It sounds like you system has 7 "hot" wires, with copper stakes in the ground. So, only an animal standing on the ground can complete the circuit.

Maybe you need some "grounding" tensile lines alternated within the "hot" lines. In that way, climbing animals (e.g. raccoons) will get the charge.

I have a system for the DW's garden. Two copper ground stakes, and two tensile wires. The lower tensile wire is "ground charged". The top is "hot" lead. The two wires are 4" apart.

No visitors in the garden, - two seasons. Just peanut butter, on the one "hot" tensile wire.

{{gwi:1188521}}

Tom--Does that mean that every other wire would be a "hot wire" for deer and therefore, every wire in between would not shock them? I have noticed that deer seem to go through a fence as opposed to over it if not in flight. I'm wondering if a non hot wire in a certain location would allow them to come through the fence. I'm new at this electrified high tensile fence thing. I love your garden photo. How high is the fence? How do you bait your fence with peanut butter?

First be sure that the fence is charged, that you do have current flow. Second be sure you have ample ground rods so thre would be the needed electricity flow from making contact with the wire to a grounding source (if there is no current flow there will be no shock). Some sources do recommend stringing one "hot" (charged) wire and alternating that with a grounded wire so in your seven wire fence you would have 4 "hot" wires and 3 grounded wires along with the ground rods so anything trying to get through the wires would make a complete circuit as well as anything standing next to the fence and contacting one of the "hot" wires would have a complete circuit and receive that shock.

Here is a link that might be useful: 17 mistakes in electric fencing

kimmsr is correct. you have to test the electric fence. I bought a line tester from the hardware store where I bought the fence components. I just put a steel bar to the ground, then touch the line tester to the hot lead. The line tester lights up. Also touch my ground tensile wire to the hot tensile wire, with the tester. The tester lights up.

kimmsr is also correct about the importance of ground stakes. They need to work. I have even heard that some people "water" their ground stakes, during drought, for better conductivity.

I don't think the deer should be able to walk through the fence. But that is not the intended design. It is not supposed to be a physical barrier. Once the deer get "stung" with the 5,000 volts, they will ALL stay away. I have heard that it even works for large black bears.

My wooden fence (white cedar) is four feet high. The 4X4 posts are 5 feet high.

I have little scraps of aluminum squeezed onto the top (hot) tensile wire. Maybe you can't see them in the photo. Use pliers to squeeze the pie tin scraps onto the hot lead.

I have read that the best time to start an new electric fence is early spring, before any animals have a reason to go over it. If you don't get it under control this year, do start baiting it first week next April.

Sorry for being so long winded

Thank you all for your help--I'm going to start applying your tips ASAP.

One other thing, and I didn't see it in the helpful list from kimmsr, is that if anything touching the ground touches any hot wires, that will short out the whole fence.

So if you have a low hot wire, and the grass grows over it, the fence will probably be shorted out.

Other:
Now I'll tell one more long winded story. When we first bought this house, the previous owner had a very rustic fence in the same place as the photo above. The posts were just red cedar logs from small trees he cut down. The fence was 4' high, with the wire you can get in rolls from the Box Stores. On top he had put the two tensile lines like I have. The electric fence was there for several years before we moved in. No animals went over that fence. The garden had good annual yields of whatever you planted.

A few years after we moved in, the red cedar posts were rotting, a couple fell down. I took the whole fence down. We used the garden with NO fence for approximately 7 years, with no problems from the animals. They never ate anything. Then they started. Soon after (maybe 9 years after the fence came down), we could not grow anything. The animals ate everything, even the potato tops (which are supposed to be poisonous).

I suspect there is an animal memory. Maybe seven years is typical life cycle for deer and raccoons.

So, once you get the fence working, it is easy coasting.

Again, sorry for so many words.

Good Luck!