Most of the service calls we run are on systems another company installed. The wire in your ground is the expensive part and it is usually fine. What fails is the collar, the transmitter, or one break in the line. All three are repairable without putting in a new fence.
If your dog is getting out, or the collar has gone quiet, or the box on the wall is beeping, it is almost certainly one of these.
Batteries, contact posts, water getting in, or a receiver that has simply reached the end. This is the most common call we get and the cheapest to solve. It is also the one people most often assume means a whole new system.
The box in the garage. A lightning strike, a surge, or age. A transmitter alarm usually means a break in the loop rather than a dead transmitter, which is why the next item matters more than people expect.
A single cut anywhere in the loop takes the whole fence down. Finding it is a locating job, not a digging job. We trace the loop with a fault locator, mark the spot, and repair it. The rest of your wire stays where it is.
You can narrow this down yourself before you call. The dog fence troubleshooter walks through the same checks we would, and a fair number of people fix it themselves with a battery.
This is the part most companies will not do. Anybody can say they service all brands. Here is what is actually on our wall.
Battery caps and replacement receivers, stocked across most system generations. Pet Stop receivers can also be programmed to work with an existing Invisible Fence® brand transmitter, so the wire already in your yard stays where it is.
Transmitters and batteries. We were the top-selling Dog Guard® dealership in the country for seven years before we left the brand in 2001, and roughly 1,200 Alabama families were running systems we had installed ourselves. We still take those calls.
Receivers and transmitters. PetSafe systems are usually owner-installed, which means the wire is often shallower and the break is often somewhere a mower found it.
If you would rather fix it yourself, replacement batteries and parts for every major brand ship from Birmingham.
Every one of these is a real call, described by the customer who made it. None of them needed a new fence.
Found and repaired in about ten minutes. Age is not what kills a boundary wire.
Caught the wire at an edge where it came close to the surface.
A twenty-year-old line, cut when the shrubs above it came out.
Same yard, two separate visits, two separate cuts. Utility work is the single most common cause.
Which is why every system we install goes in with surge protection.
Construction at the front of the property took the loop out.
There is a charge to come out, and it covers the first hour of labor. Most service calls take an hour or less. Repair supplies, wire burial and any additional components are billed on top of that. Ask and we will send you the rates in writing before you book, so there is nothing to guess at about how the billing works.
Because we do not know what is down there until we look, and neither does anyone else. People tell us in good faith that nothing has been dug in the yard, and we arrive to find an obvious trench. A lightning strike can travel down a tree root and melt a foot of copper underground while the surface shows nothing at all.
So we will not invent a repair number over the phone. What we do instead is document it. Most service calls happen while you are at work, so the technician photographs what he finds and writes up what he did. You get to see the cause even though you were not standing there, and when somebody else put a shovel through your wire, you have what you need to ask them to pay for it.
Usually within 48 business hours. Sometimes the same day. During the busiest stretch of the year it can run a little longer. A dog that is actively getting out moves to the front of the line, every time.
It can always be fixed. Sometimes that means a repair and sometimes it means replacing the system, but there is no yard we cannot make work again. If you want a diagnostic visit first, to find out what full restoration would actually take, that is a normal service call and it is billed as one, because the drive is the expensive part of any visit. That fee comes back to you if we do the work within thirty days.
Shield members skip the base service charge, pay labor at a member discount, get a lower travel rate and one wire break repair a year. Every new Pet Stop system we install comes with its first year of Shield.
If we have worked on your property before, use Request Service. It goes straight to the office against your existing record. If we have never been out, use the estimate form instead, which sets you up as a new customer. Using the wrong one is not fatal, it just means somebody has to untangle it later.
Real photographs from real service calls. This is what lands in your write-up.
“My experience with Pet Stop was great! The tech was very knowledgeable, friendly, and found my line problem immediately. I have dealt with other Invisible Fence companies and you don’t want to waste your time. These guys are great.”
Yes. Most of the service calls we run are on systems another company put in. The boundary wire in the ground is the expensive part of any dog fence and it is usually fine. What fails is the collar, the transmitter, or a single break in the line, and all three are serviceable without replacing the system.
Yes. Locating a break does not require knowing who installed the line. We work from the transmitter and trace the loop with a fault locator. Depth, age and installer make no difference to the equipment.
In most cases yes, if the wire is intact. Pet Stop receivers can be programmed to work with existing transmitters across most system generations, which means you keep the wire already buried and replace only the collar. That is the difference between a service call and a re-installation.
Almost always something else digging. Utility work, a contractor, landscaping, a weed-eater at an edge where the wire surfaces, tree and shrub removal, and lightning. Wire that is left alone tends to last a very long time. We have repaired lines twenty years old and older.
We service the Birmingham metro, the 280 corridor, Tuscaloosa and the lakes. New customers, start with a free estimate.
Request Service →Pet Stop of Alabama is an independent authorized Pet Stop® dealer and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any other brand named on this page. Brand names are used only to identify equipment we service.
