To have your utilities marked, simply call 811. They will come out and mark your underground utility lineswith spray paint or flags. Call early, as it may take up to a week for them to come out.

Should you have any privately-installed utilities, such as gas cylinders or a septic system, these will need to be marked as well. Since underground utilities are generally buried over a foot deep, whereas your wire is only buried a few inches down, hitting these underground utilities usually isn’t an issue.

With that being said, you need to make sure that if your dog fence wire is running parallel to any underground lines, that you separate your dog fence wire from them, by about 4 feet. However, crossing underground lines perpendicular is no problem.