Dogs can’t help but wander, especially pups. They want to explore every inch of their world, establish territories, and patrol them.
We also can’t help but keep them safe as they establish their world and we want to keep them away from dangerous places like busy roads or going too far into the woods and wild animal territories.
The best passive solution to this problem is traditional fences but those take significant effort to construct and dogs are excellent jumpers.
Enter Invisible Dog Fences. Electronic devices that help you establish boundaries with significantly less setup needed. They can be wireless fences, underground dog fences, or GPS-assisted wireless dog fences called a “Halo Collar”.
They all have their specific pros and cons, but they are all good at one thing, keeping your dog within a certain distance, from as small as 20 feet to acres of yard space.
We’ll show you 4 of the best shock collar fencing for dogs in the Amazon Market alongside an alternate pick, list all their features in an easy-to-understand list and explain how they work.
- Pros
- 3/4 Mile Range
- Automatic Bark-Limiter
- Remote Can Support 3 Receivers
- Can be Converted to a No-Shock Training Collar
- Cons
- No Standby Mode
- Doesn't fit Dogs below 15 lbs.
Why Pick This Product?
To compare dog shock collars, invisible fence dog collars are fully automatic and only do one thing but they do that one thing well if you set it up right.
Manual training has it’s pros compared to automatic collars because when you train your dog yourself not only do you gain a better understanding of your dog’s personality, but it also builds character for the two of you.
Pet Resolve’s only training kit is almost like a Swiss knife compared to other manual remote training collars out there, having “good enough” features to tackle anything between basic training to field training and hunting, including a bark limiter feature to keep your fur babies from keeping the neighborhood awake when you’re not around.
Features:
- 10 Levels of Shock and Vibration
- Automatic Bark-Limiter Mode
- 3/4 Mile or 1320 Yards Range
- Pair up to 3 Collars per Remote
- Remote Remembers Levels of Each Paired Collar
- Uses Rechargeable Batteries w/ 2 Hour-Quick Charge
- 50-Hour Battery Life w/ No Standby Mode
- Remote-Activated Tracking LEDs
- Waterproof Collar Receiver
- Splashproof Remote Transmitter
- Includes Plastic Prongs to Disable Shock
- Includes a 3rd Pair of 2 cm Prongs for Long-Furred Dogs
- Free Plastic Training Clicker
We featured this to help you compare what you’ll get from a remote training collar compared to a wireless fence shock collar.
Of course, the main difference is this kit won’t automatically do any boundary training, but even with a wireless dog fence collar, you still have to watch over your dog for at least 1-2 weeks to ensure they understand how the system works.
If you’re willing to supervise them, might as well get a remote training collar instead and teach them obedience commands while you’re at it.
Since Pet Resolve’s training collar is advertised for hunting, it has a moderately powerful shock strength. It’s pretty gentle at lower levels but if your dog can’t handle the stimulation, you can use the powerful vibration instead.
If you don’t want to use the static correction at all, you can replace the metal prongs with the plastic prongs and use just the vibration and beep.
It has a range of 3/4 miles with a responsive receiver, allowing you to recall your dogs from acres away. Combined with the remote-activated strobe lights, the receivers become good tracking collars, especially at night.
You can pair 2 more additional collars per remote and all three receivers will have different colored LED lights depending on the number you paired the receivers with.
The anti-bark mode has simple but effective programming. Once turned on, the receiver will use a low-sensitivity microphone to “feel” the vibrations on your dog’s throat when they bark.
When the receiver detects barking, it will beep for 1-2 seconds but if it still detects barking after that, it will trigger a shock based on the level it was on when you set it to this mode.
It won’t respond to the remote when in bark-limiter mode so consider that if you’re troubleshooting any problems.
The kit has good waterproofing. The receiver has IPX7 waterproofing which helps it withstand being submerged in 1 meter of water for 30 minutes.
It’s more than enough to let your dog play in the water or even swim in shallow bodies of water like lakes or the beach.
Included in the box are all the necessary tools like the shock tester, charging cables, and the two standard pair of metal prongs. It comes with a 3rd pair of extra long prongs made for dogs with thick fur, double coats, and long fur.
Normally, you would need to trim the hair on their necks to make the prongs touch their skin consistently, which can ruin their look but not with the extra long prongs.
The plastic clicker is a small but important tool in the training process. It gives you a way to consistently signal your dog to get their attention or tell them that they did the command correctly, and in proper training, consistency is key.
Now that you’ve seen a fine example of a modern training collar, let’s look at our four hand-picked shock collar fences for dogs and see what they offer.
- Pros
- Includes Wires Up to 2500 Feet
- High Receiver Waterproofing
- Supports an Unlimited Amount of Receivers
- Cons
- Takes a Significant Set Up Time
- Receivers need 6 Volt Batteries
Why Pick This Product?
The first shock collar for dogs fence kit uses wires that must be buried around 2-3 inches into the ground. It’s not difficult to set it up, but if you’re dealing with several acres of land to cover, the amount of effort is multiplied.
You do get to set a custom shape with this so that you can block certain areas. The drawback is if the wires have to cross concrete like a driveway.
If it does, you need to be a little creative like using fasteners to keep it on the floor or using powertools to create a gap for the wire to cross.
Features:
- 7 Static Correction Levels
- Cover up to 10 Acres of Land w/ up to 2500 feet of Wire
- Uses 16 Gauge Twisted Wire
- Hub Supports as Many Receivers as You Need
- Includes up to 500 Marking Flags
- Waterproof Receiver up to 10 feet
- Includes 6v Non-Rechargeable Batteries
- Includes Short and Long Metal Prongs
When the receiver goes near the wires, it will send out a warning beep and when your dog crosses the wire, it will then deliver a continuous shock until they go away from the wire.
All invisible dog fences work this way. Though it’s technically positive punishment, the important detail is it warns your dog first. It will train your dog to stop at the beep and eventually, they will keep off the areas without the collar’s assistance.
Depending on the package you buy, this comes with 500 to 2500 ft of 16 gauge wire.
You can weave them to different boundary shapes as long as you close the loop, great when you need to keep your dog away from flower beds or areas where they would get dirty.
Since you don’t have to pair the receivers to the hub, you can get as many shock collar fence receivers as you need and they will all work within the underground fence system.
This fence wire and flag kit comes with up to 500 high-visibility flags. These flags are used to mark where the wire fences are or plant them in the zone where the receiver will start beeping.
It’s important to stay with your dog for the first 2 weeks of training and we advise you use treats and praise as positive reinforcement when they stop or step away from the wires when they hear the beep.
This shock dog collar fence kit comes with a 6-volt non-rechargeable battery with a whopping 4 months of battery life compared to non-rechargeable ones and by the time the battery runs out, your dog should already be well trained to stay within the boundaries.
Like most training collars, it comes with 2 prong sizes. If your dog has longer fur, use the longer prongs.
One of the main reasons why receivers have inconsistent shock stimulation is because the strap isn’t tight enough and the prongs don’t make contact due to their long or thick fur.
- Pros
- Up to 3/4 Acres of Adjustable Control Range
- Static-Free Re-Entry
- Supports an Unlimited Amount of Receivers
- Cons
- Cannot Create a Custom Boundary Shape
- The signal can get skewed by obstacles
Why Pick This Product?
These wireless fence systems require significantly less setup.
It’s great for wide open spaces where your dog can wander wantonly, but if you plan it well, it can be just as great in smaller homes because of the minimum range you can set it to, allowing you to even keep your dog within a room if needed.
Features:
- 6 Static Correction Levels
- 5 to 105 ft Adjustable Control Range
- Hub Supports as Many Receivers as You Need
- Includes 50 Marking Flags
- Waterproof Receiver up to 10 feet
- 3 Week Battery Life per Charge
- Includes Long Contact Points
On our next shock collar fence for dogs, you’re given a hub where the signal will propagate.
Just like the underground invisible fence, if your furry friend goes close to the edge of that signal, the collar will start beeping and if they cross the boundary, the collar will trigger a shock based on the level you picked.
Level 1 will not trigger a static shock, and 2 will deliver a mild shock and goes stronger until level 6. The only trouble with this setup is finding the lowest level your dog will respond to, but once you find it you can stick with it for the entire duration of the training.
You can adjust the range of the signal from the hub. Finding and marking the range with the flags will be the bulk of the setup and we recommend you do this setup with another person to speed the process up.
One drawback of using wireless fence collars is the signal is not as precise, especially if there are a lot of objects around the hub. The 2-Person process involves someone holding the flags and the receiver and another person adjusting the range on the hub.
The person holding the collar has to stay around the general area where you want the boundary to be and the other person will keep adjusting the hub until the collar sends the warning beep, then plant the flags while walking in a zig-zag fashion to determine where exactly the collar will beep.
This kit’s receiver gets a rechargeable battery that lasts 3 weeks before it needs a recharge. It lasts that long since it doesn’t need to do anything else other than detect if your dog is close to the end of the circular boundaries and deliver a shock when needed.
It also has an IPX7 waterproofing which keeps the receiver intact under 1 meter of water for 30 minutes, so your dog can hop on a pool or a pond and swim around with out damaging it.
The kit comes with long prongs for dogs with long hair, but not as long as the 2 cm prongs on our alternative pick. If you have a dog with really long fur or double coats, consider trimming their hair a bit to make sure the prongs make proper contact with their skin.
- Pros
- 3280 Feet Maximum Range
- Uses GPS (No Sim Needed)
- No Hub Required
- Cons
- Cannot Create a Custom Boundary Shape
- Not Effective Indoors or In Places w/ Lots of Trees
Why Pick This Product?
This wireless dog fence is called a Halo Collar. What it does is the collar communicates with a GPS satellite to determine its position and creates a circular invisible boundary, with the collar at the center.
This means no hub needed and all you have to do is adjust the range and wait for the device to establish a connection to the GPS satellite.
Features:
- 6 Static Correction Levels
- 99 Ft to 3280 Ft Radius Maximum Range
- No Hub
- Uses GPS w/o the Need for a Sim Card
- Waterproof Receiver up to 10 feet
- 40 Hours of Battery Per Charge
- Includes Short and Long Contact Points
- Includes Silicon Prong Caps
This halo wireless dog fence has a total range of 3280 feet, or about 3/4 acres wide. Once you turn the collar on, it will take 1-4 minutes to connect to a satellite, then when it does, it will establish a circle around itself based on the range you set on the collar.
It doesn’t need any hubs, just the device. If you need to reposition the halo, just turn the collar off, then turn it on where you want the center to be.
The one drawback is this gps shock collar fence is only good for wide open spaces.
The device may disconnect if your dog goes indoors and when it does, it may not be able to reconnect again until your dog goes out and if you set a smaller halo range, your dog may already be past the halo when it manages to connect back.
The GPS connection does not require any apps or monthly subscriptions, all it needs is a nice open space to establish a connection.
If you managed to keep the collar on for several days, you need to reset the collar to reconnect to another satellite because satellite drift will cause you to either lose signal or cause inconsistencies with tracking.
The waterproofing is enough to keep water damage from rain and even when your dog decides to jump and swim to any body of water, so unless your dog loves to dive more than 5 feet under water, water damage is the least of your worries.
Since this shock collar dog fence consistently communicates with a satellite, the collar battery life only lasts 40 hours, less if the device triggers constantly.
Thankfully, it only takes 2 hours to charge it back to full. Don’t keep the collar on your dog for more than 10 hours to prevent pressure ulcers from forming.
The silicon caps aid in preventing those sores, but it doesn’t mean you can keep it longer. The caps also prevent a rare potential allergy some dogs get when their skin touches the bare metal of the prongs.
- Pros
- Includes 500 Feet of Wire
- Made for Large and Stubborn Dogs
- Supports an Unlimited Amount of Receivers
- Cons
- Takes a Significant Set Up Time
- Not for Dogs with High Sensitivity Levels
Why Pick This Product?
Our last is also an in-ground wire fence but has receivers meant for stubborn dogs or breeds with high chase-drives.
This means it has stronger shock strength, but even though we say it’s strong, it’s still much weaker than a random static zap you get from carpets or dry door knobs.
It requires significantly more setup than any wire-free electric fences but you get to decide the shape of the boundary fence.
Features:
- 4 Static Correction Levels
- Come with 500 Feet of Wire
- Can be Expanded to Cover Up to 25 Acres
- Hub Supports as Many Receivers as You Need
- Includes 50 Marking Flags
- Waterproof Receiver Collar Up to 3 Feet
- Uses a 9-Volt Battery
- Includes Short and Long Metal Prongs
Setting this wired boundary shock collar for dogs will take about 1-2 days depending on how much ground you need to cover and how much help you have.
It doesn’t matter what shape you set it up, as long as you create a loop. Refer to the manual on how to set up more complicated shapes.
You can purchase additional wire if needed and the hub can support enough wire to cover 25 acres of land. You can also purchase more flags if the included 50 flags aren’t enough.
The shock level only has 4 levels which can pose a problem if your dog cannot handle even the lowest shock, but if you know that your dog is stubborn or just impossibly mercurial, then this collar’s strength should suffice.
The receivers are not rechargeable and are powered by a replaceable 9-Volt Battery. You can buy these batteries in your local hardware store easily and it will last well over 3 months.
By the time you have to replace the battery, your dog would be fully trained by then. These receivers also have IPX7 Wateproofing which can protect the receivers from water when your dog swims or plays in water.
It comes with both short and long prongs. If your dog has long or thick fur, you need to use the longer prongs.
If the prongs are delivering a consistent shock strength, you may need to trim your dog’s fur around the receiver a bit to let the prongs make proper contact.
Conclusion For "Best Dog Shock Collar Fence"
It’s hard to pinpoint which singular boundary shock collar for dogs is the best one, but we can at least say which one we think is best among the others.
That alone is not enough though because it’s up to you, the pet parents to utilize these tools to the best of their ability.
As long as you do your homework and take time to understand both how your chosen device works and how your dog reacts to it, even if your method isn’t perfect, you’ll always get good results.
You can learn more about dog training by watching “How to Train Your Dog to His New Dog Fence” down below: