PetSafe Stay & Play Wireless Fence, Up to 3/4 Acre

After 2 weeks of online research I was just getting ready to install an in-ground fence, when it occurred to me that there might be wireless units available. It turns out that there are, and this one seemed to have the features that I wanted -- the same features that I was looking for in an in-ground unit (performance, build quality, decent collar battery life). Before committing to wireless, you must understand the limitations of the wireless nature of the unit, and balance that with the your needs and the physical layout of your property. If all agree -- as it did with me -- the unit, when correctly installed and configured -- will perform almost as well as an in-ground installation. I setup the whole system in 1.5 hours, and that was taking my time. I setup the unit in the following steps, which made the most sense to me after reading the manual: 1) Measure your property and determine the radius/diameter of the free area desired. I measure the diameters and found their intersection as in woodworking. 2) Find the geometric center of your property and determine the point in your house this corresponds to. This will give you a starting point when you're going to decide where to permanently install it in the house. 3) Temporarily install the base transmitter at this location (a few feet off the ground, as indicated in the manual), and estimate the boundary line distance to set it to. 4) Walk around your property and test the farthest points that the boundary line should be set to (assuming that your property isn't perfectly round as is the case with me). Adjust the base unit setting until these points are correctly set.. 5) Permanently install the base unit, test again. 6) Train your dog. The physical construction of the base is plastic junk with a power supply, circuit board, and an antenna in it. I guess that's OK if you install it and never touch it again (as in my case), but if you're planning on using this on the go (as it is advertised) I would consider it a little on the cheap side. The construction of the collar receiver is very good. In short, if this type of unit will work for you, it's awesome compared with the installation hassles of an in-ground system. If your setup doesn't lend itself to wireless, you will be disappointed with the results. Recommended.

This wireless fence system is very easy to install and works very well for our high energy dog. Our property is not fenced, but is essentially flat so we were able to achieve a consistent boundary perimeter. We bought a package of 100 yellow plastic flags and are using them rather than the 50 flags included with the system, as we needed that to achieve an even ten feet between flags. We followed the training instructions exactly as described, and by the second day, our dog would not go so far as to be within the buzzing-alert range. The first 4 days of training, I kept him on the leash and walked in all directions towards the boundary, multiple times each day. He consistently initiated “putting on the brakes” as we approached the boundary, so I would lavishly praise and reward him. Days 5 - 8, I still kept him on the leash and added distractions. He completely restrained himself and would not pursue the toys or people approaching until they were far enough within the boundary for the dog’s comfort. Days 9 - 30 (we’re currently on day 24), we moved to unleashed supervision and play. We’ve successfully played fetch an unlimited number of times every day and played endlessly with the kids. If the ball happened to land too close to the flags, he would not go get it. Or, if the kids left the boundary, he would not follow them through it. However, one afternoon around day 17, a cat was meandering within the boundary and the dog saw it from inside and went nuts. When I let him out the door, he chased the cat through the boundary. He got alerted and zapped but didn’t stop until he was a hundred yards away. Then he came to a complete stop and walked back to me. We walked inside the boundary and I praised him for coming back within safety. Following that, I walked the boundary with him on leash again and he would not go anywhere near the edges. After that we went back to unleashed play and supervision, and he has not chased anything through the boundary again. Two days ago, as we went outside, we surprised the cat, who ran away quickly. My dog gave chase for about 6 feet, then stopped well within the boundary and just turned around and looked at me. I praised him lavishly again. I’m very optimistic that this will be a reliable, long term solution. I recommend it.

This was not a very consistent product. The collar would beep in one location on time, and then beep in a much closer location the next time. My dogs refused to leave the stoop when they had their collars on because they would get shocked at various times in the yard with no consistency. Then they would come inside and poop in the house. They could not wear the collar in the house because they would randomly get shocked inside, even though the collar should have been within the perimeter. I do not know if it is the weather, or my house materials that interfered with the signal, but I could not get a consistent perimeter established, even when I was setting up the flags. I also wish I would have noticed that the collars are not rechargeable, and will require a new 9V battery about every month(~$2/month). This is just one more thing to manage that I should not need to do. Setting the shock level is a pain as the one button that turns on the collar also sets the shock level. You press the button once to turn it on, nothing happens, you push it again and now you are electrocuting your dog at the highest level. Now you need to cycle through all 6 shock settings to get back to the original setting. - 1 press - beep-beep. Press again - beep-beep-beep, press again - beep-beep-beep-beep, etc... It's a small annoyance, but very frustrating when it happens all the time. I would return this product, but I spent so long trying to make it work, I missed the return window. I bought a tool to help me fix my buried wire electric fence, and that works much better. I found the break and I fixed it, so I will not be using this product anymore. I am out a bunch of money, and I wish I never bought this product.

I have had this system for 9 months now. My breed of dog is Australian Cattle Dog and I have tried it with 3 different dogs. It works pretty well but does have some flaws and results will vary Dog to Dog. We never messed with setting up the boundary flags. Just plugged the transmitter in. The dogs figured out fairly quickly after 1-2 corrections to stop once the collar starts beeping. I have the 1 collar with the normal prongs and 1 with the long prongs. I have 1 male that will hit the barrier at a dead run and just bust through and kind of shake his head. I have tested the collar and used the longer prongs which are supposed to penetrate through a thicker coated dog. For whatever reason he’s out smarted it which is typical with this breed. It works great for my other 2 dogs though, same breed. So I would say for the majority of dogs this will be a good choice. We have tried it with 3 different locations inside the house to get it where we want the boundary. You can customize the size of area you want. It basically make a circle around your house. We did have an issue with 1 location having a blind spot on the other side so always test it before you turn the dogs loose. Definitely do as the instructions say and take it off at night or whenever it’s not needed. Since 1 of my dogs stays outside all night, I got lax in not removing the collar fearing she would run off and it rubbed two sore spots in her neck. My fault for not following the instructions, not a problem with the collar. I have had to contact the company PetSafe twice, once for the collar not syncing correctly with the transmitter and once when I forgot the collar outside on the doghouse and my dog chewed the buckle. Their customer service is amazing. Overall I am happy with this purchase. I love that we don’t have an ugly fence spoiling our view. I love that the system is portable and we could also take the system camping with us in our RV. Haven’t had a chance try that yet. My dogs get to play and romp all day pretty freely, don’t have to be locked in a cage or turned out on a line. It just keeps them close to the house which is exactly what I wanted.

I purchased this because my unruly cat finally jumped the fence to escape the yard when he was given outside time. (It was only a matter of time) He is cat-aggressive to other cats and despite being nurtured, always wants to go after them. If he escapes he thinks he is wild, and will suddenly go feral. He attacked me one night as I tried to pick him up to bring him inside after the time he jumped the fence. At that point, I knew I had to do something. So this is what I turned to. (I'm not going to declaw him) Yoshi is roughly 15 lbs. The device is a little big for him, but not too big. It works for him. If you have a small cat that is around 5 lbs, the device may be too bulky. The diameter is round so you'll want to have some indicator to the animal of where their boundaries are. I have it a little around my rectangular fence. It only goes off at the corners, and about 10' past my chainlink fence on the long sides. It comes with a test device so you can see exactly where it beeps and shocks. The shock levels are adjustable. The circle is widely adjustable to your liking, many sizes to choose from until it's just right. You have to set it up each time when you use it, as it cant be out in the weather. I just put it on a cinderblock out back where I established to be a good spot, and run an extension chord out to it. It's set up in the backyard, and does not activate at all in the house. This is perfect because I dont want him to be punished when he runs inside. I take it off right away when he comes in. He is still learning the boundaries. But, the device works perfect on my hard headed, wiley cat. After a beep or shock, he runs straight to the door so I can let him inside and give him treats and positive reinforcement. This is essential. He does not hate the collar. Put it on the animal a few times in the house with it turned off. Don't let them associate the collar with anything negative. He doesn't mind wearing it because he associates it with fun outside time. I don't usually leave reviews, but my situation is unique and potentially valuable for cat owners. It's difficult to find any cat reviews for this product, and a positive one at that.

I’m renting a home with a pretty big yard and needed a non-permanent solution for keeping my 2 dogs in the yard. I finally pulled the trigger on one of these and couldn’t be happier. It took a few tries to find the perfect spot in my home for the transmitter, and once you find that spot you really shouldn’t move it. We mounted ours high up on a wall so there’s no chance it will get bumped or shifted. The radius of the circle adjusted easily. When you’re marking the boundary with flags, make sure to hold the collar at the dog’s height. I had it in a chest pocket and ended up having to move the flags because the boundary was different when the collar was 2-3 feet lower. I followed the training instructions in the manual and was pretty diligent about training them twice a day for the first few weeks. I set it up in the winter so the dogs and I weren’t spending much time outside. A couple months later come spring there was a bit of a learning curve for them staying within the boundary when I left it, but they caught on pretty quick. I really was amazed by how well they obey the boundary. They are very social and I always had trouble with them chasing after passing neighbors and dogs. They have not even been tempted by neighbor dogs now that they are trained. Now that it’s warm out I love that they can spend as much time as they want outside without getting tangled up in tie-out lines and I have the peace of mind that they’ll stay in the yard. I’m not sure how well this would really work for truly “portable” situations like camping, as it did take some time and training for us. Depending on how easily the dog gets it though, I could see it working.

Small Crack on transmitter. Other than that everything was there & works as it should.

The system is very well put together in that there is a website that shows your property and the boundaries based on your input as to the distance from the device. Also the installation and training directions are easy to follow and thorough. The only downfall so far, and I haven't been able to train my puppy (5 month old lab) on it yet, is the flags are too appealing to my dog and for every one I put in the ground he pulled out. So, I have had to resort to Plan B which is to purchase driveway stakes that are orange and 2 feet tall. Although I imagine my puppy could pull them out if he's super motivated, they will be more of a challenge than the small flags.

Tel que annoncer et livré à temps

Just buy it, it works. Our dog ALWAYS ran away, no matter how entertaining we made our yard. We are on day 4 of using this and she has stayed in the yard, even unsupervised. I never would've thought this would work so well, I cant even believe it.

Product worked wonders.. for the small amount of time it actually worked. I bought a 2nd collar (rechargeable) and it's been a pleasure to teach my dogs their perimeter without being hard on them. After a few weeks at most, they knew their limits and never crossed it without us, even without the collar on. But now, after 3 months of use, it's started shocking my adult dog randomly, while he was still in the house (so nowhere near the limit of the perimeter). My dog is shacking right now, won't go outside as he's scared of getting shock again. I tried resetting the Emitter, changing the batteries in the collar, nothing works, it still randomly shock (while I hold it, no way I'm putting that on my dog again). Very disappointed by the short lifespan, but especially by the "bug" that did hurt my dog. I can't recommend it at all. Seems to be the PetSafe station that is problematic...

This over all is a good product. The only thing I wish I had known is that you need to replace batteries. My dog learned in less then a day the boundary’s

Ok. just because it says 2 hours on the description of how long it takes to set up, I had this done in 10 mins tops! Easy to get going tested it out on ourselves before putting on the dog. Level 1 is ineffective on dogs but we humans felt it! Overall it took 2 times for the dog to feel the zap and she now knows not to pass the flags! works as a charm!