MeganD
Royal Oak, Michigan
JH
Posts:33
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| 10/13/2012 4:54 AM |
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We've had Bailey for a week now. Since we are still getting to know her, we have not had her off leash in our fenced back yard. We live in an area with A LOT of squirrels (walks are a hoot!), and our neigbors have small/tiny dogs. We have her on a 20' training leash/check cord, so she still has a little freedom, but we can still have a little control. I would like to be able to have her off leash in the backyard, but have been told GSPs are known for jumping 4 foot fences easily if they want to.
My question is: what kind of fence do you have, and has your GSP ever escaped your backyard?
We have 4 foot (maybe a bit taller) Chain Link fencing on 3 sides, and the back fence is a privacy fence, so I'm not worried about that one. My worry is she will see something on the other side of the chain link and jump it to go get it. I don't want to put privacy fencing up on all sides, b/c i don't want to seclude ourselves from the neighbors, but if we have to, we will. |
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Nancy D
No. Lower MI - Gaylord Area
MH
Posts:849
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| 10/13/2012 6:35 AM |
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| I have what they call farm fencing. At least I think that's what it's called. It comes in rolls and is attached to posts ( either wooden or metal). Mine is almost 6ft. high and buried about 4" underground. I've yet to have a dog jump it, and I've had a lot of dogs between what I have/had owned and many foster dogs. |
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Splat
Illinois (Northern)
MH
Posts:3136
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| 10/13/2012 6:39 AM |
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I do think he can jump the chain link fence pretty easy.... whether or not she will is another story... we have old ag fencing so it is low in some spots... Blitz has never thought about jumping it... he is my bigger dog too but he just is the athletic one... Striker has jumped it the good thing is that where he jumps just goes into a neighbors pasture/field that is fenced in too and he is my "check back and find mommy" dog.... however we did get annoyed at him going over all the time... he learned he got attention when he went over cuz we would yell for him and pick him back up over the fence... so one day we hid and just as he was about to go over nicked him with the e-collar... took 3 nicks and he hasn't gone over since...
You could always do the underground invisible fencing so that you don't have to change what you already have... |
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kpwlee
Raleigh, NC
MH
Posts:997
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| 10/13/2012 8:09 AM |
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there is no doubt she COULD jump it but will she?? hard to say
has she shown an interest in jumping it?
since she's on the longline I would do some basic training with her - if she goes near the fence, call her to you and treat her or initiate play with her. This is similar to how you train an e-fence. You have the flags indicating the line and teach the dog that all the good stuff happens INSIDE the boundaries.
My experience is that some dogs naturally respect physical boundaries and others don't, that is why I said she has the ability to do it but may not have the desire
Putting an e-fence inside the physical fence should work - our dog is trained on an e-fence and despite a very high prey drive and pain tolerance he doesn't cross the boundaries |
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It's Bugsy's world...
http://dailyzoomie.blogspot.com/ |
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Binni
Pittsburgh, PA
MH
Posts:76
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| 10/13/2012 11:07 AM |
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We have a 4 ft fence on three sides and a privacy fency across the back of our yard. Binni (12 months old) can easily jump over. Just hasn't figured that out yet.
But, SHE HAS BECOME A MASTER AT DIGGING OUT FROM UNDER THE FENCE. This has become a huge issue. Our yard is destroyed from her. I have to watch her all the time. It's not so much that she wants to run away. She just can't help herself with all of the birds.
She digs out, we fill in the holes. It's a constant battle.
I have no idea what to do. Maybe a concrete fortress around the entire property??????
Good luck  |
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MeganD
Royal Oak, Michigan
JH
Posts:33
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| 10/13/2012 1:25 PM |
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Bailey Has put her front paws on top of the fence a few times, but we call her off it. She hasn't shown any tendency to dig yet, so hopefully that will not be an issue.
Thanks for the anecdotes and advice for giving her boundaries in the yard. |
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smatulewicz
Michigan
MH
Posts:1191
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| 10/13/2012 2:46 PM |
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| If she is putting her paws up, I'd certainly say her interest as to what is on the other side is peaked and may get the best of her if she were unsupervised. We unfortunately don't have a fence yard so we trained her the perimeters of our yard line like we would if we had an eFence. If she crosses at all (usually very slow and unsure cross due to a bird, or her ultimate nemesis, the chipmunk) we say "out" and she comes right back in. I was even SO proud of her the other day when the neighbors dogs bolted across the street to come and see her and I thought for sure she would cross back over with them despite my telling her stay. She simply watched them go from the edge of our yard. PROUD moment! Suffice it to say she is never outside unsupervised and there are times if I am gardening or planting and get really focused, I put her on her tie-out just to be safe. Point being, if you are worried about it, and especially since you don't her 100 percent yet to have full trust, just continue supervising for now. When you feel comfortable, if your yard allows it, drop the check cord and let it follow behind her. This way, if she looks like she is going to jump you can grab the cord before she completes the task. I would do just as you are and air on the side of "better safe than sorry" until you know her better (and she you). |
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Smylinacha
Connecticut
MH
Posts:1208
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| 10/13/2012 5:55 PM |
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| We have deer fencing in our back yard. It is 8 feet tall. The dogs don't dig out as there are bigs rocks we put on the perimeter. They do dig sometimes in the yard and it is pretty wrecked from all the rough housing they do back there. When one digs a hole I fill it with dog poop and they stop for quite a while..... sometimes months before I see another hole. |
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Binni
Pittsburgh, PA
MH
Posts:76
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| 10/13/2012 6:31 PM |
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I'm going to have to try that poop in the hole trick. |
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Texas Belle
Austin, TX
MH
Posts:7843
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| 10/13/2012 7:44 PM |
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| They can jump even a 6 foot fence if they want to. I have never had any of mine go over, but Fauna jumps up to the top of my 6 foot wood fence and balances on top and looks out she never goes over though. Her grandpa used to walk along the to of the wood fence, but again never went over. Ringo hangs from the top and looks over. I think allot has to do with if they are bored or chasing a critter. Thankfully all the squirrels around my house stay in the trees so my dogs are never tempted to go over to get hem. My parents have a 4 ft chain link and they have one of my pups and she has never even shown a desire to go over. Now one of my puppy buyers who has one of my male puppies had problems with him going over. We ended up putting a hot wire around the fence and it took only a couple of tries and now he leaves the fence alone. So, I think it really depends on the dog. |
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Bev Quarles, the Pointer Sisters (Belle and Halo), the Outlaw GSP (Johnny Ringo) and the little Princess (Fauna)
Yellow Rose GSPs
   
"A dog has the soul of a philosopher." - Plato |
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smatulewicz
Michigan
MH
Posts:1191
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| 10/13/2012 7:45 PM |
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| Binni, I've never done it, but my father-in-law said when they had a dog that would dig out, he dug down and buried cinder blocks around the fence and it kept the dog from digging. Was a little work on his behalf, but I guess paid off in the long run. |
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Smylinacha
Connecticut
MH
Posts:1208
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| 10/14/2012 3:31 PM |
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| This is yucky but what I do with dog poop is fill the hole once the dog does fresh "business" and leave it uncovered for a few days - doesn't matter if it rains. Then cover it back up loosely with soil. Ours don't dig near the fence but they'll dig in random spots and I have no clue why. So instead of shoveling all the poop out to the woods I just put it in the hole and they won't go near it. Both of ours are diggers - but they haven't dug in months since the last poop trick! We don't care about the back yard as nobody can see it and nobody goes out there. We put a patio out there but it was more for the dogs to get some dirt off them before they would come in the house. Other than that, our back yard is definitely not where we would entertain guests - it is totally wrecked with these two mutts. |
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Binni
Pittsburgh, PA
MH
Posts:76
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| 10/14/2012 7:54 PM |
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Bella's mommy- thanks for the info. That sounds like a job for my husband. Binni is more challenging than raising my three sons! She is sharing the couch with me now. She is resting up so she is recharged and ready to stir up more trouble tomorrow |
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therozypozy
MH
Posts:470
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| 10/15/2012 9:30 AM |
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No doubt a GSP has the ability to go over the fence. My older GSP would not do not, nor the lab or the border collie. However the younger GSP Java has springs and has gone over our fence, but it was just the fence between our front yard to the back yard. I do try to keep the lawn in the front nice, and leave the destruction of the dogs to the back yard. She was very proud of herself to say the least.
Since the last hurricane and the rise of the lake water, our privacy wood fence is gone and we have decided to not put that back. We put up a 5 foot chain link fence and she does bounce to the top which really gets the neighbors dogs going and then neighbor's border collie which is known to fence fight with the other neighbor's dogs initiates the real fence fighting. Java still thinks its play, but my other GSP then takes it seriously. I hate it. So I am going to result to a hot wire on both sides (neighbor has agreed) to stop the fence fighting. This should teach all the dogs not to approach the fence.
Still thinking of putting the privacy cloth on the chain link fence (like you see at tennis courts) and hoping that helps some if they cannot see each other so well.
So no doubt fencing to contain a GSP can be challenging.
Roz |
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vnrose53
MH
Posts:379
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| 10/15/2012 10:50 AM |
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Texas Belle, I had a GSP that would climb up on our 6 foot wooden fence as well and walk along the top--gave our neighbors quite a start when they saw her!
That is the same GSP who ignored a 42" fence for several years (as had both of our previous Weimaraners) but suddenly realized she could get over it, and that didn't stop until the back yard looked like a prison camp with chicken wire, bits of old chain link, vertically nailed on stakes, plastic fencing, etc. So even if she doesn't go over now, that doesn't mean the "light" won't go on in the future. In my current yard I've used that farm or garden fencing to extend the existing fences up to at least 6'. It also has the benefit of being just flexible enough that it would tend to bend back down if they tried to climb it. But thank God they aren't diggers! |
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cynthiarose
COLORADO
MH
Posts:133
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| 10/16/2012 11:40 AM |
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Mike's parents have a 5ft fence (odd height, but whatever), and Havoc never jumped it when he was staying over there during the day. When we brought him home though we discouraged him from even jumping on it at all, so maybe that helped.
I would like to say that I have no doubt that he could jump it without a problem if he really wanted to. On one of our walks last week he jumped over a 3 1/2-4ft retaining wall onto the hill behind it to chase leaves.... yes my dog chases leaves, not rabbits or squirrels or birds... leaves hahaha. He more than cleared the top of the wall- first time he'd jumped on anything higher than our bed. |
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