dog fence

Recently, this subject has been on my mind a lot. What kind of fencing will contain the dogs without being so expensive that i have to sell a testicle?

My tentative plans include lots of fencing for paddocks. I would like for them to be able to run through the garden between plantings so that they can catch the mice hiding in the mulch for example.

They are good diggers and good jumpers. They are REALLY good at breaking s***. I imagine them chewing through anything less than dog-kennel grade mesh, digging under anything more shallow than a foot or two, and chewing up/knocking over anything less than metal.

I found suggestions on google including: split rail with kennel mesh (whatever its called), living fences and all-out galvanized fence with concrete underneath. Split rail would have to be so over-constructed to contain them that it wouldn't be practical in terms of money or labor. Living fences would take 3 years at least (using osage orange) and even then i'm not confident it would contain dogs that are bred to run through/under thick brush on a hunt. The last one costs something like 7$ or more per foot.

Before going for pricey options, I would play around with electric fence. I've successfully kept deer out and goats in with single-strand, baited wires, for instance. Surely deer and goats are just as stubborn and as smart as most dogs.....

Alder Burns wrote:Before going for pricey options, I would play around with electric fence. I've successfully kept deer out and goats in with single-strand, baited wires, for instance. Surely deer and goats are just as stubborn and as smart as most dogs.....

That sounds very practical. I will look into that.

Second the electric fence. Keeps my dogs and livestock in, and the dogs keep the predators out.

I bait the line with foil and peanut butter. This way they know exactly where the shock is coming from. My bitch was never bait trained and I swear she thinks the shock comes from me, not the fence. She regularly chases mice nose first into the hot line.

After trying lots of tools, I have found a good electronic dog fence which is helping me a lot now...  That is sportdog brand invisivile dog fence... You can read more about here..
http://www.thepetgod.com/best-underground-dog-fences-for-your-yard/

No good news from me. I tried the electric route and found that my dogs could not get the shock because of their coats. Even with extra long prongs on the collar or the hotwire on they never reacted, but they have much insulation. I tried the best friend fence which is pretty reasonable in price if you are doing a large space, but found that the deer would jump on it and tear it down. Ultimately I went for the large stock panels, but for smaller dogs this is probably overkill.

https://www.bestfriendfence.com/

The invisible dog fencing can work very well, but you have to be willing to keep increasing the shock intensity until you find the level the dogs will not ignore.
One of my neighbors tried the invisible fence but didn't set the shock high enough and his dogs got to the point of just running through it.
Once he increased the shock intensity high enough, they would stop for a while but eventually they again started just running through the shock.

I think the best method is to take the time to train your dogs so they know where it is ok to run and where to stop.
We had to do that since they will jump the fence we have around the one acre "yard".
Our dogs know the land perimeter and that is where they usually stop, unless they are after a rabbit, deer, coon, opossum or fox.
Once they are on the chase, they only stop when they catch the prey or it gets away by exhausting the dogs.
Fortunately all the people in our area know our dogs and they don't seem to bother their livestock.

Redhawk

Bryant RedHawk wrote:The invisible dog fencing can work very well, but you have to be willing to keep increasing the shock intensity until you find the level the dogs will not ignore.
One of my neighbors tried the invisible fence but didn't set the shock high enough and his dogs got to the point of just running through it.
Once he increased the shock intensity high enough, they would stop for a while but eventually they again started just running through the shock.

I was very involved with rescue for many years and NO ONE would place dogs in a home with just an invisible fence --  it was considered the same as not having a fence at all.

Most med-large dogs, especially those with a high prey drive, will run right through an invisible fence without giving it a second thought especially if there is something on the OTHER SIDE that they want (i.e. a squirrel, another dog, mail man etc...) Other issue is it does not prevent strange dogs from coming into the yard.

Though invisible fences often do work very well when combined with a physical fence (to prevent digging under, jumping over etc...). The "goat" type wire fencing is fairly inexpensive and will hold in even most smaller dogs.

I think sheep fence is the best alternative. There is no current to try to maintain, you put it up once and its last for 30 years, it contains all livestock, my dog does not get out, and coyotes and whatnot cannot get in. And it is pretty cheap too. $179 for 330 feet.

The beauty of the stuff is that it is knotted wire, not welded wire. Welded wire might be okay for dogs, but not livestock and their sharp hooves. I have also found the severe cold breaks the welded wire fence, which is why it is so cheap.

Calculated over its 30 year lifespan, sheep fence, also called Page Wire fencing, also called Field Fencing, is the cheapest fence there is.

I have been breeding Dachshunds for 15 years now and have tried lots of different fencing.
What works for me is 4x4 posts with 2x6 runners and horse panels buried 12 inches.

I know this sounds like a lot for Dachshunds but it is as much to keep free roaming neighborhood dogs out as it is to keep mine in.

Our fence looks like it could be in a prison yard we did so much. I finally gave up and put electric horse fence at the top and bottom. Problem solved. That's what I'd say. A line of electric at the top, a line of electric at the bottom and they'll stand a foot away from the fence in fear. That's what our great pyr does.

A timely bumping of this thread.  My wife is installing the invisible fence system for our LGD's.  The property is already lined with cattle panels (4' tall) with an extra line of electric across the top of the posts.  This works well for much of the year, but we already had that one good blizzard that has buried about 1/3 of the fencing under 6 - 8 ft drifting.  Dogs merrily run across the top of the drifts to the areas that are unprotected....and then wander at will.  Being in the land of 'shoot, shovel, and silence', it would not be surprising to have them disappear for good under these circumstances.  So the invisible fence will be activated for the first time this weekend (wire is just running over the snow around the perimeter of the property).  The collar prongs should be fine with 2 of the 3 dogs; -- the third one has a pretty thick coat and we will have to see how that goes, especially since he is more the leader of the wandering behavior.  Not a desired solution, but possibly a necessary one.

John Weiland wrote:A timely bumping of this thread.  My wife is installing the invisible fence system for our LGD's.  The property is already lined with cattle panels (4' tall) with an extra line of electric across the top of the posts.  This works well for much of the year, but we already had that one good blizzard that has buried about 1/3 of the fencing under 6 - 8 ft drifting.  Dogs merrily run across the top of the drifts to the areas that are unprotected....and then wander at will.  Being in the land of 'shoot, shovel, and silence', it would not be surprising to have them disappear for good under these circumstances.  So the invisible fence will be activated for the first time this weekend (wire is just running over the snow around the perimeter of the property).  The collar prongs should be fine with 2 of the 3 dogs; -- the third one has a pretty thick coat and we will have to see how that goes, especially since he is more the leader of the wandering behavior.  Not a desired solution, but possibly a necessary one.

My wife has huskies.  To save money, the back of their kennel is hog or calf panels, 2 high.  The rest of the kennel is 2nd-hand chain-link kennel sections, which the huskies do sometimes chew through (or get close to, so I have to reinforce).  The hog panels might not work for smaller dogs - the huskies can fit their heads through.  But the huskies total enclosure is only 30' by 60'.  Each has a 10'x10' "home" kennel that they eat in an are confined to at night, during the day, all doors are opened up and they go into the main run and each other's "homes" as desired.  "home" kennels are cement on bottom, rest of the enclosure is dirt with rocks along the fence (periodically need to adjust rocks to account for digging)

The LGD is SUPPOSED to keep coyotes out, but he would rather chase deer.  We also live in "Shoot, shovel, shut up" land, and neighbor kindly brought him back last year the day before deer season with a reminder that he doesn't generally bring them home twice.   So... we're in a bind with what to do with him.  He's got a chain at night and spends much of the day with the huskies... but he can't really do his job there.  We can't really fence the property - we have 8 acres, but he's suppose to guard our livestock on the leased property  - so like a total of 40 acres.  We've thought about looking into GPS based shock collars, but we have a shock training collar that works fine when he's not on the chase, but doesn't stop him when he sees a deer.  We're not really sure it would work.  I try to have him out with me when I do chores, but he still runs off sometimes.  Not sure I'll get a LGD again in the future.

Thomas Dean wrote:

John Weiland wrote:A timely bumping of this thread.  My wife is installing the invisible fence system for our LGD's.  The property is already lined with cattle panels (4' tall) with an extra line of electric across the top of the posts.  This works well for much of the year, but we already had that one good blizzard that has buried about 1/3 of the fencing under 6 - 8 ft drifting.  Dogs merrily run across the top of the drifts to the areas that are unprotected....and then wander at will.  Being in the land of 'shoot, shovel, and silence', it would not be surprising to have them disappear for good under these circumstances.  So the invisible fence will be activated for the first time this weekend (wire is just running over the snow around the perimeter of the property).  The collar prongs should be fine with 2 of the 3 dogs; -- the third one has a pretty thick coat and we will have to see how that goes, especially since he is more the leader of the wandering behavior.  Not a desired solution, but possibly a necessary one.

My wife has huskies.  To save money, the back of their kennel is hog or calf panels, 2 high.  The rest of the kennel is 2nd-hand chain-link kennel sections, which the huskies do sometimes chew through (or get close to, so I have to reinforce).  The hog panels might not work for smaller dogs - the huskies can fit their heads through.  But the huskies total enclosure is only 30' by 60'.  Each has a 10'x10' "home" kennel that they eat in an are confined to at night, during the day, all doors are opened up and they go into the main run and each other's "homes" as desired.  "home" kennels are cement on bottom, rest of the enclosure is dirt with rocks along the fence (periodically need to adjust rocks to account for digging)

The LGD is SUPPOSED to keep coyotes out, but he would rather chase deer.  We also live in "Shoot, shovel, shut up" land, and neighbor kindly brought him back last year the day before deer season with a reminder that he doesn't generally bring them home twice.   So... we're in a bind with what to do with him.  He's got a chain at night and spends much of the day with the huskies... but he can't really do his job there.  We can't really fence the property - we have 8 acres, but he's suppose to guard our livestock on the leased property  - so like a total of 40 acres.  We've thought about looking into GPS based shock collars, but we have a shock training collar that works fine when he's not on the chase, but doesn't stop him when he sees a deer.  We're not really sure it would work.  I try to have him out with me when I do chores, but he still runs off sometimes.  Not sure I'll get a LGD again in the future.

I hope you don't judge all LGDs by the one you have now.  Mine doesn't chase anything for any distance. She will chase things 50 yards or so. If she catches whatever it is she is chasing, she kills it. If it runs farther than that, she comes back home to guard. She has very low pretty drive, but is vey territorial.  She doesn't chase my cats or chickens at all, but I pity any creature that comes into her area that doesn't belong.  Not all LGDs act as you describe yours doing.

LGD are supposed to stay put if they don't then they are not trained well enough and you have a pet.

Training and bonding with the specific type of animal they are to protect is needed. They are not supposed to be your buddy when you are out doing chores they are supposed to live eat and sleep with their animal full time.

In the end not all dogs can be a LGD, even if it is from good lines. Try again and buy from a good breeder that can prove that thier dogs are doing thier jobs. Yes you will pay but look at it as how much you will save in lost animals and frustration.

Curt Hettman wrote:LGD are supposed to stay put if they don't then they are not trained well enough and you have a pet.

Training and bonding with the specific type of animal they are to protect is needed. They are not supposed to be your buddy when you are out doing chores they are supposed to live eat and sleep with their animal full time.

In the end not all dogs can be a LGD, even if it is from good lines. Try again and buy from a good breeder that can prove that thier dogs are doing thier jobs. Yes you will pay but look at it as how much you will save in lost animals and frustration.

There seem to be two schools of thought with regards to this.  I'm of the other one  My LGD is very much my "buddy".  I take her with me when I'm walking in the woods, when I go to the store, I bring her in the house part of the time...  I haven't noticed any adverse effects on her ability or willingness to guard our family or our animals.  My own opinion is that LGDs are perfectly capable of including humans and animals into their family, and can maintain their ability to guard and bond with both.

Good thread all. I agree with Trace and Travis on their points.

My Pyrenees akbash especially needs to be fenced because he is unfixed (need a stud?). We are in the process of moving onto a new 25 acre property, and plan to fence off the acre around the house to keep him in and deer out of our zone 1-2 garden. He will also protect chickens and ducks that will mostly be in a deep bedding run in one corner of the fenced in area. He has jumped a 6ft wooden fence at our old place when our neighbor has baby goats bleating bloody murder on their first night away from home. He was born with goats and sheep, and was found laying placidly by their paddock, goats calmed. He’s older though now (5yrs) and hasn’t shown the desire to get out even when a husky we fostered dismantled the fence systematically. He is great with animals and people, and probably knows 100 words and dozens of people’s names that he will go to if directed, but he is a lover and is dumb as fuck with vehicles. One time when protecting his cat from the husky though, he amazingly came away from a 25mph collision with an f250 with just some bruises, going off after for a 9hr stroll as we frantically looked for him, only to return on his own. Not something we want to chance again, and we are also in shoot shovel shut up, and dog thieving country.

My plan is a 700ft run of 6ft field fence (.60$/ft), with salvaged old growth redwood and site sourced cedar corner posts (6”x9ft+) with Hbraces, and tee posts for straight runs. He does not dig to get out of our current place, only to den (7ft tunnels under our giant stumps await the mate he’s been waiting for). I plan to use rocks not concrete for post holes, as we did in Pinnacles National Monument when I was on the trail and fence (for Ferrell pigs) crew there. I will also likely have to do rock jack posts (circular caged rock piles) where we cannot dig in the posts deep enough. I am hoping to get this all done for less than 1500$, and since I found the old growth to salvage I am optimistic. I want the fence to double as a trellis, so I do not plan to electrify it.

After reading the posts, my concern is the size of whole the squares create.  The fence we are using is a 13-48-6 where the top two squares are 6"x6". We have a Anatolian Shepard that has a head about 6" wide.  Has anyone had issues with their dogs head getting stuck in the fence?  I assume that they will learn pretty fast after the first time or two not to stick their head in the fence?