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Re: Rabbit Defense System

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

On 10:35 AM 12/13/99 , Shofar7 wrote:
>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>OR you could get something that is called "the Invisible Fence". It is about
>132.00 but well worth it. IT works off an electrical wire that you lay down
>in the ground then you put a dog collar on and it shocks the dog if he goes
>near that area.

The invisible fence doesn't just "work".  You have to be devoted to 
training your dog to understand where the line is and to not cross it when 
it first starts to feel the shock (the shock is progressive, they get a 
minor shock first, just like a mild annoyance, then it gets stronger as 
they get closer to the line/wire that marks the fence).  The shock the dog 
receives will not prevent a determined dog from crossing the line.  Lots of 
people discover that their dogs will go right over the line to chase 
another dog, or cat, or deer, etc.  If you don't have the time or 
determination to work with your dog to train it, don't waste your money on 
the invisible fence, just put up a regular fence.

If you fence the beds themselves, the area "inside" the fencing is small 
enough that the dog won't really want to jump in, so you can use lower (and 
more attractive) fencing, but you then have to deal with gardening in or 
over or through a fence, or having removable panels that you can *easily* 
remove and replace while you work on the garden.  The advantage is that the 
lower fencing is less obtrusive and that the dog has more room to safely 
run (including the paths between your beds) and that the dog can keep you 
company (my dog liked to "supervise") when you are gardening, rather than 
being relegated to the other side of the garden area fence.

If you go with lower fencing around the individual beds, take time to train 
your dog that "inside the fence" is a bad place.  Before you plant, go play 
fetch in the garden area and occasionally throw the ball into one of the 
fenced off (and empty) beds, and then say NO when your dog looks like it 
wants to jump in after the ball.  Go retrieve the ball out of the bed, and 
praise your dog for listening (and not jumping) into the bed.  Then throw 
the ball where it doesn't go in the bed a few times.  Repeat.  Eventually 
when you throw the ball in the bed the dog will just look at you as if to 
say " you go get it, silly, I'm not allowed in there!" and then you know 
your dog understands that the area inside the fencing is out of limits.

Even if you fence off the whole garden area, this is still a good training 
idea.  It only takes about 20 minutes and helps the dog *understand* the 
purpose of the fence and try to cooperate rather than try to circumvent the 
fencing.

The best part about having a dog is that you won't have problems with 
wildlife eating your garden!  :-)

jc


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