BunLengthHotDog
Senior member
I FOUND SOMETHING THAT WORKS!!
Little Background : I have 2 dogs, a female German Shep / Chow mix, and a Beagle / Rottweiler mix (beagle body....black and tan rotty markings instead of white/black/tan). Anyhow, the wife and I just moved into our house a little over a year ago, and we brought our dogs with us. They had all been (we had 3 at one point) raised in an apartment setting, so there was no fear of them getting outside and getting hit by a car unless it was by our stupidity (letting them slip past us out the door etc). We thought that moving to a house with a good sized yard would be great for all involved. The dogs could roam about freely in the backyard, and sleep there as well....and the inside of the house would be much cleaner without the dogs being inside. What happened next is something I would try to remedy for close to a year.
We had always had the impression that the Beagle / Rotty mix (hereafter referred to as Puppy, we couldnt think of a name) was extremely strong, simply based on the fact that he could almost pull me over while on walks, potty breaks etc...nevermind my poor wife. At first everything appeared to be as we had imagined, the dogs were in the backyard all the time and were sleeping in the garage. The garage was a necassary evil for some time, since they took awhile to get adjusted to being outside all the time. I first noticed an "issue" when we had been out to dinner and a movie, we had left Sammy and Puppy in the backyard while we were out.
When we got back, I went in the backyard to check on the dogs...Puppy was nowhere to be found. I called his name numerous times, but no response. Then all of the sudden he appeared out of nowhere, but BEHIND me (I was at the swinging gate at the time). Our new accomodations had ceased to function, puppy could now get out of the yard at will, but we were still unsure as to how he was doing it. That suprise was saved for the next day. We brought the dogs into the garage for the night, and I did a full walkaround in the backyard to check for digging....I found none. Unsure of how he had gotten out, we let them in the backyard again...and things seemed to be going fine, until a family walked by acompanied by their dog on a walk. Puppy went apeshite at the sound of the dogs collar making its typical noise. What happened next is what astounded me.
Puppy then procedes to jump OVER our 6 ft. privacy fence. Keep in mind this dog has the body of a Beagle, so he is not very tall...I did not make it out to the backyard in time...and he was gone. The dog had run up to the fence full stride and jumped up on it. He then proceded to use the middle horizontal 2 x 4 as a springboard to get over the fence. It happened so fast I had little time to react. The next year had me trying trick after trick to keep him confined in the backyard. I screwed O-rings into the vertical 4x4's and ran wire between them, he just went under those. I actually attached plywood (hello trailor-trash) to the fence, angled back towards the yard....it merely slowed him a bit, but didnt stop him. I then tried a dog run chain attached to a pine tree, which quickly became a tangled mess of chain that prevented him from moving 2 ft in any direction. This kept him from jumping the fence, but also kept him from getting to his water bowl. Last ditch effort was a dog-run wire lead, and while it wouldn't get snagged as bad as the chain, it would get wrapped around various branches, etc in the yard....getting tangled etc. Then he goes and breaks the damn lead anyhow (got so twisted it actually ripped the wire in half). We had begun to lose hope that he could be contained while giving him full use of the yard.
We looked at kennels (ala Petsmart) but I refused to pay 200 bucks for a chain link square that would simply be an eyesore for anyone who looked in our yard. Then it hit me...why not try to run that invisible fencing inside the fence, that way he never makes it to the damn fence in the first place...wait...Invisible fencing, with a fence??? Ridiculous
...until I actually tried it
IT WORKS!! Puppy will not even come close to the fence as of right now (break-in training stages). In fact, he seems to steer completely clear of the little white flags that come with the kit. I am hesitant to say the war has been won, but this fight seems to be leaning towards my side of the fence (uggh, sorry). We will see what happens when another dog walks by the yard with its family in tow. I certainly hope we now have Houdini contained.
Wish us luck.
Little Background : I have 2 dogs, a female German Shep / Chow mix, and a Beagle / Rottweiler mix (beagle body....black and tan rotty markings instead of white/black/tan). Anyhow, the wife and I just moved into our house a little over a year ago, and we brought our dogs with us. They had all been (we had 3 at one point) raised in an apartment setting, so there was no fear of them getting outside and getting hit by a car unless it was by our stupidity (letting them slip past us out the door etc). We thought that moving to a house with a good sized yard would be great for all involved. The dogs could roam about freely in the backyard, and sleep there as well....and the inside of the house would be much cleaner without the dogs being inside. What happened next is something I would try to remedy for close to a year.
We had always had the impression that the Beagle / Rotty mix (hereafter referred to as Puppy, we couldnt think of a name) was extremely strong, simply based on the fact that he could almost pull me over while on walks, potty breaks etc...nevermind my poor wife. At first everything appeared to be as we had imagined, the dogs were in the backyard all the time and were sleeping in the garage. The garage was a necassary evil for some time, since they took awhile to get adjusted to being outside all the time. I first noticed an "issue" when we had been out to dinner and a movie, we had left Sammy and Puppy in the backyard while we were out.
When we got back, I went in the backyard to check on the dogs...Puppy was nowhere to be found. I called his name numerous times, but no response. Then all of the sudden he appeared out of nowhere, but BEHIND me (I was at the swinging gate at the time). Our new accomodations had ceased to function, puppy could now get out of the yard at will, but we were still unsure as to how he was doing it. That suprise was saved for the next day. We brought the dogs into the garage for the night, and I did a full walkaround in the backyard to check for digging....I found none. Unsure of how he had gotten out, we let them in the backyard again...and things seemed to be going fine, until a family walked by acompanied by their dog on a walk. Puppy went apeshite at the sound of the dogs collar making its typical noise. What happened next is what astounded me.
Puppy then procedes to jump OVER our 6 ft. privacy fence. Keep in mind this dog has the body of a Beagle, so he is not very tall...I did not make it out to the backyard in time...and he was gone. The dog had run up to the fence full stride and jumped up on it. He then proceded to use the middle horizontal 2 x 4 as a springboard to get over the fence. It happened so fast I had little time to react. The next year had me trying trick after trick to keep him confined in the backyard. I screwed O-rings into the vertical 4x4's and ran wire between them, he just went under those. I actually attached plywood (hello trailor-trash) to the fence, angled back towards the yard....it merely slowed him a bit, but didnt stop him. I then tried a dog run chain attached to a pine tree, which quickly became a tangled mess of chain that prevented him from moving 2 ft in any direction. This kept him from jumping the fence, but also kept him from getting to his water bowl. Last ditch effort was a dog-run wire lead, and while it wouldn't get snagged as bad as the chain, it would get wrapped around various branches, etc in the yard....getting tangled etc. Then he goes and breaks the damn lead anyhow (got so twisted it actually ripped the wire in half). We had begun to lose hope that he could be contained while giving him full use of the yard.
We looked at kennels (ala Petsmart) but I refused to pay 200 bucks for a chain link square that would simply be an eyesore for anyone who looked in our yard. Then it hit me...why not try to run that invisible fencing inside the fence, that way he never makes it to the damn fence in the first place...wait...Invisible fencing, with a fence??? Ridiculous
...until I actually tried it
IT WORKS!! Puppy will not even come close to the fence as of right now (break-in training stages). In fact, he seems to steer completely clear of the little white flags that come with the kit. I am hesitant to say the war has been won, but this fight seems to be leaning towards my side of the fence (uggh, sorry). We will see what happens when another dog walks by the yard with its family in tow. I certainly hope we now have Houdini contained.
Wish us luck.
