So, I have 7 active dogs and I live in the country. That's the equivalent of mixing oil and water trying to keep them from roaming the countryside. So instead of constantly buying cheap (and not so cheap) shock collars with remotes, I bought this instead. Had to cover 25 acres, figured this was ultimately what I was going to have to get anyhow because I've got some serious runners. The package showed up, all items there in the box. It was pretty straightforward, I needed to create a rectangular-ish area to contain my dogs. It provides various scenarios via illustrations with how you can set up your perimeter. It also has a few suggestions if you want to keep a garden off limits inside the contained area. Anyhow, it comes with the base, 2 rolls of wire, a collar, 2 packs of flags, and some wire splicing parts. What it should ALSO come with, is a trencher, free labor, and back pain medicine lol. Let me begin by saying I did not use the wire that came with it. I went and bought 14awg rolls of the extreme dog fence. It has better shielding, and it's a thicker wire ( I needed to bury the wire so I didn't run it over with farm equipment). This is a sound purchase, and i'd recommend it for large area containment. I also bought additional flags (you can buy them at just about any hardware store or lawn care store, or here on amazon!), because what they provided, wasn't enough. Also, the flags are white. Not going to work well when the ground is covered in snow. You have a large area, and/or have snow on the ground? Do this. Buy the plastic marking flags. Lowe's has em (as an example). Additionally, since I was covering a large area, I rented a trencher. Also do this if you're burying it. Trust me, your back will thank you later I don't care how fit you are. I live on the top of a hill, and having a trencher saved me HOURS and potentially my liver from the many pain meds I would've had to take to get it done. Pro tip: if you get the spool of wire I bought, bring it with you to the rental place to see if it fits the trencher. More on this in a minute. Lastly, free labor (or not free labor) helped ALOT. It took 2 teenage boys and myself to get it done in several hours with the trencher. If you're just laying it on the surface, you can do this alone as you'll just be kicking it along while you sip on a beer. So here's how it went. I Set the trencher up, fed out about 20ft worth of free wire to cover going under a sidewalk, up a wall, and into the garage, then put the spool on the holder on the trencher. And off I went! And then the spool went off the trencher when I went! Turns out, the spool size was a bit too much for the holder on the trencher. Hence, bring the spool with you if you rent a trencher. If its the wire that came in the package, you don't need to bring that, it'll fit on anything. So I struggled with trenching down the hill, and up the hill with that overgrown spool. The spool weighs a fair amount, and trenchers aren't light. Because of size and weight of the spool, the spool was binding up on the holder and too much tension was on the wire in the ground to the point it was coming out on any curvy areas. So after an hour or so (and alot of breaks), I came up with a nifty idea. I could just lay out the wire along the path I was going, and have the trencher feed it in as it went along the path. So, I cut the wire, and restarted. Grabbed 2 kids as well. Their job was to kick the spool along, and follow up with a rake to cover any exposed wire afterwards while I trenched. This was the ideal plan I failed to see before I started. Job finished up really fast after that. Final touch? 2 kids racing from the start and finish spot with flags to see who could plant theirs and be back before the other one. Base installation was quick. Mounted it on the wall, and ran the 2 wires to it. Easy peasy. It's recommended that once you fire up the system, grab a collar and walk the perimeter. If any breaks are evident, the collar will let you know when it beeps and doesn't beep (or shocks you, your choice). The collar paired up automatically (not sure if it was intended or not). Adjusting the range and strength is a user defined job. Your setup is different than mine etc etc. I'd like to say it works well. The hard part now is converting dogs that're used to shock collars and no boundaries. Now there's a static boundary and they don't like it. I'd recommend placing flags and then training your pets prior to putting the fence in, but you do you. Wish I did that. Hindsight's always 20/20.... In the end, the product works well. Snow will be falling soon, and i'll see if it works through that as well. But the product is solid. I'd say make the investment if you're on the fence about it. It's actually a good product. Buy with confidence!
