Richard Peck, a traveling salesman, invented what we now know as a dog fence in 1971. Peck was troubled by seeing all the stray dogs that ended up on the roads and looked for ways that owners could keep their dog inside their property without an expensive and visually obtrusive fence. Working with an electrical engineer, Peck came up with the idea of using boundary wires in conjunction with a receiver collar to keep a dog contained. Peck patented his invention in U.S. Patent Number 3,753,421, entitled ?Method and Apparatus for Controlling an Animal.? Peck called his invention , Stay-Put but the product did not take off until Peck sold it.

In 1976 John Purtell purchased the patent from Peck and changed the name to Invisible Fence*, building the company up until he sold it in 1993.

In the 1990's as the Peck patent expired, many new companies entered the industry, including Dog Watch*, Dog Stop*, Contain a Pet* and smaller regional independent installers.

Invisible Fence was bought and sold several more times and is now owned by Radio Systems Corporation, which dominates the industry.