Sorry for the length on this, but I need y'all's thoughts on the best kind of fence for our lab/hound mix puppy. If you don't want to read my whole long ramble, the bottom line is we need a good fence for our Houdini Hound. Thoughts?
We have a little fence now that was fine for our previous/other dogs (terrier/beagley mutt and bordercollie/somethingsmaller mutt). Our terrier/beagley mutt has since passed on, but we still have the borderish mutt. He's smaller than a real border and is about 35 lbs. He's not a jumper or a climber or a digger and our little 3-foot fence has been fine for his 10 years.
HOWEVER, we now have a 6 mo old lab/hound mix and she IS a climber, and a jumper and a digger. She has jumped the fence twice now to see a dog on the other side. Our house backs up to a little, old, small town-owned baseball field that folks sometimes exercise their dogs on, or use to play a pickup game of softball or soccer or frisbee. I was right out there with her both times she jumped trying to get her to come back (we're working on recall — no flames, please). Once she jumped she didn't tried to run away, but just couldn't seem to help herself. She is not aggressive and immediately laid down submissively once on the other side, but her drive to see the other dog was just way too much for her to overcome. After the first time she jumped (last Friday), just as a temporary fix DH and I went and bought some more rolls of welded wire fence and added a foot more of wire halfway around the fence (total fence perimeter is about 350 feet) to bring up the fence height to about 4 ft along the back where she jumped. She jumped that height yesterday.
We've been trying to go out with her, but unlike our borderish guy who loves to be with us and doesn't want to stay outside by himself, she absolutely loves it outside (if it's not raining, or extremely cold or extremely hot). She would spend all her time out there given the option and doesn't really care if she's alone. We have a little doggy door in our screen door and before this jumping started when the weather was nice we would let the dogs choose outside or inside. She would always choose outside and only come in every so often to check on us and then go right back outside. She's a hound and really just loves the outside smells and loves to dig (our yard is completely wooded, so it's okay) and just do real outdoor doggy stuff. Anyway, bottom line is I don't have all day to be outside with her and she gets crazy in the house and starts whining and pawing at the door and ringing the big jingle bell we put there so she could indicate she wants to go out. Thank goodness it's rainy today so she's snoozing inside.
Anyway, it seems obvious that our current fence isn't going to cut it. Our yard is heavily wooded (no grass, just woods). Do any of y'all have experience with hounds who like to jump/climb? While researching last night I saw a video news clip of a hound puppy in Tennessee who climbed 20 feet into a tree! Our girl is really physical and not what you would call a "soft" dog. She loves to wrestle with our borderish guy and won't take no for an answer when he growls at her, but it's all play on her part. She would love to wrestle with us as well, but we're trying not to go there. She's got a thick skin and doesn't seem to feel much pain. The jump over the 4 ft fence was not a leap. It was a vertical jump with no running start! She was just bouncing up and down like a kangaroo. I thought about running an invisible fence along our little fence, but I don't know if that would work with her with her crazy pain tolerance. I'd rather not do a privacy fence as all our neighbors also have wooded backyards and there's sort of a seamless look to them and I think that our neighbors would prefer not, too, but I would think about it if it's the best option.
I'm also worried about her digging under. She's been digging along our current fence as well as elsewhere in the yard. I'm not sure that she's trying to dig under or just enjoying digging, but it's a real possibility that she could decide to dig under.
Anyway, thanks for slogging through all of this. Any thoughts for our Houdini Hound?
TIA
We have a little fence now that was fine for our previous/other dogs (terrier/beagley mutt and bordercollie/somethingsmaller mutt). Our terrier/beagley mutt has since passed on, but we still have the borderish mutt. He's smaller than a real border and is about 35 lbs. He's not a jumper or a climber or a digger and our little 3-foot fence has been fine for his 10 years.
HOWEVER, we now have a 6 mo old lab/hound mix and she IS a climber, and a jumper and a digger. She has jumped the fence twice now to see a dog on the other side. Our house backs up to a little, old, small town-owned baseball field that folks sometimes exercise their dogs on, or use to play a pickup game of softball or soccer or frisbee. I was right out there with her both times she jumped trying to get her to come back (we're working on recall — no flames, please). Once she jumped she didn't tried to run away, but just couldn't seem to help herself. She is not aggressive and immediately laid down submissively once on the other side, but her drive to see the other dog was just way too much for her to overcome. After the first time she jumped (last Friday), just as a temporary fix DH and I went and bought some more rolls of welded wire fence and added a foot more of wire halfway around the fence (total fence perimeter is about 350 feet) to bring up the fence height to about 4 ft along the back where she jumped. She jumped that height yesterday.
We've been trying to go out with her, but unlike our borderish guy who loves to be with us and doesn't want to stay outside by himself, she absolutely loves it outside (if it's not raining, or extremely cold or extremely hot). She would spend all her time out there given the option and doesn't really care if she's alone. We have a little doggy door in our screen door and before this jumping started when the weather was nice we would let the dogs choose outside or inside. She would always choose outside and only come in every so often to check on us and then go right back outside. She's a hound and really just loves the outside smells and loves to dig (our yard is completely wooded, so it's okay) and just do real outdoor doggy stuff. Anyway, bottom line is I don't have all day to be outside with her and she gets crazy in the house and starts whining and pawing at the door and ringing the big jingle bell we put there so she could indicate she wants to go out. Thank goodness it's rainy today so she's snoozing inside.
Anyway, it seems obvious that our current fence isn't going to cut it. Our yard is heavily wooded (no grass, just woods). Do any of y'all have experience with hounds who like to jump/climb? While researching last night I saw a video news clip of a hound puppy in Tennessee who climbed 20 feet into a tree! Our girl is really physical and not what you would call a "soft" dog. She loves to wrestle with our borderish guy and won't take no for an answer when he growls at her, but it's all play on her part. She would love to wrestle with us as well, but we're trying not to go there. She's got a thick skin and doesn't seem to feel much pain. The jump over the 4 ft fence was not a leap. It was a vertical jump with no running start! She was just bouncing up and down like a kangaroo. I thought about running an invisible fence along our little fence, but I don't know if that would work with her with her crazy pain tolerance. I'd rather not do a privacy fence as all our neighbors also have wooded backyards and there's sort of a seamless look to them and I think that our neighbors would prefer not, too, but I would think about it if it's the best option.
I'm also worried about her digging under. She's been digging along our current fence as well as elsewhere in the yard. I'm not sure that she's trying to dig under or just enjoying digging, but it's a real possibility that she could decide to dig under.
Anyway, thanks for slogging through all of this. Any thoughts for our Houdini Hound?
TIA
