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February 29, 2020

2-Loop Switchable Fence at Historic Hopsewee Plantation

Back in the spring of 2018 I got a call from the Hopsewee Plantation in Georgetown, SC owned by Frank and Raejean Beattie. they had recently lost 2 of their dogs and needed a solution to keep any future dog(s) off the busy highway that abuts the property.

But this wasn’t any ordinary property. The plantation was built in 1735, 40 years before the American Revolutionary War. Hopsewee was a rice plantation back then and also the birthplace of Thomas Lynch Jr. a signer of the Declaration of Independence. With all the history and Miss Raejeans amazing cooking in the Tea Room the plantation draws a lot of tourists.
https://hopsewee.com/

The biggest challenge with this fence was figuring out a way to keep the dog(s) away from the guests during the day but also giving them full access to the property when the plantations closed.

What was finally proposed was a 2 acre loop on the back of the property and an 18 acre loop around the entire property that also encompassed the rear 2 acres.

Now if we fast forward to the fall of 2018 I finally got a call back from the plantation. Frank and Raejean had this beautiful new Rhodesian Ridgeback named Cicero and they were ready for the fence. We got the property wired and installed a switch in the garage next to Cicero’s pen so the owners can just flip a switch and control both loops.

It took a little training but Cicero quickly figured out when he could go from the small loop over the big loop and now is happy and free on his plantation.

In addition to the fence we also set Cicero up with a DogWatch SideWalker collar to keep him from pulling on the leash and a BigLeash remote trainer to help with Cicero’s selective hearing and other puppy issues.

If you find yourself in Georgetown, SC stop by and check out the plantation and those amazing desserts in the Tea Room.

August 27, 2019

Custom Designed Fences

One of my favorite parts of the job is finding solutions to challenging situations with regards to installing your DogWatch Hidden Fence. Most jobs are pretty straight forward, I mount the transmitter in the garage and bury the wire outside in the yard with my machine. However there are times when things are a little more challenging than that.

sometimes the landscaping in the yard is so elaborate or is old and very overgrown that I cannot use my machine to bury the wire. Other times there are no electrical outlets in the garage that I can plug my transmitter into. And then there are the requests from my customers. While not every challenge can be overcome, most times there is a way to make the fence work for my customer.

I recently installed an invisible fence for a customer in Georgetown that owns a rather large plantation. They wanted to let their Ridgeback have full run of the property at night but during the day, while guests visit the plantation, the dog had to be kept in smaller area away from all the people. For this customer we made a small 2 acre loop within the large 20 acre invisible fence and wired the loops together using a switch. Now all the customer has to do in the morning is bring the dog down into the smaller loop, flip the switch to activate the small loop and the dog will stay inside the daytime loop. At night she does the reverse, flips the switch and the dog has the entire plantation to roam. It took a little extra training for the dog to figure out the fence configuration but now he is one happy pup!

May 14, 2019

Why is Battery Life Such a Big Deal???

I spend countless hours a week talking to my prospective customers about battery life and why it is such an important safety factor when deciding on which brand of invisible fence to purchase. A dead battery in the dogs collar is the number 1 reason a dog is going to escape from an invisible fence once they have been trained.

If you have to replace or recharge a collar every 1-3 months you are going to eventually forget (think smoke detector batteries!). If or when this happens the dog will eventually figure out that the fence isn’t working and will escape putting itself in danger of getting hit in traffic or getting lost.

This is why DogWatch has developed a collar with an industry leading 2 year battery. In addition to the 2 year battery we also have an indicator light on the collar that will flash red for several weeks before the battery is drained.

Not only will your dog be safer on a DogWatch hidden Fence but you will save a lot of money on batteries over the life of the dog(s) and you’ll be a better steward to the environment by putting less batteries into the landfill. Check out this diagram to see how much money you could be saving with DogWatch while keeping your dogs safer!