Products > Electric Fence > Kits
As the menu above suggests, we offer three basic types of electric dog fence kits. The first (products 21-01 and 21-02 below) is a long-lasting electric fence kit using fiberglass posts that is robust, portable, and suited to diverse tasks. The next (products 21-03A and 21-03B) is an electric fence net kit 34 to 42 inches tall that is super-easy to move from place to place and that, besides keeping dogs in or out, can be used to contain other animals—notably sheep, goats, pigs, and other small livestock. And the last (products F1 and S1) is a clever barrier plus electric fence a foot and a half tall that will reliably keep most dogs out of vegetable gardens—while simultaneously excluding woodchucks, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, cats, and other interlopers.
Robust Kits (Portable)
In sharp contrast with other small electric fence kits on the market, this kit is built to last. The conductor, a durable polywire, can be reeled up and moved from place to place, and the durable fiberglass posts are made to last at least 10 years.
This kit is also versatile. It comes with enough posts, polywire, and insulators to make the fence 3 feet tall and 150 feet long with 4 runs of polywire. More runs of polywire can be added if the length of the fence is shortened.
The kit comes in two flavors, AC-powered (plugs into any house current outlet within 50 feet of the fence) and solar-powered. The higher price of the solar-powered kit reflects the higher pirice of the charger (which comes with its own battery and a built-in solar panel). The AC-powered charger (the Dare DE 60) comes with a 30-day manufacturer’s warranty, and the solar-powered charger (the Fi-Shock SS-740) comes with a 2-year manufacturer’s warranty.
Other kit components:
- Ten 4-foot hunter green fiberglass posts
- One 656-foot roll of white polywire
- Forty clip-on insulators
- One 2-foot galvanized steel ground rod with attachment nuts
- One fence tester
- Three warning signs
- Installation instructions
Fence Net Kits
Besides working well with dogs, portable electric fence net is commonly used to contain livestock like pigs, sheep, and goats, and also to exclude predators like coyotes and foxes. The fence net we offer is well suited to handling both dogs and livestock; the lower (34 inch) height is best at dealing with dogs that are not great jumpers, while the taller (42 inch) height can deal with virtually any dog. Both versions of the kit are 165 feet long.
The great advantage of our fence nets is their extreme lightness and portability. Requiring relatively few posts, they are easy to pick up, roll up, and move from place to place—whether “place to place” means around your yard or to a summer home hundreds of miles away. The fence netting is made of green and white polyester lines (see photo above) combined with thin stainless steel wires interwoven with the horizontal lines. The mesh openings are 4 inches high and 6 inches wide. Each kit includes black corner posts that are tipped with zinc for ease of insertion into the ground, and each kit comes with attachment strings useful for joining its ends together and also for joining one kit to another.
These polyester electric nets are designed to be used with low impedance electric fence chargers and should not be used with chargers of any other type—especially the old “weed burners” that put out a continuous current. The low impedance chargers listed below have been carefully selected for use with our net fences. Not only are these units well suited to charging a net fence, for reasons explained below, but they are also low-key, suited to working with dogs of all sizes, and capable of powering multiple fence nets. (The DE-300 and DS-300 should not be used with dogs weighing less than 8 pounds.)
The weak point of electric net fences is their vulnerability to vegetation. The lowest charged wires in the net are so low (typically 4 inches off the ground) that weeds and grass can come up, contact the active wires, and lead so much electric current to the ground that there is not enough left over to effectively shock a dog touching one of the charged wires. To maintain a proper charge, the owner of a net fence should do two things. First, get a charger like those listed below that is noted for detecting any power drain and compensating for it. And second, use the fence’s extremely portable nature to lift it periodically and mow under it, much as one lifts and mows under lawn furniture.
A fence net should not be used where the ground along the fence line is super-dry, because the fence needs ground moisture to get the charge from the to-be-shocked animal’s feet over to the ground rod. (A soon to be released version of net fence with alternately charged and grounded elements will be able to get around this difficulty, so if you need such a net call us at 508-888-8305 to check availability.)
Please note that the basic kit (products 21-03A and 21-03B) include only the netting and posts. Chargers and ground rods are not included. If you are getting an AC-powered charger you will also need undergate and hookup wire (product 02-28) to get from the plug-in outlet and your charger to the fence. Other inexpensive and desirable accessories include a simple electric fence tester (products 04-01 or 04-02) to ensure the fence is working, and warning signs (product 10-01).
Fence net kits:
Accessories for fence net kits:
Garden Kits
For vegetable gardens, the best anti-critter protector anywhere is Mr. McGregor's Fence®. Earth-friendly and humane, it is 100% effective at keeping small to medium-size dogs (as well as most large dogs and all woodchucks, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, cats, and even deer) out of vegetable gardens. Available in various lengths and styles, Mr. McGregor's Fence® uses a low barrier fence to make animals explore and discover a low-key electrified wire that gives them a harmless shock and sends them home.
We do not sell Mr. McGregor’s Fence® but one of our affiliated websites does. To purchase it, or simply to learn more about it, click here.