Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs.

   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs. #1  

dmccarty

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Triangle Of North Carolina
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All of the fence discussions focused my thinking on what kind of fence(s) we are going to need at our place. Our house should be done in November and we have two requirements for fences.

The most immediate requirement is to keep our dog in on the house lot. The one dog will eventually be multiple dogs. Our first thought was to use mesh fencing but that is expensive. If we where only going to put in a dog run that would be one thng but we want to fence in 5-6 acres. We want the dog(s) to be able to run around the entire house to provide security. Given that requirement and the lay of the land we are looking to fence in a good bit of land.

Since that much land means that much more money I was thinking of using HT fencing. Kelly does not challenge the chain link fence we have now and she could easily jump over the four feet tall fence if she wanted. Soooo, I'm guessing HT would work with her. Whether it will work with The Dogs To Come is another question only time will tell. If we had a problem with the dogs getting through the fence we figured we could put in an electrical wire right next to the HT fence.

Has anyone tried to keep dogs in with a HT fence?

The portion of the fence that will be seen at the road and from our house we are going to "cover" with shrubs. We will plant a bush on each side of each post so that in a few years the post will be invisible. The enitre length of some fence lines will have this double or a single row of plantings to hide the fence. The HT fence should be easier to "hide".

The other reason for using the HT fence is that we have a mile of property line we will almost certainly have to fence in at some point. This is to keep the ATVers and tresspassers off the land. I don't want to put up the fence but these bozos have got to go and I can't have them poaching on our land.

Later,
Dan
 
   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs. #2  
Have you considered "invisible fencing?" It doesn't take long for most dogs to learn the boundary -- and even after removing their shock collar, they won't even try and cross the line. The guy across from my property has 5 acres and has that type of fencing installed -- his two dogs haven't worn their collars in years, yet when they are outside and see me, they run down their driveway and stop about 50 feet from the road. I guess Pavlov's Theory still holds true today. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs. #3  
Gatorboy hit the nail on the head with that one. It may/may not seem harsh/cruel to some but the end results are priceless.
 
   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs.
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Yep, we have considered the invisible fence. We have not had collars on our dogs due to the 4 foot high fence we currently have in our yard. The old neighbors had kids and they would pet the dogs by encouraging them to hop up on the fence so we kept the collars off so the dogs would not choke themselves on the fence. I don't like collars anyway. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But we might be stuck with them if we use the HT fence since the dog(s) could get out. Now my dog has a chip implant so she should be returned if the pound gets her. But you never know. So that is a long winded way of putting a point in the No Shock Collar column.

One of our previous dogs had an invisible fence but it did not hold her in the yard. The collar would beep when the dog got close to the fence. She figured out the if the collar did not beep she was good to go through the fence.... So she would run the peremeter of the fence to get the collar to beep. She would stay out of the zone that would get her zapped. Once the collar stopped beeping, i.e., the battery was dead, off she went through the fence. She went through a couple of batteries in a couple of days before she was seen performing her escape preparations.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

An electric fence was put in that solved the problem. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Our current dog is smarter than old Chase but don't tell my wife I said so. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

We also need a real fence to keep out the deer. The chiggers and ticks are awefull at our place. There are so many deer that ticks and chiggers have a field day on them. Deer removal should start this year. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif But I can only put a dent in the deer population. I know the deer can and likely will hop the fence but Kelly will chase them back out. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif She will LOVE that job. We are hoping that this will keep the chiggers and tick out of our space and off the us and the kids.

So the shock collars are down on the list but they are there. We would be more inclined to put in an electric fence about a 6-12 inches on the inside of the HT fence to keep the dogs from getting to the fence. That way the won't have to wear collars.

Later,
Dan
 
   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs. #5  
I guess I'm feeling a unusually dense and thick today, and I'll probably kick myself when I hear the answer, but what is HT fence?
 
   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs. #7  
I grew up in the East Bay of Northern California where everyone lived just about on top of each other. One thing I enjoyed was having the dogs out in the front yard with me.

At first I had to watch them real close. Whenever they crossed the sidewalk or the neighors property line I'd give them a good swat. You'd be suprised how quickly they learn the boundries.

I live on allot of land now in Texas and as of yet don't have a singel fence. My two dogs are chow/lab mixes. They say the chow is the most dificult dog to train out there. This could be true or not, I don't really know.

They will not even come close to the gates. I swatted them a few times and they got the message. They are never locked up, or allowed inside. They also know to stop at the doorway.

Disipline is for their own good, and when they learn the rules, they live a happier life.

I doubt this will apply to your situation, I just bring it up to offer another option to trying to fence in animals that can climb, dig, jump and wiggle through just about any fence in time.

Good luck with your project and please include photo's.


Eddie
 
   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs. #8  
Discipline is for their own good. HOW TRUE. I wish we would apply that to humans, too.
 
   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs.
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Eddie,

Yep the discipline works. Kelly knows the current boundries at our city house and she stays in them. I don't have to swap her at all. She is the smartest dog that has every owned me. I really should have named her Loyalty...

I don't THINK we will have a problem with her at the new place. My bigger worry is when we get puppies and wife is invovled with the local Golden rescue group. I'm sure we will be fostering dogs again in the near future. For fosters and new dogs we just might have to build a kennel to keep them out of trouble. I would prefer not to but it might happen. Many of the fosters we have had have had issues that might require a kennel when we are not home.

Later,
Dan
 
   / Yet Another Fence Question: Keeping in the dogs.
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Don,

Good article. I'll have to print this out. I knew I could power the HT fence and after reading or rereading that link I'll just build the fence with a few strands that can be powered. Might work for two legged critters as well..... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks,
Dan
 
 
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