Electric Dog Fence & Remote Trainer System - 500' 20 Gauge Underground Wire for 4 Dogs (Covers 1/3 Acre) - Dual Containment & Training Solution with Single Collar - Perfect for Backyard, Farm & Large Property Dog Safety

I'm one to research the heck out of things, and I narrowed my wired dog fence system down to two and chose this. Two weeks later I couldn't be more pleased. I wanted smallest collar unit to be least cumbersome to my dog, yet durable and most features and level of settings. I went with pro grade option and 1,000' of cable. Was surprised when that came on just one spool- great, no splice needed in middle of run! Also it doesn't say it, but it *does* come with a surge protector, which otherwise costs about $25. I rented EZ Trencher to lay cable but that was tough in soggy lawn- kept clogging with mud. Tears up the lawn a bit. You'll have this regardless of fence system you buy of course. But following the training plan and having a system with 7 levels of "correction" and a beep-only mode allowed me to have my dog fully trained in less than a week. We did the beep-only training for 3 full days, emphasizing the praise when running back away from wire. I was careful to try to avoid her approaching the line gradually from parallel, and rather tried to have her approach perpendicularly so she'd know exactly where the "bad" place was and to turn 180 deg back from it. On day 4 I turned the collar to shock, I mean correction, level 3. She's a stubborn but smart little 45 lb pit bull mix so I wasn't sure that would be enough, but didn't want to overdue it either. I first tested it on my arm and was surprised that it was a very low level shock, like a tickle. (Nothing like putting your finger in a light socket, that's for sure.). So I put collar on dog and eventually she wandered close to the line, and I was shocked when she was shocked and let out a loud yelp while jumping a couple feet in the air! Geez I felt really bad, honestly, but hoped that was a major learning point (which it was!) and I proceeded to reprogram the collar down to lowest correction setting of 1. We then did a few days of training still on a long leash and if she got too close she'd jump back as soon as the unit beeped. On day 8 I wasn't thinking and didn't notice that another family member took the collar off her, and took her out on long leash. She saw deer and bolted at them, ripping leash out of my hand. But she stopped right before the flagged, and just barked and whined at the deer 30' away. Then is when I knew this is really working, and I started off-leash training the next day. I'm now at day 11 in total which includes 3-4 days of off-leash and it's going great so far. No breaches, even when barreling full speed to the line with temptations of more deer, squirrels, neighbors and dogs. She has hound mixed in and a very strong prey drive so frankly I'm shocked this is working so well. So far so good!Units works exactly as reported. Default range from wire (set to 10) activates the collar precisely 5' from the wire thru my entire 750' run. Wire held up great- had no breaks even with the trencher often putting stress on the wire. I think the instructions are very good. I did not need to call their support line for anything. But one that that was confusing me for a while was the listing of the 3.different levels of dogs (timid, active, and I think hyper) and then the various shock level setting under each of those, but how do you select 'active" for instance. Eventually I noticed that "active" was written on my box's packaging label, so those are how the systems come and luckily the active one was the proper one for my size/type dog.So hopefully there's no letdown with the equipment or my dog starts breaching the fence. If anything like that happens I'll update this review, but right now I'm extremely please that I selected the Extreme brand dog fence. And bonus of made in USA. Thanks.***Update 4 months later*** Happy to report the system has continued to work great and the collar battery was still working after 4 full months. (but I could hear that the beep was weaker when I tested the collar today, so I'm replacing the battery now just to be safe. I hope the replacements last as long as the original!) My dog only breached the fence once in the 4 months, and that was shortly after installing it, when I think she "forgot" after seeing one of her dog friends being walked down the street. Hasn't left the yard since which is really impressive being the daily teasings she has of neighborhood dogs, deer, etc. Great that she can tear around our acre of yard freely, and we can take her less frequently to the dog park for exercise. Looking forward to the warmer weather and her hanging out with us on the patio without needing to be leashed. Happy customer, happy dog.