My hubby & I actually did try using shock collars for our dogs. I just want to say right off the bat that I was highly against it since I don't believe in teaching dogs through violence or pain, and I'm always the empathetic "soft" one that has a hard time even raising my voice at my dogs. We got the electric fence out of desperation, but in the end it didn't work and actually ended up backfiring on us, so I don't recommend using one.
We were having a hard time keeping our dogs (a 2-yr-old American Bulldog and a 9 yr-old Boxer/Pit mix) in the yard, even though we had a decent sized yard with a 6-foot privacy fence all around. They are both extremely smart, athletic, and adventurous and just wanted to RUN all the time. Sammy (our Boxer) actually hoisted herself up and over the fence, and Poe (our Bulldog) dug underneath. They ended up getting picked up by the cops and taken to the pound a couple times, so we really had to come up with a way to keep them in the yard. I didn't want to use a lead because then the dogs couldn't run around and play and wrestle like they were used to, so we figured if we could train them with the electric fence it would be the best of both worlds.
Well it turned out that Sammy was super sensitive to even the lowest amount of electricity (Poe would just run straight through no matter how strong it was set) and became scared to go outside. She ended up refusing to go outside even just to go to the bathroom and would just go in the basement instead. So, that was totally our fault and we ditched the electric fence.
Eventually Sammy went back outside and we just had to keep them on leads. 
I know many of you are probably thinking that the dogs just needed to be taken out for more walks and exercised, but we would take them out for at least 2 walks/day and I would take them running at least 3-4 times/week. I think both of these breeds would benefit from having acres upon acres of land to just run to their hearts content, but sadly that is not a financial possibility right now.
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