Fear of Invisible Fence

[MalloryPardee]

Trying to train our 1 year old shepherd mix with a PetSafe invisible fence... He has had a bad experience blowing thru a fence before.. so we are trying to start fresh with lots of possitive association.

But he gets anxiety as soon as his collar is put on. It's set to tone only,  but as soon as we begin training he goes from anxious to over threshold. He won't accept food and just pulls to get back inside or in a car...

Then he remains anxious about going outside whether he has his (PetSafe) collar on or not. The first time we tried working with him he got so freaked out he ran away and we stopped working with him for a while.. But we really want him to have the same roaming freedom as our other dog. 

Any advice would be appreciated.

~Mallory 

[Adrienne]

Hi Mallory,

Welcome to the forums!

 I cannot provide much help in training a dog to use an invisible fence considering that it uses shock and positive punishment and this goes against my guiding principles. I therefore do not recommend invisible fences for various reasons and one of the primary ones is  the potential for adverse effects as the ones you are currently observing with your dog. There's been a lot of more information coming out on these fences lately to the point that countless dog trainers and behavior consultants no longer feel it's ethical to recommend them or have dog owners sign waivers considering the risks. I will gladly discuss alternatives to invisible fences if you would like. 

Best,

Adrienne