We bought this product to circle the perimeter of our acreage. The wire connected easily, ran along our perimeter just fine attached to barb wire & wooden fencing. It has helped keep our dog within our acreage and that is what we bought it to do. No issues other than wildlife when we just laid the wire on the ground would trip over it pulling the wire out of box but the alarm would sound to let us know. One thing is to make sure you have enough wire exposures to connect to the box. Initially my husband didn’t.... and I thought a connection wasn’t done well enough. This product works very well & the control to make it pulse stronger is a good thing to be able to control. Unfortunately we lost a 9 month old pup to being hit by a vehicle, as she wasn’t a dog that would go on the road or chase cars.... but she was curious and wandered out without my spouse seeing and met her untimely end. Our hearts broke. But with this in place, our next pup hasnt had any issues leaving the property. We are extremely pleased with the product and would recommend.

Initially I had some issues and left a rather bad review, but I went to the website looking for troubleshooting tips, and found a couple reasons why I may be having the issues. After trying the recommended fixes, the system became quite reliable.The manual included gives good instructions on set-up and training, and any potential troubleshooting will be found on the website. The comments below also show that they are willing to help you if you can't find the solution otherwise.

We've had this fence now for almost exactly two years and in that time we've installed it twice. We originally got it because we were renting while we looked for a house to buy and there was no fence. The yard was small, definitely less than a quarter acre. The second time we installed it was around 3 acres on the house we bought a year later.INSTALLATION: First time/small yard - We used a lawn edger to cut the line for the wire. We had to rent it and unfortunately the blade was not sharp so it did not work great and I ended up using a stick to kind of dig it out in spots as I was laying the wire (my husband cut with the edger and I pushed in the wire and buried it), I used the same twig to push the wire down (a popsicle stick would probably work great, you want something small and flat on the end so you don't risk cutting the wire). I'd still say use an edger vs. digging by hand, but make sure the blades are sharp! It took about 3 hours. Tiring work but all in all not bad, especially when you consider the cost of professional installation. Second time/3 acres - This time we rented a cable burying machine called EZ Trencher (I believe) it digs the line and lays the wire for you. My husband did this part and I followed behind burying the wire. This also took 3 hours. I have to laugh thinking that it took us the same amount of time to do 3 acres as it took to do 1/4, the cable burying machine is definitely the way to go if you can get one, I had to drive an hour away to rent it but it was worth it for the effort saved!TRAINING: My dog's personality can be hard to explain, she's very brave about some things but very timid about others. She learned very quickly, BUT (and this happened both times I trained her) after she figured out that she would get a shock going by the flags she was terrified to go out in the yard. So basically it took one training session to learn not to go by the flags and then it took a two weeks to get comfortable with the yard again. Both times I was sure I'd ruined my dog and she'd hate me forever. She didn't, she got over it both times. The first time I'd force her to go out with me and then just sit there petting her and give her treats. Not making her go by the fence just getting her comfortable to sit outside. The second time she was mad at me and didn't trust me for about a week, and wouldn't leave the porch. So I let my husband put her on a leash and walk the yard with him, then just let her be. She got over it and now she runs right up to the barrier. So, if you're dog is afraid of the yard after, don't give up. Just spend happy time in the yard with him. I've never used anything above setting 1. She does not challenge the barrier (in fact I once watched a rabbit tease her, hoping in an out of the boundary, she would charge it and it would hop nonchalantly out and she'd back up and wait for it to hop back in. I don't know how it knew she wouldn't get it but it seemed pretty sure of itself and she wanted it bad, but not bad enough to test the boundary) so if I forget to put the collar on her she's fine. I try to remember, but especially if the weather is bad or something and I know she'll be back quick I don't worry about it. We're getting a new puppy soon, so I'll be training again, hope he takes to it as easy as she did!WARRANTY/PROBLEMS: This had a two year warranty and we've used it twice. The first time was for the collar. After we'd been using it for about a year the casing just broke off. It actually happened right by the door so I found it. I have no idea how it broke, the dog is not particularly hard on it. Perhaps from laying on the concrete of the porch? Anyway, customer service was great and they replaced it for me right away. The second time was just today, we noticed the power and loop light were out. This happened a couple weeks before our two year warranty was up, so they just replaced it for us too. I plan to buy a surge protector for it. The only other problem we had was a rodent chewed through the wire once and it had to be spliced. When I heard the alarm I was so worried that we'd never find the problem but I walked the line just in case and found a very obvious hole with two chewed wire ends sticking out. Repaired them and it worked again. Basically, these fences are bound to go down now and then for one reason or another so it's a good idea to expect it. Have slice kits, extra wires and I'd suggest surge protection, either a ground wire or you can buy a kit that you plug it into, haven't used it yet so can't tell you how good it works. I've been very happy with the Sportdog customer service.COLLAR: I don't like the plastic collar, but we've lived with it. You could probably punch a hole in a collar of choice, but I haven't tried. I leave this on during the day and take it off at night. Sometimes I forget to take it off, if I do I just remove it after she goes out in the morning and give her neck a break. My dog has a short coat though and I don't have to put it on tight at all and it never seems to bother her.THE SHOCK: I now have first hand experience on how it feels to get shocked with this thing. It was an accident, I was holding the collar with the prong lightly brushing my hand when my husband powered up the fence. It was on setting 1 (which is what I use for my dog). I was happy to find that it doesn't exacly hurt, however it IS extremely unpleasant. I just don't know how else to describe it. Not painful, unpleasant, definitely didn't want a repeat. If you have the room definitely make the boundary area as wide as you can so they have lots of notice before getting shocked. We had to make it as small as possible on our first yard because it was so small, but she always gave it a wide berth. I don't always trust the warning vibration/tone either. When we were walking the boundary flags at the new house, I tried to coax her across the flag line thinking that the tone would warn her and she'd remember about the flags (and hopefully not get shocked) but I never heard the warning and she got bit. That was the only time the second time around and I was mad I didn't hear the warning tone, but it works when I tested it. She's never been shocked by it outside of the training period, so there should be no need for her to ever experience it again.UPDATE 3 Years later...I thought I'd update this since I've used it with another dog now. The fence still works great, we've had zero problems since I wrote this review. I trained our Brittany puppy on it when he was 4 months old (he reacted much as I described my older dog: learned fast, afraid to go outside at first, over it in a week or so). Since he was still young and small I used the PetSafe Deluxe Ultralight collar. It works with the SportDog fence system so its an option if you need a smaller collar, but just a warning, it's not a great collar. The battery goes out on it quick and the warning tone isn't very loud and I ended up strapping the big SportDog collar on him for training so he got a loud warning tone, but after he understood I was able to use the Petsafe collar until he got to full size so he didn't have that massive box on his little neck. We got chickens and he is a bird dog, so I ended up buying the SportDOG Contain and Train collar. This collar works with the invisible fence but it is also an e-collar with a gazillion settings. We were able to train him to leave the chickens alone with this, which is good because they refuse to stay in their yard. Bonus, when I see him digging across the yard I can vibrate the collar with the remote and he'll stop. This is an expensive collar but worth it. Bonus, it can be slid onto a regular clip-on collar with no trouble and is rechargeable. Here's another tip. I've discovered SportDog has great customer service, they will usually give you a discount if you call and buy from them directly. I can't promise this, but they've done it every time I've called about something.

I didn't have time to install this around my farm until now and after putting the wire in I found out my box doesn't work and I've emailed them and haven't got a response yet but my friend who told me to get this his has been a year and works perfect

I live on an acreage with a major highway nearby. I dug it in the ground and wrap the remaining wire around a fence around my property. My dog responds very well to this. Have a young pup who likes to run around. Is a Coonhound so his nose controls him and so far not even a cat or any other kind of animal can get him to cross that wire. This was easy to set up we went and bought some extra waterproof splices and tubing because the system only comes with two so definitely have to go buy some more if you're putting up additional wire than the system comes with. Just went to Canadian tire for that. After two weeks I did take the shock collar off of my dog for about 1 week he would not cross it but continuously tested the boundaries each day to the point where he finally realize that he was allowed to cross them so still not a long term thing as far as him not needing it anymore. Accidentally set a hay bale on the wire and it stopped working. Repaired the wire and it was back working. I would recommend this to everyone that lives out on an acreage and needs to protect their dog from leaving the property and running out onto the highway or getting lost it is such a relief to keep your dog outside and I have to worry about him running off.

This fence has been great! No problems at all and very easy to install. It is way cheaper than having Invisible Fence brand install theirs and our dog is so much happier to have the run of the full yard rather than being tied to a lead. The manual has a 30 day training program and our dog learned the ropes in less than 2 days. Also our lives are easier since our dog is not getting tied around everything and she is burning energy running free and not driving us crazy anymore. We love it and so does the dog. Would recommend it to anyone!

Review for SportDog 100A In-ground Fence System.Preliminary review (6/3/15) focused on installation and set up.OVERALL:After installing and testing for two days, I am very happy with the purchase.• I saved a lot of money with this DIY option, though it required two days of work to enclose my backyard that has an existing fence (mostly chain link but with a wooden gate section). In other words, I did very little digging and burying.• I bought this system because, about a week and a half ago, I adopted a 3-yo lab and almost immediately she climbed the wooden gate. I immediately started research on fence systems and happily bought this one.• As indicated in the instruction manual, there are issues with interference with buried electrical lines and phone lines to your house where your fence wire may be within a few feet of these.• The instruction manual is good. If you want to do more study, you can also find the manual on the company's website. I recommend reading it before buying.INSTALLATION:I have a good sized suburban lot with an existing fence with a 4 ft. chain link fence with chain link gates and a section with a wood gate. I have a recently rescued 3-yo 50 lb. lab who can climb the wood part of the fence (and probably the chain link, but I installed the in-ground fence before finding out). My goal was to enclose my backyard but I ultimately went around my whole house.• It took two days for installing and training my dog. I used exactly 500 ft of wire (one spool).• I purchased the standard 20-guage wire. I don't yet know about its long term durability but it seemed OK. I don't feel now like I should have upgraded, but this may be because of my specific use and I have no experience with durability yet. However, if you will run the wire through tubing (I did a section this way), a heavier gauge will definitely be easier to work with. See below.• Most of the installation was along/on an existing chain link fence. As one reviewer noted (I read lots of these reviews first and they were very helpful) use zip-ties. DON'T weave the wire through the fence as recommended in the instruction manual as this is not even possible unless you want to make lots of splices. Weaving will take forever. The zip-tie method was relatively quick.• I zip-tied the wire along the top of the 4' chain link fence.• Where there were gates, I zip-tied the wire along a chainlink diagonal until it hit the ground and then buried the wire under the gate.• I have an underground power line and a phone line along part of my fence line. The instruction manual says this will cause interference and to not run the wire parallel. Mostly, where the wire was along the top of my 4' fence, this was not a problem. But there is interference where the wire is in the ground and close to the buried utility lines. This could not be avoided in my set up. Fortunately it still works, not perfectly, but between the way it works, an existing fence, flags, and training my dog, it seems adequate so far. This would be a problem without an existing fence!• You must make a continuous loop of wire to the controller box. Although my purpose was to enclose my backyard, I went all the way around my house, running the wire around my front porch and across my driveway to make the loop back to the controller. This way, apart from the backyard, the dog cannot leave the front porch (we didn't want her in the front yard) and she cannot leave the garage with the collar on.• Apart from attaching the wire to my chainlink fence and going underground for gates, I found the system flexible in terms of installation. In some places, behind some bushes, I just left the wire on the ground (although ideally I would run this area through some pipe). Around the porch, I first taped the wire to the underside lip of the porch planks and then went back to staple them. In another section, as I went along, I did run the wire through some flexible plastic tubing.• Use of tubing: I used landscape irrigation tubing sometimes called "silly pipe"; it is cheap, easy to cut, and flexible, but hard and smooth, so wire runs through it easily. However, this tubing comes coiled and wants to stay coiled, so you need to use short runs or have a helper to stretch the tube while you push the wire through. This worked surprisingly well for about 15 ft of tubing working by myself with 20-guage wire. I'm not sure if running wire through pipe and then burying it will affect the signal, but I think it does; you have to adjust the settings on the controller box. However, for some applications (not a lawn), I think you could run the wire through silly pipe and then use landscape staples to hold the pipe to the ground; then you can avoid burying the wire. Again, heavier gauge wire will push through pipe more easily.• I made no splices.• Again, you need to make a continuous loop of wire back to the system. Where you twist the ends of the wire together, or make a twisted splice, the signal is killed. Unless you install the control box right on the fence line (unlikely), you need to make a twisted wire back to the control box to maintain the geometry of your fence. Use the power drill technique to twist the wire: insert the ends and clamp them down in the part that holds the drill bit and turn it on. Works great.• In my landscape, I had outdoor power. So I took a chance with installing the controller outdoors. I bought a big waterproof conduit junction box, drilled a few small holes for the wires, attached the box right next to my outdoor (waterproof and grounded) outlet, and installed the controller in there. There is some risk for water infiltration, but these boxes are used for heavier electrical purposes, so it seemed reasonable; I preferred this over drilling a hole through the wall of my house, making a much longer twisted wire run to my fence line, and dealing with less convenient indoor installation/outlet locations.SET UP AND TRAINING:• The controller box has a setting for the boundary range between warning (beep and buzz) and "correction" (shock). It is sensitive to adjustment. I was surprised (at the narrowest setting) how sensitive the collar is to the proximity to the wire both vertically and horizontally (i.e., dog head/neck height sniffing ground vs standing vs standing up on hind legs to get ready to jump/climb over a fence).• Since I have an existing fence that shows the boundary already (as compared to a completely invisible in-ground set up), I dialed the range down on the controller box to make a very narrow boundary— to prevent climbing over the fence, while not making my yard effectively smaller. As other reviewers have noted, if you have a narrow lot or narrow enclosure conditions, this kind of fence will make your space even more narrow.• Although flags are to show you and your dog where a buried wire is where there is no other indication, I put up the flags along my fence anyway. My newly rescued dog had a few days of experience with my yard and fence before the installation, so I wanted to show her that there was something new. I'm also training her not to go through open gates. I will train her to only leave the house through the garage and under certain conditions. Quickly I think she will learn what the beeping/buzzing means and will stay away from new areas without the need for flags.• With an existing fence, it took me less than 30 minutes to teach my dog to stay away from the fence (or flags)— not to climb it. Or so it seems. She is smart, so she got two shocks and learned about the beeping and buzzing warning and to back away. Or so it seems! Being smart and obsessed with small woodland animals, she may yet test the limits of risk and reward. I will report on that later.