Shock Therapy Thwarted

Pet ownership is often a very rewarding experience. For me, my most recent (hoped for) reward was to see the living day lights shocked out of my most difficult dog whenever he would continue his fence attacking (cue evil laugh: muwahahaha!).

We got new neighbors last fall. They came with two big dogs that Ace HATED right from the start. He would stand at the fence, peeking through the boards, and bark his heart out whenever he was let into the back yard. We quickly remedied the situation by adding an extra loop onto his existing radio fence boundary (previously installed to keep him from continuing his plant extracting and eradicating tendencies). He is a very smart dog and immediately caught onto the new shock zone, and we enjoyed peaceful afternoons in the yard again.

A few weeks ago, his little shock collar shocked its last and died. We considered buying a new collar but opted for the purchase of an entirely new system. I did some research and found a "Stubborn Dog System" that used standard 9-volt batteries (for serious shocking power) and was compatible with my parents' radio fence (so that they can't escape when we go for a visit).

So young. So full of hope and excited anticipation!

Since the death of Ace's previous collar, he has figured out that the shock zone is now a free-for-all and has continued his bad behavior.

He took out his angst on my flower bed. He completely ate one of my daylilies and managed to pull up and destroy the bed's edging.

He also dug out all of the grass in this spot and has been chewing the fence boards in his, "I'll eat you alive" threats towards the neighboring dogs (who are each twice his size!)

So, you can imagine my excitement when the new shock system arrived in the mail. Eagerly, I fitted Ace to his new collar and plugged in the new transmitter. But within just a few minutes, the system began beeping... crap! The resistance on our existing buried wire loop is too high for this new system and it's not effectively transmitting a signal, which means no shock treatment for Acie (Matt prefers the term "behavior modification") . Booo! With all of the splices and additions on the existing loop, we never considered that it might taint the new system.

Thankfully, Matt is going to be off for most of the day and has promised to take a stab at putting in a new (and splice-free) loop.

Ace, you're not free from the shock collar for long! (heh heh)