Electric fence in the backyard with a dog?

Hello all. I am planting several fruit trees/keeping bees in an area loaded with black bear. Therefore an electric fence is absolutely necessary.

I am in the planning stages. I am considered the immediate backyard of my house for the trees/bees because:

A) It's one of the few places that gets good sun on my property.
B) It would be easy to run AC power for the electric fence because it is so close to my house.
C) It would be easier to water the plants if they are close by.
D) I already have a chainlink fence, so installing the electric "outside" of the chainlink would therefore be easier.
E) I already have chickens in the backyard, so the electric fence provides them with an extra layer of security as well.

The problem is, the backyard is where my dog plays. I would have to turn off the AC fence power source 10+ times a day when I play with the dog.

My questions:

- Will shutting off the AC power to the fence 10+ times a day dramatically decrease the life of the AC energizer/fence?
- Broadly, is this just a dumb idea for reasons I may not be considering?

Thank you.

Hi Ryan,

Dogs learn to respect an electric fence pretty quick - why would you have to turn it off when the dog is outside?  

Artie Scott wrote:Hi Ryan,

Dogs learn to respect an electric fence pretty quick - why would you have to turn it off when the dog is outside?  

Hi Artie,

Thanks for the reply. To be totally honest with you, that never even occurred to me lol. I suppose, without consciously thinking about it, I had a mental image of a 1 joule electric bear fence cooking my dog to death..obviously that's not the case.

I suppose this thread is one-and-done lol. That's that. He'll get shocked once, it'll be awful, and that'll be it.

Thanks Artie!

My cat decided he was gonna push through the polywire to visit me while I was feeding the pigs. It got him right across the back of his ears right as I hissed at him to warn him off.

He levitated about 200ft into the farthest corner of the tinyhouse; I never saw him move that fast the rest of his life, but he was otherwise unharmed. And ya, he never came near the fence again..

This was a 9.6J fencer.. your dog should be fine.

Ryan Patrick wrote:
D) I already have a chainlink fence, so installing the electric "outside" of the chainlink would therefore be easier.

Hi Ryan! If the electric hot wire is outside, and the dog is inside the fence, then the dog should never contact the fence right? Or am I misunderstanding this and the dog also plays outside the chain link fence?

Thanks everyone. To clarify, yes, the dog plays both inside and outside the fence from time to time.