Repairing the Electronic Fence
What happens when the hidden wire is cut
In December of 2004, a car going too fast managed to hit some ice and slide across the street, right into one corner of our wooden fence. We were actually away that day visiting from friends, so you can imagine our surprise that evening when we came home and saw the demolished fence corner. The police had been by and left a report about the incident, and we knew it would probably take a few months to sort everything out and get the fence repaired.
Our fence after the crash, note the dangling electronic fence wiring
What concerned us most, however, was the state of our Invisible Fence system. After all, we depended on it to keep our dogs safe in our yard and to prevent any further escapes. Because of the layout of our yard, we could block off the part of the yard with the demolished fence — to keep them away from the debris — but we still wanted the electronic fence to keep them contained within the remaining part of the property.
Luckily, the accident hadn't cut the wire, so the system was still intact. You can tell this quite easily by checking the green light on the control unit. In our case, the system was still working, which meant our dogs were still protected.
Repairing the electronic fence was easy
To repair the fence, though, we had to cut the wire to untangle it from the debris. But it's just a copper electrical wire, luckily, so all you do is join the two parts of the wire using a standard wire connector and the system is back to normal. Again, the green light on the control unit makes it easy to determine if the system's working or not. And if you want to be doubly sure, just remove a dog collar and hold it up near the hidden fence boundary — if it starts beeping when you approach the hidden fence's electrical field, you know things are working.
Next: In-house pet containment