A dog fence is designed to keep your pet safe but they can’t do their job if they become damaged. Checking your dog fence occasionally and doing repairs immediately when you find a problem is vital to the health and well-being of your pet. If the fence is damaged he can get out and roam around in dangerous territory. It’s easy to see when a wood or chain link fence is damaged and doing repairs is usually not very difficult. However, it can be much harder repairing an invisible fence because it’s more difficult to find the break in the wire.
Things You’ll Need:
• Piece of wire
• RF choke (Found at RadioShack)
• Shovel
• Portable radio
• Wire connectors
Step 1: The first step is to determine if there is a real problem with the invisible fence or if the system just needs serviced. Normally, the system will start beeping or the indicator light will come on for either of these scenarios. Assuming you have already changed the batteries and checked for other obvious problems, this is usually an indication there is a break in the wire.
Step 2: You can use a small piece of wire to check for the break. Remove the system wires from the transmitter jack. Insert one end of the piece of wire into one of the jacks and the other end into another jack. If this causes the error indicator light to go off, you most likely have a wire break. One of the simplest methods available to find it is with an RF choke.
Step 3: The RF choke is a device that can be hooked up to complete the circuit and this allows the transmitter to emit a frequency. Turn off the transmitter box and disconnect the boundary wire leads. Connect the two ends of the RF choke in their place and turn back on. The error signal should go off.
Step 4: Turn off the transmitter box again and wrap the boundary wires from the fence around the different legs of the choke leads. Turn the transmitter on again and make sure there is still no error signal and then turn the box to full power. This will create a frequency that will sound much like a beeping or tapping noise. You’ll need to use the radio to pick up this frequency.
Step 5: Turn on the AM radio to pick up the signal. The instructions that came with your fence will tell you which station to use but it’s often AM600. Now, you’ll need to take your time and walk the fence line listening for a major drop in the frequency and this should be where the break is located.
Step 6: Once the break has been revealed, dig up the wires very carefully to prevent causing more damage. Use a new piece wire to reconnect by twisting each end to each end of the broken one and cover with wire connectors. Reconnect the transmitter wires and check to see if the reading is back to normal. If the transmitter is working normally, bury the exposed line and your invisible fence is repaired.
Tips: Walk the whole fence line before stopping to dig up the wire. This will help ensure you find the actual break and not just a weak spot where the signal is lower. There should be no sound at all in the area of the break.
Warnings: You will be working with electricity so you’ll need to be very careful. If you’re uncomfortable working with electricity then you may want to hire someone with experience for the job.
