bottoms out, forming two open-end cylinders. (A four inch PVC pipe would do the same thing, but soup cans are free.) I then sunk them, one atop the other around my grounding post just under the soil. Each day, I would pour the poop board cleaning water at the base of the grounding post. The cans confine the water so it doesn't dissipate, keeping the soil wet longer.

 

[cmom]

I do let a hose drip next to my ground rod when we have a dry spell. It helps. I love my electric but thinking of going DC for times when we loose power, which we do occasionally. I have a battery maintainer that I can put on a battery so that it will stay charged. The last time we lost power, I used a jump starter with an inverter and it worked and kept the electric wire on until the power was restored. I plugged the charger in so when the power did go back on it would charge the jump starter. I'm glad it worked so now I have a plan B. The last time it went out I woke up about 2:30 in the morning to no power so went down to the barn and hooked it us. I have no idea how long the power was off before I woke up. I wasn't sure it was going to work but it did and kept the electric wire going until the power came back on which was a few hours later.

 

[Howard E]

Not knowing what a PE2 fence was, I found this......

https://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Elec...keywords=polywire+fence&qid=1580909423&sr=8-6
As per the ad material, this fence charger generates a max voltage of 5,000 volts in no load mode and 2,800 volts with 500 ohm resistance. In short, it is a very weak fence charger........a tickle.

Most of the literature related to fencers suggests at least 7,000 volts under all conditions........and many of us use fencers generating more than that. NOT a tickle........more like a near death punishing hit.

I see the PE2 is a plug in AC fence charger? Neighbor set this unit up last summer around their garden. It is also an AC unit and I think retails for around $100. This was the voltage I tested from it. Ouch.

 

[Folly's place]

You do want it to sting, bigtime. Using a too small charger isn't a good idea! Weeds will grow up and hit the fence wire, stuff will fall on it, and you want it to have a good bite anyway. ours gets to about 9 joules most of the time, and it hurts!
Get a fence tester so you can know how it's doing, ground the charger, have it plugged into a GFI outlet and with a surge protector, and enjoy increased safety for your critters.
Mary

 

[cmom]