12:00a.m. 24th November 2008

| By Mark Bode

img/photos/2008/11/23/179515c.JPGdog.jpg500.jpg Yvonne Goldmann inside the small fenced enclosure she had to build for her dog Pepper despite having an electronic fencing system already in place. Photo: Michaela O'Neill / 179515

Yvonne Goldmann got the shock of her life when the council told her to remove the electric dog barrier she has installed on her Buderim property.

The council told Ms Goldmann in August that the barrier, a wire which discharges static if the dog passes over it, did not meet council’s regulations and would have to be replaced with a fence.

She has accused the council of being out-of-step with modern technology, after it threatened her with court action unless she complied.

“Council’s requirements are fairly conservative and don’t allow for alternatives that work 100%,” she said.

“I’m upset that council has been so stubborn and conservative about this.”

Ms Goldmann told the council the wire stopped her dog, a two-year-old munsterlander called Pepper, from leaving the property.

She said the collar Pepper wore beeped if he got near the wire and the dog was zapped with painless static if he attempted to leave the yard, which he never did.

The installation of the wire was coupled with a four-week training program that taught Pepper not to approach the wire.

Despite what Ms Goldmann regards as the fail-safe effectiveness of the $500 wire, she has had to spend more than $600 on a 1.2 metre high fence.

She said the council did not object to the wire, as long as the dog was also fenced in.

“Council has to be modern and recognise today’s technology,” she said.

“It can’t get stuck in the ’60s and ’70s.”

Janelle Parker, the council’s regulatory services branch manager, said the electric barrier and dog collar was not adequate enough.

“It is considered that this type of management system does not meet the object of the local law, which is to provide an enclosure to ensure that animals are kept and used in a way that is consistent with the rights and expectations of the local community,” she said.