Petsafe Pet Door

When you own pets that roam outside occasionally you are faced with some challenges. One of the biggest concerns cat owners have is their outdoor/indoor cats’ safety. Having three cats that go outside a lot, I am no stranger to the worry. A petsafe collar is the perfect solution to the dilemma.

Basically, my felines are outside most of the time. They were each originally strays so they are very found of the outdoors. The felines come inside to eat and sleep and that’s pretty much it. The rest of the time they are wandering around our five acre plot of land. We are conveniently located near farms and our road is very quiet.

Traffic is not the only worry that we have with the outdoor cats. We always have our pets’ information on their tags and we make sure that they always wear collars but the very collars that are supposed to help can be hazardous as well. A petsafe collar is not hazardous for many reasons.

Felines tend to climb trees, fences and just about anything else that they can get their claws into. The danger with the typical collar is that it can get caught on branches or other materials commonly found outdoors. When this happens the cats are at risk of choking. A well designed petsafe collar can literally mean the difference between life and death for your cat.

Finding a good petsafe collar is essential for your outdoor cat. You want to find a pet safe collar that will break away if it gets caught on something. You can easily test it right in the store by placing it on your arm until it is semi-snug. You then tug it to see how quickly it breaks away.

You should have to use some force to have it break away. You also want to look for a petsafe collar that has reflective panels on it. These will reflect car lights and help to avoid your cat from being hit by a car. You will want to make sure the collar fits your cat. You want it to be snug, but you should be able to put your index finger through the loop up to your second knuckle.

You also want a petsafe collar that has a loop for a leash that is felt and does not stick out as the metal clasps tend to. The metal hooks can also get caught on things. You also may want to consider a pet safe collar that has a felt tag clasp as well. A well designed petsafe collar is one of the more important purchases you will make for your pet. Your local vet usually carries pet safe collars, as well as department stores and pet stores.

The only drawback is that when the collar breaks away outside, your chances of retrieving it are slim. Luckily, they run around seven dollars and this is a very small investment.

PetSafe Instant Fence Wireless Invisible Fence

What is an invisible fence, and when should it be used?

The Instant Fence system was originally designed to be used in RVs. The idea was to give pet owners who already had pets being contained by an wired fence system a portable system to take with them when camping or on vacation. It was never originally intended to be a replacement for the 'underground' (wired) fences. However, because of its 'Plug & Play' functionality, the Instant Fence quickly became a favorite item of pet owners.

Recently the Instant Fence received a significant upgrade. In the past, it only came with a rather large, 1 level receiver collar that was best suited for medium to larger dogs due to its size and strength. PetSafe wisely changed the receiver to an adjustable 6 level collar and reduced its size by 20%. This made this system much more beneficial, as now pets as small as 8 lbs and as large as 100 lbs or more can be contained by this system.

The Instant Fence and its receiver collar - the PIF-275 are the only PetSafe Invisible Fence items that are not interchangeable with any other PetSafe system. The reason for this is that they work in exactly the opposite way from an 'underground' (wired) system. When activated, the PIF-300 emits a radio signal up to 90 feet in every direction in a perfect circle.

The PIF-275 receiver worn by the pet is always hearing this signal and therefore it does not activate. However once the dog walks out of the zone and the collar loses this signal, that is when the receiver wakes up and begins to correct the pet via stimulation through 2 contact points on the Receiver Collar that touch your pet’s neck.

With an underground fence, the only place that the signal exists is around the buried boundary wire. Once the pet walks up to that wire and the receiver hears the signal, it then wakes up and activates. So with our Instant Fence, the receiver collar needs to always hear the signal; otherwise it activates. With our 'underground' (wired) systems, the receiver collar never wants to hear the signal; if it does, then it activates.

The two main drawbacks to our Instant Fence are:

1. It has a maximum range of 90 feet in any direction.

2. The boundary shape cannot be adjusted. It can only transmit in a perfect circle in every direction. If you wish to increase the boundary, you may use multiple transmitters and overlap the signal to create a boundary of 180 feet in every direction but keep in mind that the transmitters must be indoors and out of the weather. Overall the Instant Fence is a great product for someone who needs simple installation and is not concerned with its limited adjustability.

If you are serious about training your little pup, you should consider purchasing the petsafe invisible fence.