Underground fencing system keeps Fido yard-bound

Aaron Robinson knows firsthand the pain pet owners face when the family pet breaks free of its yard and is killed.

Nearly two years ago, he watched as a vehicle accidentally hit and killed his nine-year-old boxer, Maggie. The dog had escaped the yard and was walking along La. Hwy. 308, a few feet from Robinson’s home.

“For about three months the whole family mourned like a person had died,” the Thibodaux man said. “Maggie was a part of our family and to see her die like that was heartbreaking.”

Maggie’s death eventually lead Robinson to become a franchise owner for Dog Guard, a New York-based company that assembles invisible barrier systems underground to contain animals in their yards.

After Maggie’s death, Robinson began searching for an alternative fence to keep his new pets – Belle, a chocolate Labrador retriever, and Button, a pug – at home.

He found Dog Guard on the Internet and called the company for information.

Robinson immediately discovered there were no Dog Guard dealers in the Tri-parishes.

If he wanted the system, the company told Robinson, he’d have to assemble it himself.

“The company owner and I started talking about the system,” Robinson said.

A natural pet lover, Robinson said he had the mettle to start a south Louisiana dealership. After all, he grew up working at the Nicholls State University horse farm and he raises show lambs for the local 4-H. And his years of experience as a cable technician came in handy when assembling the copper wire underground.

“Once I got the system in and hooked it up, I was so impressed with it,” he said. “After talking it over with my wife, I decided to research buying into the franchise and taking over the southern Louisiana market.”

Robinson’s network covers southern Louisiana, from Lafayette to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He calls his company Dog Guard of South Louisiana.

Despite 25 years of experience in sales management, starting his own business was scary in the beginning. Robinson said he did not know where to begin. He received assistance from the Louisiana Small Business Development Center-Greater New Orleans Region.

Shortly after launching Dog Guard, he quickly learned how challenging it can be to sell an intangible service – something customers couldn’t see or feel. Even so, Dog Guard has become one of the area’s top-selling pet containment devices, in part, Robinson says, because there are no maintenance requirements.

It also helps that the majority of the system is underground, pet owners can landscape their yards without damaging the fencing. “It is an invisible barrier,” he said. “My customers don’t have to worry about trying to cut grass around it. There’s no maintenance to keep it looking good.”

Another advantage, especially for south Louisiana, is that high hurricane winds cannot knock the system offline.

“Really and truly, a lot of people have bought it since the hurricanes because their wooden or steel fencing was knocked down in the storms and this system is not affected by that,” Robinson explained.

Estimates for Dog Guard are free, and systems can be customized to match the size of the pet and the size of the yard.

The system uses a transmitter that gives off an AM signal to a copper wire buried underground around the pet owner’s property, Robinson said. The wire sends an electrical signal to a waterproof collar that goes around the pet’s neck.

A dual zone function in the collar provides small correction transmits – slight jolts – to warn the pet to stay in the yard.

“I can give the dog as much correction as I need to keep him inside of the yard,” he said. “We guarantee containment, and all of our devices come with a lifetime guarantee from the Dog Guard franchise.”

The correction is very humane to the dog, he said.

The animal hears a slight beep in his ear, feels a slight shock and returns to his safe zone. The correction stops immediately once the animal is away from the barrier.

There are different-sized collar receivers, Robinson said, depending on the size of the animal. The receiver can also be set to 32 different levels of correction.

Aaron Robinson turned to Dog Guard, a fenceless, underground system that contains pets to their yard, after his nine-year-old boxer, Maggie, was killed by a passing vehicle. Robinson has since opened Dog Guard of South Louisiana. * Photo by SOPHIA RUFFIN