DogWatch, maker of the safest and most reliable hidden pet fence in the business, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2015. In 1990, Fred King, DogWatch’s Founder and President, had a problem – his family needed to keep their feisty pet cat Slapshot and her claws away from the new furniture in their living room. After looking at the options available, King saw an intriguing business opportunity, and set out to make a quality, dependable and technologically advanced pet containment solution to meet the growing needs of pet owners like himself. “25 years later,” says King, “DogWatch has grown into an international industry leader, and our Hidden Fence systems have given nearly 500,000 dogs the freedom to play outdoors safely.”

“DogWatch products have stood out from the pack thanks to DogWatch’s focus on safety, reliability and innovation,” says King. DogWatch Hidden Fence systems are the first and only hidden dog fences to use an FM frequency, a safer, more secure signal than AM. Our patented digital SafeLink® FM signal helps to protect pets from unintentional corrections that can happen on the AM frequency (such as from garage door openers, televisions, baby monitors, etc.).

In addition to FM, DogWatch systems include other unique safety features such as AutoMemory® and FastReact®. The DogWatch system also uses a ‘Distance-based’ correction trigger rather than a ‘Time-based’ correction trigger. This provides a more reliable and consistent boundary for training your pet – no surprises, no confusion. DogWatch Hidden Fences also have the longest battery life available.

In addition to our Outdoor Hidden Fences, DogWatch also has Indoor Boundary Systems, to effectively keep your pet off the couch, out of the trash, off of your kitchen counters or – as in the case of Fred King’s pet cat Slapshot – away from new furniture. First launched in mid-1990s, our indoor product line has expanded to include portable, battery-operated boundaries and an indoor unit, smaller than a pack of cards, that can protect trouble spots like kitchen counters and trash bins.

The BigLeash S-15 Remote Trainer

Several years ago, DogWatch introduced The BigLeash Remote Trainer. The BigLeash helps users teach and reinforce training commands such as ‘come’, ‘stay’, and ‘heel; and it can also be used to help correct your dog’s unwanted behaviors. The BigLeash is the only remote trainer with two-way communication between the hand-held transmitter and the dog’s receiver collar. This important feature helps you stay safely connected with your dog via the visual range indicator on the LCD screen that shows you if your dog is going out of range. In 2014, both the original BigLeash S-15 and the BigLeash V-10 Vibration Trainer received a Family Choice Award recognizing each of them as one of the “best in Pet products and resources.”

The BarkCollar and The SideWalker – DogWatch’s newest training products!

Just in time for our 25th Anniversary year, DogWatch has developed two new training products, The SideWalker Leash Trainer and The BarkCollar. The SideWalker is a unique product that provides a gentle training method to help create a more enjoyable on-leash walking experience. The ‘self-teaching’ design assists in reinforcing appropriate leash training and eliminating excessive pulling. The BarkCollar is designed to change your dogs barking behavior. If your dog barks excessively, the BarkCollar delivers a vibration or a stimulation at a level that is just enough to distract your dog and break the barking cycle. Both products are now available for purchase from your local DogWatch Dealer.

The DogWatch of Greater Pittsburgh team

DogWatch’s innovative products could not have “unleashed” hundreds of thousands of dogs since 1990 without our passionate, hard-working DogWatch Dealers. Our Hidden Fences are sold and installed only by locally owned Dealerships (not franchises or regional distributors). Our local Dealers own their own business, so they are committed to high quality and outstanding service. Beginning with a small network of traditional fence dealers, our numbers have risen to 237 Dealers, with Dealers in 46 states and 17 countries. (Hawaii and other nice locations are still available, if you are interested in joining our team!) Six of our original DogWatch Dealers have been with us since the beginning, while others have passed down their business to another generation of the family.

“Our Dealers have grown as we have grown,” says King. “In the past 25 years, we’ve seen pet containment systems go from esoteric products to mainstream solutions for pet households everywhere.” King points to DogWatch’s Dealer support ethos as a key factor in the growth and quality of DogWatch’s Dealer Network. “We’re a high commitment service provider and supplier. DogWatch’s Dealer support enables our Dealers to be successful entrepreneurs.”

DogWatch Dealers at the 2014 Dealer Meeting

This weekend, from Friday, February 6 to Sunday, February 8, 2015, a record number of DogWatch Dealers and employees will gather near Austin, TX for the 2015 Dealer Meeting. The annual conference provides a wonderful opportunity for Dealers to learn more about DogWatch’s new products, spend time catching up with each other, and share ideas to help spark their business to the next level and bring the best pet containment solutions to their communities.

The 2015 Dealer Meeting will be an opportunity for DogWatch to celebrate this milestone anniversary and reflect on our past 25 years in the pet industry. We look forward to helping many more dogs enjoy the freedom that DogWatch Hidden Fences, Indoor Boundaries and Training Products can provide. “We are committed to providing smart products for today’s pets,” says King, “and tomorrow’s pets, too.”