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Using Invisible Fence Inside

In-house pet containment

The Invisible Fence system also solved another problem for us. As it happens, Barney is a jumper. Although we'd blocked off our living room with a baby gate (I'm sure many of those are actually used as pet gates — you often see dogs pictured on the packaging), we often found evidence that he'd been in there. We needed a better way to keep him out.

The solution was to get an internal Invisible Fence floor unit. It's basically the same as the control unit in our garage, except that it's completely self-contained. It emits an electrical field in a circular pattern with the unit at the center of the circle. There are no wires involved other than the electrical cord that supplies the unit with its power. You can control the radius of the circle to make it cover the right area.

Placing this unit in our living room, underneath our piano, was the solution for our problem. Just like the Invisible Fence outside, as soon as any dog approached the unit, their collar starts beeping. They then hightail it out of there.

The only problem we encountered with this solution is that you have to place the unit very carefully, because the electrical field can easily pass through walls. After you've positioned the unit, take one of the dog collars and test the extent of the field, paying close attention to adjoining hallways and rooms. You're trying to keep the dogs out of a certain area, not the whole house!

This is Stage 1 of an AdSense case study. Copyright 2005 by Eric Giguere.