My boy has bolted into the busy street to make friends with a dog he saw, and has bolted toward it the few times he's gotten the slip on me. I am very concerned for his safety and cannot build a regular fence because we rent. He uses a lead right now, but he's getting WAY bigger than the shelter estimated (7 months and already outgrew his large crate) and I bet anything he'll pull the stake right out someday. I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried in-grounds and if they're really humane/worth it for keeping the dog safe? I've always been under the impression that shock collars were bad, but I'm starting to think in this case it might save his life. Any other suggestions if not?

You'll get very mixed reviews on e-collars here.  Some think they're great, some can't stand them. Like anything else, they're a tool that can work when you know how and when to use then.

As far as the in-ground fences go, we have people (well, one comes to mind immediately) who use them.  The biggest problem with them is the average Husky can go through them when in prey mode and then can't figure out how to get back through to home when it's all calmed down.  

Stakes, well, I have my own thoughts on them but have used them in the past - I found the very best stake is an old fashioned trailer anchor. See this one from Lowes if you don't know what I'm talking about.  I had a friend cut off the top and weld a circular plate to the top so my pup couldn't hurt herself on it.  I have two problems with the small stakes (screw in type): 1) They aren't going to hold a Husky who wants to get away  2) I was in my vets when a fellow brought in his dog who had impaled itself on the top of the stake (hence my reworking the top of my stake).

I'm open to anything. His problem with the stake right now is that he sometimes gets zoomies (even when exercised) and he has gotten tangled and slammed into the mud at full force twice now. Funny to watch, but won't be funny when he hits pavement or injures a leg. :/

I use invisible fence with great success with 2 huskies. The trick is training them what to do when they hear the warning beep before the correction. I've had deer run through the yard with dogs in hot pursuit, bear in my bee yard, dogs in the street and my two stay contained. Search invisible fence here and you will find several discussions

Huskies are a tricky breed in this (and many other) areas.

Spikes can be dangerous, weak, and can cause entanglements. For a calm or less active breed, they might work, but for Huskies they can be problematic. If you take the proper precautions, and you make sure things are safe, then it may work for you.

Invisible fences again can be great, or problematic. A lot depends on your training effort with the dog. We had a dog that was a constant problem as an escape artist. No amount of effort on our part could contain the dog (short of crating which we don't like for long periods of time). He never caused a problem when he got out, and he always came back, but it was concerning. We did the invisible fence thing, trained him well, and he got it. It worked! Until one day when his prey instinct kicked in, and he vaulted over a 6 foot fence to chase a cat. He got zapped, got scared, vaulted the fence to get back to safety and got zapped again. It took a couple weeks of intense work to undue the psychological damage caused by that incident. Ultimately it did teach him not to do that, and he no longer needed the collar/fence, and it was better than him getting run over by a car, but it was a pretty inhumane way to learn the lesson.

With huskies though, you have to keep in mind that they are very independent and each have their own personalities. 1 person with 1 husky may find something that works, but a different dog, or a different person, and that same solution may no longer work.

With the in-ground fences it comes down to your dog's level of motivation and determination. I grew up with a Weimaraner (a dog that is practically hairless) that would run through the in-ground fence no matter what setting you have it on. Fast forward several years and I bought a petsafe wireless system, no wires to dig into the ground, and we have had good luck with it. It is currently containing 3 dogs ranging in weight from 40 pounds to 120 pounds. The difference with this system in that it bites them the whole time they pass over the line and not just for the instant they are on top of the line. It will bite for 45 second solid or until they pass back into their safe zone. And if/when you decide to move you just unplug it and take it with you. Being in a rental house was why I opted for this system in the first place. We bought a house after the rental and now have a real fence, but my parents are using the wireless system on their farm where there is a ton of stimulus and it's worked great.

The difference for me between using an e-collar and an electric fence is timing and training. While both you have to do proper training with the fence shock is always going to be properly timed. It doesn't rely on you just knowing when you should push the button. If you are a hair early or late on a manual e-collar you can undo a lot of training or not train at all and instead instill fear in your dog. Much more responsibility on your part to learn the ways of an e-collar than a fence collar. Very effective in the right hands but you have to make sure your hands are right.

How the heck do you set a boundary on a wireless fence? Do you program it to allow them to go x amount of distance in each direction? Kinda surprised that wouldn't fault out.

Depends on how expensive one you buy. The one I had did a circle x number of feet from the hub unit. The only time I have heard of them having issues is when you run them out to the full distance on really hilly terrain. Or if you have a metal roof on the building you house the hub unit in. The one I had covered an acre. I think there are more expensive ones out now that you might be able to set certain side lengths. I bought mine 4 years ago. Still somewhat new technology then and haven't kept up on how far they have come since.

The concept is that the hub sends out a signal. As long as the collar can see that signal the collar is silent. Once the signal gets weak it beeps, and once the signal is gone (they get out of the set boundary range) the collar bites until it gets signal again, or it goes over it's set time to bite, which is usually around 45 second.

We use the PetSafe wireless fence and have had zero issues with Suka going through it.  When we set it up we took the collar around until it beeped and set up all of our flags. The perimeter is a circle and ours goes up to an acre.  We followed the directions for training her with the collar on for the specified amount of time(I think it was two weeks).  Then we removed the flags slowly and she knows exactly how far she can go.  We live way out in the boonies and always have deer, rabbits, turkeys and sometime even coyotes come through our yard and she has never crossed the line to go after anything.  Our yard is a little over three acres and way to expensive to fence in so this system is perfect for us.

I don't think wireless would work for us, as we are in a duplex with a long front yard and short backyard. That's very cool, though.