Ha ha ha...I've met some little terrors (kids that is) that might benefit from a shock collar!
Actually, I ran into my vet this afternoon at the movie store and asked her about this. She said that WHEN PROPERLY adjusted, the shock that a dog feels from this is less that what humans feel when they used a TENS unit. (Don't know how many people know what that is.) I've had to use one of these several times and they don't hurt, but I can see how something like that would deter (sp?) a dog who is not capable of understanding the concept. So MY thinking (let me stress the MY part of that) is that, electrical impulses like this ARE used on humans...without damage.
Now, I know not everyone will agree/believe this, but I am just trying to give some imput from someone who actually has knowledge of this type thing--translate it as you will.

Everyone is allowed there own feelings and of course make the decision how to train their own dog (s). I have tried everything to keep Bell from running out the door when ever someone comes in, She runs away like she has fire ants up her butt, I live in a gated community but there are still cars that race down the street, Bell is bigger than the regular yorkie , but still small and I'm so afraid that she will get hit by a car and get killed.
Shock might seem cruel, but I would rather my dog be shocked then killed by a car.. And yes I have spent many hours with her trying my hardest to get her to learn. I have watched all the dog whisperer shows and tried his ideas and still she wants out, so what would you do, if not a electric fence? And I have large doorways and doors that go to the outside all over my house, so gates won't work for me. I'm not looking to fight with anyone, just giving everyone another look at how other people might think ;)

:eek: Oh my! That bad, huh? I bet that must be a sight! ;)

Here is my reason for being against shock collars...not electric fencing which many of my friends use.

When i was growing up my dad raised quarter horses and always kept a blue heeler (cow dog). He had one named Maggie. She was a true bitch if you know what I mean. She'd bite the ankles of the ups man, she'd keep people from coming up to the front door. Only person she liked was my Dad and he refused to part with her although she did annoying things like running off all the time. He got a shock collar for her. One day a girl who boarded her horse at our place left her car door open to return to get something she forgot. Maggie jumped in her back seat. This poor girl drove 6 miles away before she heard a low "growwwwlll" in her backseat. She said she froze and turned her car around while speaking sweetly to mean ol' maggie laying in her back floorboard eyeballing her. While this was going on, there's my dad at the house, standing on the porch pissed that she's ran off again and hitting that button on the shock thing, so Maggie's being shocked while riding down the road with the girl who was trying to return her. We all about died when we realized what had happened and the shock collar was thrown away. My dad meant no harm, but he was a cowboy and he had his own way of doing things. He loved his animals, just got really irritated with Maggie because she was so pampered yet acted like a total biddy to anyone who approached her. Maggie eventually ran away one day never to return. Its a mystery to us all to this day. My dad had a dog lot but didn't keep her in it 24/7. He liked to let her run in the pastures which is what was in her blood to do by nature. My dad is no longer with us, but my family and I still get a kick out of picturing Maggie laying in the backseat of our terrified friend's car. So I say NO to any kind of shock collar. Electric fencing is something that I feel some need to use for their own reasons and I don't find it to be in-humane.

Such a sad sorry and my heart is breaking for the loss of your dad. I have lost three parents in less than 3 years (2 bio, 1 step).

But I feel that this was the result of not using the shock collar responsibly, that has to be taken into consideration.

Kimberley - just wondering...

If you have an electric fence up at all times, is there a switch of some sort to turn it off? Is there constantly an electric current running through it? I'd bet something like that would do wonders for the price of your electric bill :rolleyes:

Yes, but toddlers and children too young to know better do not bolt and run at speeds that we can't catch them. Even supervised dogs can take off in a unpredictable flash.

My sister uses an electric fence. The dog has had professional training and stays in the yard but runs the border barking at everyone. Her father-in-law lives with them (80 years old) and constantly lets her out...no matter how many times he's been asked to be careful.
She is a big, frightening looking dog and she scared the heck out of people. It was becoming a real problem. Even though she was on her own land people were getting angry and afraid for their kids. My sister bought the fence, installed it back from the road...problem solved. The collar doesn't even need to be turned on anymore, she stays within the borders.

Oh, and my sister tried the collar first (she loves that dog like we do ours). She said it wasn't bad at all.

DOGS are different than children. My son knows not to open the fence and leave the yard. My dog, given the opportunity WILL squeeze out of the gate SUPERVISED. I calll for her and sometimes she just keeps running towards the gap in the gate that can't be blocked. Even "trained" dogs at times get relapses and decide not to listen. I am not going to let that happen and I like the idea of having the extra insurance that she will change her mind if she tries to run away. It is an extra precaution, like "puppy proofing the yard." Sometimes you can even take every precaution and bad things still happen. No one is perfect and I'm not even going to pretend to be.

I don't know what to say to all of this. I left for a few hours, and what a mess. Folks, we all do what we think is best to protect those we love whether they are our human children, or our furbabies. I don't think anyone who is a frequent poster on YT would intentionally harm or tramatize their pet.

Personally, I'd rather see someone using a low voltage wire to keep their pet on their property than letting them run the neighborhood like one of my neighbors does with her two Yorkies. The whole neighborhood is involved in keeping her babies safe. It's such an imposition on others to act so irresponsibily. I wish my neighbor would get a hot wire or do something to protect her babies.

Thank you to YT for providing this opportunity to exercise our constitutional right to free speech.

May the love of Yorkies be with you!! :love:
And may you find peace...... :yorkiesar

I see nothing wrong with the electric fencing. I plan on installing one this summer and my vet said it was perfectly safe. I dont think it is inhumane and i think comparing a dog to a child is ridiculous. A dog is an animal a child is human enough said there. My neighbor used the electric fencing and it worked wonderfully and quickly he doesnt even have to use it anymore.

?? I was trying to make exactly the same point in both posts.

That's what I thought???? :confused: I think Kimberley just got confused maybe...I wouldn't worry about it.... :)

I don't think she was confused, I think she would have said so if she were. :confused:

Socal --

Just curious. I know you have several yorkies currently. Have you ever lost a dog to tragedy?

That comment about Children on Leashes ? :rolleyes: Hmmmmmmm.....not cool.

I think we all know about puppy proofing a home...I for one don't need to be lectured in that area....this thread is NOT about that. It's about keeping our dogs safe when they are outside...it's about FENCES....

and again ...comparing a child or toddler to a yorkie outside is just silly. Children learn from us what is dangerous....and we can't walk around HOLDING OUR DOGS HAND. So your point just doesn't apply here. All the training in the world may not stop a dog from bolting or chasing something.... and I agree with everyone here - It would hurt FAR LESS to get a mild zap then to be hit by a car....

I don't think anyone WAS worried about it.

But I DO want to thank Txshopper and most everyone who posted in this thread for what I just learned.... :thumbup: My husband and I were talking about moving recently and the place we were thinking of has NO fences... and that was my arguement for staying where we are. Both my girls NEED boundries. And that doesn't mean they aren't trained - they are just VERY nosy and they do chase birds and squirrels.

THIS would be a solution if we ever decided to move to a smaller place and I would for SURE use one of these fences if we did move. They sound wonderful.

I laughed so hard when I read this because boy do I agree! My mom took me and my brother (2 years younger) to Disney Land when we were very little. The only thing that I even remember is that my mom bought those child harness/leash things because she was so scared of losing us in such a big park. Needless to say, we hated them......and my brother really hated his when Mickey Mouse managed to get a hold of his "leash"!!! :p

Sorry....back to the subject at hand. I know that a lot of people have posted their opinions already, but it seems like many people are interested in hearing from those who have used them. My parents installed an underground electric fence at least 6 or 7 years ago. Back then we only had our lab, but now they still have the lab and an English Setter as well. They live on a steep hill and their house is about 1/2 down where the road starts to curve a little. The cars just fly down the hill and last year alone took out at least 4 mailboxes (most completely destroyed). One car last year even flipped and hit the pole in their yard and took out the electric wires (the front yard is rather large and the house sits back from the road).......luckily the father and little boy were just fine. In their case, their main concern is keeping the dogs in the yard. As many have already said, you can adjust the voltage on the collars to make sure that the dogs aren't receiving too big of a shock. They marked the whole border with little flags and for the first day or two would walk them around the border on leashes to show them the where they could go. As the dogs would get close to the flags, they would hear a beeping noise and once they cross the flags, they receive a slight shock (each of us held the collars and crossed the line to see just how much of a shock it was and it is more of a surprise than anything...definitely doesn't hurt). Their lab doesn't even wear the collar anymore because she just knows not to go anywhere near the edges of the yard. The other one, bless her heart, just loves to run around outside and doesn't seem to be "all there". She has never left the yard, but they keep the collar on her whenever she is outside because they don't want to chance her running off after a bird one day (that's all she does is watch and chase birds). I personally think that these things are wonderful.

HAHAHAHA WHAT A CUTE Memory about Disney World !

When I posted my comment on children and harnesses - I was actually referring to how we handle our yorkies when doing daily things - such as letting them outside....If I didn't have a fence ...my girls would be harnessed ....but I wouldn't have harness a child in the yard.

Being in a crowded place such as DW sound PERFECT for a child to be attached to mom - that is for safety and I see nothing wrong with it...but for everyday living - I can't see us treating our children the same as our yorkies when it comes to playing outside.

JHurtt...you reminded ME of a childhood memory -

As kids we used to go to the beach every summer and a big landmark was this house that had this gigantic cage....it looked just like a Kennel only KIDS would be playing in there -

Every summer we'd always wait to drive by that house that had that awful looking looking 15 foot CAGE in the yard.... and we used to feel so sorry for those kids....It really looked like a Prison Yard.....

NOW I understand the parents logic but back when I was young - I only saw confinement.

Sorry, I forgot to add that the electric fence has not caused any type of fear or aggression in the dogs as mentioned. Dogs are very smart animals......they quickly learn that they get shocked for crossing the "line", not for chasing a squirrel or the mailman. They are not scared of the fence, they just know not to cross it.

Oh, no, I didn't take any offense to what you said about children being on harnesses. I knew exactly what you meant......I just laughed so hard because boy did we hate those things!!!!

And wow to the cage! I too understand the logic behind it, but boy does that still sound a little extreme. I am picturing a prison yard just as you mentioned. Definitely sounds like it would take the fun out of playing outside!!!! Of course I'm sure that parents would put their kids in bubbles if they could just to make sure that they are well protected. I don't have any kids yet but know that I am going to be a nervous wreck when I do as I am overly protective of my furkids!!!!

IMO.....I see Nothing wrong w/ the fences as long as they are used as they are intended. Such as...don't use a fence intended for cattle/horses on dogs. :rolleyes: Of course, there's always that person that has NO common sense and would do that. :thumbdown

I have a friend that lives in a restricted community, a Golf course comm. They can't put up fences. She uses the underground fence for her 2 small dogs and its works like a charm AND does NOT hurt the dogs. The fence has adjustable settings and hers is set for 5 lb dog range.

I know of another man that has a LARGE dog he keeps in a run. The dog kept digging out so he tried using an Elect. fence inside the run. The dog would LAY ON the elec. fence, HAPPILY. He acted as if it weren't even there. So of course THAT didn't work. LOL. He then dug a 'trench' around the fence edge and poured concrete in it, also secured the bottom of fence to 'set' in the concrete. Worked like a charm. Hard to dig through concrete! ;)

Just like w/ clothes...One size does NOT fit all. You do what works best for you and your pet.

Oh good ! It's so funny - when I was back East in August - we still looked for that house and I'm happy to say after all these years - that cage was gone ! and I laughed about your Mickey Mouse post - I can just imagine that Memory and you all must get such a laugh about it all these years later - your poor mom !! :D

ok...so Do the underground fences actually shock them when they have the collar on or do they do a loud noise?? just curious. :rolleyes:

That sums it up right there!!

As for comparing Yorkies to Children. I can reason with my 5 yr old son, Yorkies just don't comprehend reasoning. They just do what comes natural..hunt and escape :)

You can get them either way--one that sends and electric pulse or one that emits a high frequency, unpleasant sound.

Although I DO understand the need to keep a dog where he is supposed to be for his own good, I have to say that I think an electric fence is dangerous to little dogs. At the very least very painful. Whoever said it is most humane has quite a pain tolerance and is a bigger woman than me. I DO understand electric wire, It is made for LIVESTOCK. I use it to keep 1500 lb horses from going places I don't want them to be. The statement that you can adjust the voltage is true but please remember this is fencing used to contain large animals they did not have yorkies in mind. Unless you have been shocked by one of these wires you have no idea how much it hurts. I still remember the first time I got shocked -I was 5 yrs old. 42 yrs ago, it made quite an impression.

I wasn't even aware that you could use the underground fencing on toy dogs. They have come a long way since I looked into them. At that time they were not recommended for toy dogs.

Kimberley I KNOW you have had problems keeping Rebel in and I do appreciate that you have to do what you have to do but I would hate for anyone reading these posts to think it is a totally safe fence for any dog. This is in no way an attack on you. I also would rather see Rebel get the crap shocked out of him than hit by a car but in all honesty I think that kind of shock could possibly kill Mignon. I don't know for sure but I wouldn't test it.

I had underground fence for my dogs. Before we moved to our new home. I have 2 mini daucshunds that are 5 and 9 lbs. They wore the collar when they went outside until they learned where the boundries were, by the flags in the ground. You can set these low enough not to hurt our dogs. They also give off a sound before they get the small shock. One they do it, they will walk away from the border once the sound sttarts beepeing. After a couple weeks, I didnt need the collars on them. they just knew it was there. I had kids walking by our side yard and didnt want them to follow them to school. And it worked like a charm. I must emphasise that it did not give them a big jolt, as it was adjustable.

Wow, I bet a wire meant for livestock would hurt like crap to a 5 year old! Ouch! But actually, you can by the hotwires for smaller dogs--the voltage can be adjusted. We found this out years ago when we had a baby goat that didn't want to stay put and had to have one installed. There is some equation about the setting vs the pounds, but I honestly don't remember...like I said, it was years ago. (It's like, X volts per pound up to Y pounds, then 2xX volts per pound up to Y pounds...blah blah blah...I don't remember.)
Of course, we had to get a higher voltage for a goat, but we looked into it for the pekes we had at the time that took great pleasure in taking off after the cows next door when they saw them. It kept the goats in place nicely...you know how goats will (try to) eat anything...well, that doesn't stop w/ fences...nasty little lesson for them I must say...

It's plugged in at all times but no, the current does not constantly run through it.