Fencing

[SoCrafty]

DH and I are considering fencing in our entire property (it is a fairly big lot). We can't decide whether to do chain link or "pasture fencing" (three or four boards, with chicken wire), and what height. I don't want a privacy fence because I love the nature around us and don't want to block the view. They are equal in pricing. My Mother also put into my head about the possibility of someone stealing Addie. We live in a rural area, with 4 neighbors anywhere remotely close to us. So, I don't know how I feel about that.

So, tell me what is good, and what is bad. Do you have fencing? Wish you had a different kind? Doggie door? Ever leave your dog unattended outside?

 

[EnriquesPlace]

I've got a privacy fence around my backyard. We love it, and the dogs love having the ability to run around outside. We have one of the PetSafe sliding glass doggy doors, and that's worked out pretty well. Weatherproofing was a hassle, but other than that no complaints.

I'd be careful leaving your dog unattended outside, though. Our chihuahua escaped from the yard one day (we got him back...a week later...), and some neighbor kids were harassing our dally, to the point where he now hates kids. We only let them out when my wife and I are home, now.

 

[Liminal]

I have a fairly large back yard that was partially fenced with wood when I moved in. I completed the fencing with deer netting, because it was most affordable. It is relatively fragile but it gives us a great place to play and train and let our guard down, and with training I have become comfortable allowing Index out without immediate supervision - albeit absolutely not when I am not home. He is respectful of the boundary and knows better than to jump up onto the fence so long as he's not overly excited - but if he does get overly excited he inevitably vocalizes about whatever's stirring him up and will sooner come tearing through the house to get a better view out the front window than try to go through the netting, so if he's that upset I always have advance warning. I just leave the door open and keep an ear out. I might get a dog door this winter.

I do wish I had a privacy fence, but mostly for privacy reasons.

 

[release the hounds]

what's the fencing for? I wouldn't do 4 acres of fencing to keep a dog in. If I wanted to just let the dogs out and not be with them, I'd put in a smaller dog run area. If I wanted something for a perimeter boundary, I'd use a pasture type fence but skip the wire for a decorative or ranch style look.

I'd probably be more inclined to use natural stuff like wildflowers/grasses, trees, or shrubs. Something that clearly defines the boundary. Of course i'm not depending on any of these to keep my dogs in or others out. simply a boundary so they know. I'm out with them all the time anyway. I never depend on a fence to keep my dogs "in" even when training and if they aren't trained enough to out offleash and free they aren't free.

eta: i don't know where I got 4 acres from, I obviously misread something.

 

[Beanie]

Two sides of my yard are fenced with chain link. One side I re-did with 6 foot privacy fencing and then ran four foot from the house back to the garage. From privacy fence to side of the garage is chain link I put up. Effectively I have a "potty yard" where the house opens directly into, and the chain link separates off the "agility yard."

I plan to take down the other side of chain link and replace it with privacy fencing also. The neighbours have a kid and while I like them and their son is respectful, he has two friends who come over - sometimes when my neighbours aren't even at home - and they climb all over my fence, shaking it and pulling it, no matter how many times I have told them please DO NOT hang on my fence... and they yell and scream and are general obnoxious every time I have the dogs out to work. The fence is actually getting torn up. My neighbour also keeps running into it with his mower and tearing it up that way too. *sigh* So... privacy fence to defeat that. I will probably have it slope down lower as it comes closer to the front of the house so I can still chat with my neighbours from my porch to theirs, but in the back field I will be closing it off.

The back chain link belongs to the neighbour behind me so I can't just replace it but haven't decided yet what to do, but the neighbours next to them have an asshole dog who tries to terrorize mine from the corner we share (my dogs have since quit caring, but he still carries on) and they don't do anything to stop him when he's attempting to fence-fight... so I would really like to put something up.


If I were in the country I wouldn't care about the chain link, but with obnoxious neighbours right on top of me, it kinda blows. I honestly despise how pasture fencing looks - that is what I tore out to put up the privacy fence - so I would probably close the lot with chain link if I had a big lot to fence and attempt to keep deer and other critters out. Realistically there's not much to actually keep deer and wildlife out if they feel like comin' on in, but I still prefer a nice defined border... nobody is "accidentally" on your property when it's fenced.


No doggie door. I might let them out to potty alone but I am standing by the door watching or in the kitchen watching through the window; otherwise they are not outside by themselves.

 

[SoCrafty]

I think someone asked how big our yard was and what the fencing was for. The whole property is about an acre (I think, or maybe a little less? Would have to ask DH). We currently have maybe a 15 x 15 area for her, but her practice agility equipment takes up a lot of room. If we want her in the bigger part of the yard, she is on a 30 ft tether and it really limits her running or play. We just want a bigger, more secure yard for her so that she has outdoor room to run around.

About 2 weeks ago, a coyote was in the yard, which made me uncomfortable. I wouldn't care about deer or racoons or whathaveyou. Mostly just the larger predators like coyote or bear. It would at least be a deterrent.

It would be nice to just be able to open the back door and let her play and run around, instead of having to wrangle her to either put her in the run, or attach her to the tether. If we have her on the tether, she tends to wrap herself around things.

Beanie - I really like that separate area idea. Might be a little more feasible that way. I would be furious if my neighbors tore up my fence! I wonder if you could talk to the neighbor behind you and see if they mind you putting up the privacy fence? Or perhaps you could just extend the corners of wood so it overlaps a bit with the chain link to stop the fence fighting. Might not look pretty, but would help short term. I like the defined border, too!

 

[Jadex]

We have a 5ft welded wire fence with wooden fence posts that fences in a large area. It does a good job at keeping our hounds in and other animals out. They are never outside unsupervised though. The fence is attached to the back of the house so we can just open the back door to let them out.

 

[k9krazee]

With the wildlife you have, I think I would be more inclined to do chainlink than the chicken wire. In certain circumstances a dog door can be an awesome thing and only you know if it's right for you. I personally wouldn't be able to have dogs without a dog door.

 

[Barb04]

How about a 5' black chain link fencing. The black chain link kind of disappears into the background.

 

[joce]

For those that have neighbors tear up the fence or people hang on it put up some strands of hot wire. People will stay far away from it and you likely won't even have to keep it on after the first week or two. I'd tell them the dogs tested the fence and you just had to do it

I don't do fences for the dogs. They climb, jump, bark and I don't know if they pooped then. And people seem to be stealing dogs left and right around here. I would never feel comfortable leaving my dog out while I wasn't home and fencing can get pricey.

What about a split rail with chicken wire. You don't see the wire unless your close to it. My cousin did this for her house and has some tall orntamental grasses growing up against it to. Her dogs do not have a good recall and the fence worked. A determined dog may go over the split rail though.

I like three or four rails pasture fence with whatever type of wire you choose.want this for our smaller front pasture for goats.

 

[milos_mommy]

We have a combination of privacy fence and chain link. They both do a pretty equal job of keeping the dogs contained. I'm not sure how well I'd trust a wood and chicken wire fence, and I think it would kind of depend on the dog.

I leave one of my dogs out unattended, not the other. It's based on their behavior, not on dognapping risk. But...neither one of my dogs would very easily go anywhere with a stranger, they'd make a lot of noise if one came in the yard, my very close neighbors are home all day and would make their presence known if anything suspicious was going on, and my family is in and out through the day so it's not like he's outside more than an hour or so without someone at least checking.

I'd be VERY cautious with certain, more friendly dogs, puppies, smaller, more obvious purebred dogs, bully breeds, etc. If you want to keep her outside during the day, you might want to consider a run that you can lock, either covered or high enough that a person would have difficulty getting themselves and a dog over.

 

[SoCrafty]

Barb04 - I really like the look of the black chain link! Going to look into that and compare pricing.

Joce - that style pasture fencing is keeping up with the style around the area. Lots of horses, cows, goats, etc. I never knew that kind of fencing existed until living here, lol. It's kind of nice. Though, it can easily look run down. Probably a higher maintenance type of fencing? I think that is why DH is kind of hesitant about it.

Addie is very tiny (about 10 pounds). I'm not concerned about her scaling or breaking a fence. Her run is made up of a thicker gauge chicken wire and she does good with that. We are not looking to keep her out there during the day, but rather allowing her to go out for 30 minutes to an hour at least twice a day during the week, or longer on the weekends so she gets fresh air and exercise. It is way too hot here to let her out any longer than that. It is a matter of convenience some days, where DH has to get up and watch her before he can get ready for work, or I have to watch her before I can make dinner etc. To be able let her out there and walk away for a few minutes would be good

You guys have given me lots of good ideas, and things to think about. Especially on the dog napping thing.

Thank you!

 

[milos_mommy]

I thought you meant unattended outside like no one was home! My answer still stands - one needs supervision, one doesn't...but with Milo I do put him outside while I'm inside, but I probably wouldn't be able to go take a shower or cook a meal or anything. I check on him every 5ish minutes and keep an eye on him out the window.

I think most adult dogs of an average temperament and training are alright outside unsupervised in a safely fenced yard with an owner home. Dogs who are super escape artists, small dogs in areas with large predators are mainly what is be concerned about. I always (judgmentally) think when people won't let their well behaved dog in a fenced yard alone for a short time it seems paranoid. Check the gates, maintain the fence line, keep an ear out for barking or cars pulling up, etc.

Reasons I don't leave mine unsupervised:
He's an extreme digger/escape artist. He has gotten stuck under our shed to the point where we needed to cut and remove to floorboards to get him out after a groundhog. He also can dig under the neighbors fence, although we have brick laid down along it, he's still gotten through.

He's aggressive and God forbid a neighbors child hops the fence or something

That's mainly it. If I know the kids are at school and neighbors pets are in and they're at work I will leave him for 20 minutes or so. But that's rare.

 

[SoCrafty]

Milos_Mommy - oh, no! I would never put her outside all day. I don't agree with most outside pet dogs. Addie is a digger, too. Had not thought of that. We will lay something underneath the fence to help avoid dig outs.

I agree with you about the paranoid thing, too. I was fine and dandy with my way of thinking of letting her out and walking away for a little bit 'til I mentioned it to my Mother who seemed to think it was an awful idea because of dog nappers. My Aunt's Beagle got stolen out of her yard 30 years ago, so don't you know it happens all the time (meanwhile, she has since had two other dogs just fine...and my sister has two dogs just fine lol).

 

[milos_mommy]

I definitely see a lot of advertised stolen dogs, but they mostly seem to be purebred puppies (can't imagine leave a 4 or 5 month old dog outside alone!) or tiny breeds, or pit bull types.

i think whether I left my dogs would depend on the area. Besides, most dog theifs aren't going to strike when you're home.

 

[Beanie]

Not leaving a dog unattended doesn't always have to do with theft. Auggie ate an extremely toxic mushroom. Payton got into half a discarded burrito with huge pieces of onions and who knows what else a squirrel dropped over the fence into the yard. Auggie and Pepper both got pieces of mulch stuck across the bridge of their mouths and Payton of course tried to choke himself on a piece as a puppy.

If I weren't watching them to see what happened so I could immediately take appropriate action, Auggie at least would be dead. If that makes me paranoid but means my dog didn't die, slap a big fat PARANOID hat on me and I will happily skip down the street with it on carrying my not-dead dog in my arms.

It also means, like joce mentioned, I am well aware of their potty habits, who has pooped or not, if Auggie is peeing more often than usual, et cetera - and know very quickly when something is off. The dog doesn't come in and tell me "hey I know I pooped already but I just went back and totally had some violently orange diarrhea out there."