Fencing Requirements of your dog.

huskymom

The other purpose of this thread is to see what others need from fencing.  Can anyone out there get away with a 4 foot fence?  Is a nice little picket ok for you?  Did you have to build a stone wall to retain your dogs?  Are there other animals that you need to keep out and therefore require a type of fencing that your dogs would otherwise not need?  Who has an Efence and does it work 100% of the time?

With the RRs we MUST havea 6 foot privacy fence.  We had tried the invisible fence but as our pack grew and I seemed to keep more girls it was not a good choice. After all that collar may  keep yourdog in but it will not deter the "handsome stranger" when nature offers an invitation.

I started off with a 4 foot chain link, (it came with the home) , but the dogs would pop over that with impunity. Then when busted simply hop back in. After one of our hurricanes we opted for the privacy fencing. My kids can still jump it if inclined but they are settling for sproinking to allow them to see over the top. 

Sadly there seem to be a LOT of suicidal cats out there and they make zero effort to stay out of my dog filled back yard. Domesticated lions  are not allowed any more than the grander sized ones would be.

Keeping some of the neighbor mutts out of the yard is a priority. I can not understand how they can swear up and down thier love for the scruffy little beast yet turn it out several times a day to "visit" neighbors... not surprizingly I have heard them say keeping thier yard clean is a breeze...after all they all mess in other yards

It is simply a fact of life in hurricane alley , a big wind will bring down your fences snapping the 4x4s as if they were twigs. Between the wind and large trees falling on our fence we need to repair it as much as once a year to keep it looking nice and allow my hounds and grand kids a play space.

Bonita of Bwana

we have an e fence, works really well for us, but we don't have people walking past in view or dogs wandering loose we need to keep out. I don't understand the comments about batteries going dead and letting the dogs out- dogs stay IN because of the training you did, the fence is just a backup. I don't think our dogs have "tested" the fence, ever. I'm pretty sure one of them has never been "corrected" by the fence at all, the training was sufficient for him. You can leave their collars off by accident for days and they don't go wandering. They stop dead right before the boundary even in hot pursuit of a deer or squirrel.

I think that is where I am at with my dogs.......I have 6' chain link and 6' privacy fence.......there is plenty of room to run and they keep each other busy.......even when the loose neighborhood dogs enter up in our yard there is plenty of growling and barking, but jumping up on the fence has stopped completely.

Dog_ma

Thankfully, she almost never thinks it is worth the effort.

huskymom

My dogs lay by the $10 babygate that is falling apart too, but lock them in the porch...forget about it.

Also in agreement with Mudpuppy I have no idea why 'running' out of battery power would mean dogs are free to leave.  They are trained to stay in the boundary without the warning sound or shock.  We had gotten very lazy with B and his collar but then the neighbor's pup kept coming over to play and you could see B wondering how come he wasn't getting zapped, so we are now religious again.

He did get the sound and shock a few times in the first couple of months even with us there.  He just felt the pain was less punishment than the reward of playing with the GR or catching a rabbit.  But from about month 2 or 3 he hasn't tested it.

Just to add when i say we check where he is after a while we just look out the windows.  Bugsy is a silent pooch and he never just lies down in the grass.  So if he is out he is doing something and although he isn't destructive it feels better to know what he's up to

Oh and we don't have strays around here (2 pups once in 4+ yrs) and he's neutered and completely dog friendly and the cats don't come 'round anymore  

mudpuppy

I don't understand the comments about batteries going dead and letting the dogs out- dogs stay IN because of the training you did, the fence is just a backup. I don't think our dogs have "tested" the fence, ever.

cat0

mudpuppy

I don't understand the comments about batteries going dead and letting the dogs out- dogs stay IN because of the training you did, the fence is just a backup. I don't think our dogs have "tested" the fence, ever.

All dogs are not created equal, regardless of breed.  My GSD did not even require a collar for the efence, she knew she was supposed to stay inside and was happy to abide by the rules.  My beagle lived by her nose, not by her brains, and gritted her teeth to try to make it to the other side when she saw a deer, rabbit, squirrel.   Both dogs were trained at the same time and were of similar age.

I have to agree with cat0 on this one.  Crusher is trained on a remote collar for off leash time.  But I have to keep the batteries fresh.  He listens well on it and I still haven't stopped with the training aspect of it enough to trust it 100% of the time.  He tests it EVERY time we are out. The one we have has a fault in it whereby if he gets out of range it will trip it and then it won't work, I have to call him back and reset it.  We really need a new one, but he knows this.  He will systematically find obstacles to go around or something to duck down into, and them come back out, look at me, and bolt.  He's very clever about it.  Sometimes he just edges slowly out of range looking at me the entire time.  So remote time is on hold until we get a new collar.  I can't help but think that he would do the same thing with an Efence.  I'm positive he would test it everyday.  Onyx...well she would be another story.  I'd have to show it to her everyday.  She forgets things...

Our dogs have a great respect for boundaries. We have a 5 foot chain link fence around the back yard. The dogs never try to get out. They don't climb. They do dig, but just for fun or to get cool.

The large outer area is surrounded by 4 foot field fencing. They are rarely out there alone and then, only for a few minutes. They don't try to get out. The front yard has a very short rock wall along one side and B'asia has been known to pop over that, but only when one of us were on the other side.

In the house, we have 36 inch gates we use for special occasions.  

What is a security fence?  

I have a 6 ft. privacy fence around the yard and Max has never tried to go over it or under it.  I really need to replace that spring lock thingy on the gate so it will just close by itself and I won't need to worry about someone leaving it open accidentally. If the gate is open, he will try to sneak off.

Joyce

mudpuppy

we have an e fence, works really well for us, but we don't have people walking past in view or dogs wandering loose we need to keep out. I don't understand the comments about batteries going dead and letting the dogs out- dogs stay IN because of the training you did, the fence is just a backup. I don't think our dogs have "tested" the fence, ever. I'm pretty sure one of them has never been "corrected" by the fence at all, the training was sufficient for him. You can leave their collars off by accident for days and they don't go wandering. They stop dead right before the boundary even in hot pursuit of a deer or squirrel.

We have an e-fence as well covers 3 acres of property.  I don't think anyone of my dogs have tested it in over 3 years.  Each on of them maybe was corrected once or twice in the beginning.   Training is key!  Train them their boundary and then they won't test them.  As for the batteries, I agree that is not a cause for alarm.  I have had my fence malfunction and it took a couple of days to have it fixed and my dogs never even tried.  They don't know if its working or not because they don't push the boundary.  I let my dogs without their collars at times and they don't go near it.  My Catahoula will chase the deer, turkeys or chickens until the boundary and then stop.  Non of my dogs run the boundary lines either, I don't allow it - if I catch them doing it I call them in and stop it.  It's not a good practice.  If you have a dog that is pushing the boundary with an e-fence and you think they will push over it at the first sign of no warning beeps then you need to go back to the training and make it solid.  Even though I take off their collars when its time for a walk, I can't get my dogs to even walk past the border with me.  They stop dead in their tracks.  When we are going for a walk on the road we need to put them all in the car and drive out to the end of the drive way and then let them out and go for our walk.  They willing walk "into" the yard but never out and over their said boundary.  Which is a good thing, I don't push it.  I would rather them know that under NO CIRCUMSTANCE are they to pass it.

We also don't live where there is a lot dogs walking or running around free, being in the sticks.  But we have plenty of wild life that provokes the prey side and it contains them wonderfully and has for years.

 What do you have to do to train your dog to stay in the Efence?  And how long does it take on average, say for a dog that just thinks its another thing to figure out?

It's been a while, but this is how I remember teaching the dogs 1) where the fence line is on the entire property and 2) how to get back to his safe zone so he doesn't run INTO the field to escape the zap. 

First week or so is on-leash.  You put flags every couple of feet on the fence line.  Allow him to wander into the field, get zapped, and call/pull him out to safety.   You have to make sure he understands the direction to go into to get back to his safe zone.  Then he knows the flags are to be kept away from and ideally he will not venture that close again (but they'll probably do it again).  You have to walk the entire line so they understand where it is.  Eventually (2nd week or so) you supervise off-leash and make sure all is well.  If not you go back to on-leash.  When you think you have that part down, you remove every other flag, and keep doing that every few days until they are all gone (I never did pull up all my flags because half of them were in the woods).   You (hopefully) end up with a dog that knows the limit and lives within it. 

GSD understood it all immediately.  I dragged it out over many weeks because of my beagle who understood it but chose to defy it anyway when she saw something better on the other side.  It was a matter of making the field big and strong enough to keep her in.  Just like picket fences, it's not for every dog.  The company told me that labs were a tough dog to keep in.  No mention of huskies.

You line the fence with flags so they have a visible marker.  You put a rubber covering over the pins on the collar, this way they only hear the beep and can't get the charge.  You start by walking you dog along the flag line and if he happens to close and the collar beeps you run them INTO the yard as fast as you can.  You continue to do this for at least three weeks.  With my Pug and Swissy they caught on quickly and when they heard the beep they would run in on there on after only a few sessions.  It is important to reinforce the beep=run INTO the yard.  Our training told us to be frantic about it, like wholly crap the monsters are coming RUN with every beep.  Then you move to distractions while they are still on leash and still not able to get shocked.  We planted my DH outside the fence line with a flag in his hand and I walked the dog.  As soon as the dog approached the fence my DH would say ett ett and wave the flag, if the beep went off I would run him into the yard.  Once we felt confident that the dogs would run into the yard and not through the fence we removed the rubber protectors so he would get the correction if he didn't respond to the beep.  Although you do not coax the dogs to the fence and a correction you want to set him up with a distraction on the other side of the fence.  We again used my husband with a flag in hand.  I had a long lead on them and let them roam freely by the fence.  My DH walked over the fence and without talking to the dogs, calling them or luring them in anyway he nonchalantly walked on the other side of the fence.  If the dog seemed interested in following he would waive the the flag.  The first couple of time neither dog got corrected, they both retreated at the beep.  After a day or so each one of them did end up with a correction and they did exactly what they were trained to do - run back INTO the yard.  After that they never tried again.

Then you begin letting the dogs run free supervised.  As you gain faith in them you give them more and more outside freedom supervised.  Once you feel they are trained you start to remove the flags.  Every other flag at first, then the next week every other flag and so on until they are all gone.  The flags in our wooded area are still up, we just didn't care to remover them.  In total we probably didn't feel confident for a couple of months and then gradually they got more and more unsupervised time outside.  It took awhile before I felt safe a night when I couldn't see them.  And although they did nothing for me to worry I would constantly look out the window for them for quite some time. 

Remember, e fences do not keep stray dogs out, bad people etc.  So I never allow my dogs out when I am not home.  Today was a beautiful day and our dogs were outside all day!  They love it but I don't let to much time go by without checking on them and making sure I know where they are.   My dogs will bark if a car comes down our drive or someone walks by and theat of course alerts me to check out the situation.  For example my mailman came down the drive today to deliver a package - they are good watch dogs too. I also like that so when my 6 year old is outside playing the dogs are out too, this way I know if a bear or stranger came on the property I will know immediatly.

 How's the Efence under 3 feet of snow?

huskymom

I'm a little curious about how she(and Crusher for that matter) will react when they can't see exactly what is on the other side of the fence. 

I have seen lots of solid wood fences with little mesh or screen "windows" at doggie eye height.

mollymoo

If you are thinking about a underground fence you really have to make sure the batteries are good at all times. I have a friend in town here that has one and they have a problem with the two dogs running around town because the batteries are always going dead.

LOL!!  Some bright dogs figure out that, if they sit close to the fence (close enough to make it beep, but not close enough to get shocked), they can run down the battery and deactivate the fence.  This is particularly true of primitive breeds whose close ancestors depended on their wits to survive.