Training to an invisible fence

I would like some suggestions on training my springer Layla to my invisible fence. Right away I am going to say that I am not allowed to have a regular fence in the city where I live or else I would already have one so that is not an option. My springer Riley and sheltie Molly are both trained to the fence. Layla is another story. When I take her in the back yard on a leash she immediately does her “frog pulling” to get back to the house. She won’t go anywhere near the flags. I have the collar on beep only. I have tried several times and this always happens. Anywhere near the flags and she won’t even take treats. All three dogs are rescues so I don’t know if someone tried this before. I do know some of her background and that she has been a show dog.

Currently when I put her out I have her on an overhead runner. When she is on this she will go right through the flags so she is associating the leash in the yard and the flags with something bad. She is a very skittish and timid dog and very much a Velcro springer. I put her on a long lead and she still wouldn't go between me and the flags. I am going to try maybe a 30 foot lead and see if I can start there and gradually try to train her like that. She doesn't really play with any toys so I can't use toys as a training tool either. I am also thinking of putting up caution tape instead of the flags and see if that makes any difference.

She does very well on the runner unless she gets tangled in the trees but I am having shoulder surgery in a couple of weeks and I won’t have two hands to be able to put her on the runner. I also have a training collar I have used again on beep only to try to train for the no bark command. When I beep her she comes running. I may have to use just that. She has quite good recall but not 100% so right after surgery I won't be able to run after her at all. Any other suggestions?

I'm sorry...I've got nothing either. We once had a representative from Invisible Fence come to the house but he couldn't guarantee it would work on high prey dogs (My Jack Russell Terriers), so we scrapped that idea.

She does well on the overhead trolly with the long runner. But the problem is that it requires two hands to put her on it. One to hold her and the other to attach her. When I have my surgery I won't be able to use my right arm at all for probably 6 weeks and afterwards not sure how much I will be allowed to lift with it. If it weren't for the upcoming surgery I would keep things as they are.

Today I put her on the runner but detached it from the overhead line. She seemed to still remember the boundaries of the runner and doesn't get near the flags. I have been giving her treats when she comes to me instead of running after the evil squirrels or the dogs nearby. I think it helps that Riley is her buddy and he doesn't go outside of the flags.

I'll check into clicker training too. She is definitely not the smartest dog I have ever had and the vet seconded that too. LOL

You need someone to come to your home to see what the issue is. Look up a certified trainer in your area since I do not know where you are, I can only direct you to the website for assistance
http://www.ccpdt.org/
I do not know how you first trained Layla to your Inv. fence, usually it's get near flags beep then Shock if she gets to close, the pain is what makes it work, near flags pain, stay away from flags no pain, if you got her use to it "on leash" with you, this is how she learned it; every dog learns things diff sometimes, that first shock she got, it could be, what's called a "single event Learning", dogs can learn from one time if it's traumatic enough to them. I am guessing here cause I am not sure how you got her use to it when you adopted her. I would move the runner so she can maybe have a shorter area but it won't get tangled on trees etc... you can always lengthen it when you recover, this is just to make it easier for you. If your going to be home a leash on her in the house Supervised so she doesn't get tangled of course would help maybe control her better, step on lead so you can use the one hand, (can the lead be attached, left on to runner already for you?) for clipping her to runner? you may have to buy another leash? don't know supplies you have on hand.
I am going to throw this out there: dogs who are nervous/anxious, when they get this way and go to stressing out, release adrenaline (for flight instinct) and cortisol, this shuts down the stomach, so to speak, so in a nut shell she won't take treats cause she is stressed out to the max when you get near flags while on leash, this is where she learned flags are bad, but when she is on roller she didn't not experience this, dogs don't generalize, she doesn't associate one to other. Being what you called a "skittish, timid" dog, she is not a good candidate for shock training, this could very well shut her down, she may freeze or do avoidance body language, (look aways, sniff ground, lick lips, yawn, scratch at herself), these are all calming signals, appeasment signals, plus many more signals so subtle you may see or understand why she's doing them. I am not sure if this is what happened since I was not there and I do not have enough info to "guesstimate" what is happening. I would find a qualified trainer, someone who is Certified' the other place you can find trainers who have a bit more education is http://www.apdt.com/

Hopefully you can see it's not her itelligence in question here, she is timid/skittish, of things most of that comes from either genetics or not socialized in the critical stage of her life that would be BEFORE 16 weeks of age, anything to scare her at this time would hold in her being, if they tried to show her and put her into that crazy world, of dogs and mass of bodies, could have traumatized her. Vet's are not trainers, unless they have Behaviorist education, they only know medical schooling.

She was never trained to the invisible fence before.

The overhead runner is suspended between two trees about 40 feet apart. I have enough trees in the yard that there really isn't a way to put the runner without the possibility of getting tangled.

Right now I bought a doubled ended snap buckle to attach to her harness and then to the end of the runner. I got that because the clip on the runner freezes shut. I may end up just using this clip instead of training her to the fence since the training isn't going very well. I have been trying to use that clip with just one hand to see if I can do it. In the last week I have also unclipped the runner from the overhead line to see how she does with that. The runner is about 30 feet long. She seems to do well with that but did run out of the yard once. She does well with the training collar and I can manually beep/shock her when she goes out of the yard or if she gets close to where the fence is located with that. It is a different collar than used for the fence.

I would love to be able to have a trainer but financially it is out of the question. I haven't worked in a long time and my insurance doesn't pay for everything I will need for the surgery unfortunately. Ebay and craigslist are my friends right now to pay these bills. LOL

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I really appreciate them. We are working right now to see what we can accomplish in the next week.