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How an Electric Fence Works (page 2 of 2) In both these cases, something must be done to remedy the situation or the electric fence won't work. One's first impulse is to get a more powerful electric fence charger or perhaps increase the number of electric fence ground rods. However, these are not ideal remedies. They may improve matters, but they don't get to the heart of the trouble. The best answer, and the only one if the trouble is really bad, is to replace the absent or frozen soil moisture with something else. Suppose, for example, that you string another conductor on the fence that is 6 inches to a foot away from some charged conductor. This conductor, however, is not charged, because it is not connected to the charger's positive terminal. Instead it is connected to the charger's negative terminal, and things are arranged so that it does not touch any active conductor. Then, when the animal comes along and touches the active and inactive wires at the same time it gets a shock—with the charge passing from the active wire through the animal to the negative wire and over to the charger's negative terminal, thereby completing the circuit. This elegant solution is not offered in our one-wire and three-wire kits (see About Our Kits), because these kits are designed to protect garden or landscaped areas with electric fences where the ground is fairly moist most of the time. However, our six-wire high-tensile kits (see About Our Six-Wire Kits), directed mainly at protecting agricultural areas (vineyards, orchards, etc.), do employ this electric fencing solution because they must commonly operate in regions with dry ground. A schematic corner drawing of the one-wire kit is provided at the top of the preceding page, and a comparable drawing of the six-wire kit appears below. 
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