Dog who can jump 6’ fence...HELP

[anon510129]

Hi all!

Our 10 year old boxer lives with my dad (the boxer would eat my cats who live with us, sadly). Said boxer can easily clear a 6’ wood fence and escapes regularly now, when she didn’t used to before (she has lived here for 2 years).

We think because she could see beyond the old fence (a nice looking chain-link fence) and now it is solid wood, she wants to get out. She has a huge yard to play in, a dog door to get in/out…generally has always been fine.

We are thinking of getting invisible fence we can install ourselves (it’s only about 8’ in front of the gate that she jumps). Has anyone done this? Does anyone have any other advice?

thanks in advance.

[skydy]

I have a friend who had this problem. They installed an inward and upward sloping addition to the top of the fence, wide/deep enough that the dog couldn’t reach the main part of the fence with his hind legs whilst trying to climb out. There may be an easier and less expensive solution, but that worked for them and was aesthetically pleasing.

Hot wire might help if that’s an option.

[MsM]

Invisible fence likely wont work for a determined dog. It is more to prevent roaming than to stop a dog that really, really wants out! I second the idea of putting something angled in on top of the fence. (or keep him in a kennel with a wire top!)

[HungarianHippo]

The only way a dog is clearing that high of a fence is to get a good head start and jump high enough to get their front paws over, and then clamber and claw with their hind legs the rest of the way over. I think the above suggestiom of an inward-slope top section, like you see on chainlink security fence, would fix things.

That would solve the physical issue, but perhaps also consider adding a couple dog windows to the fence? Might help the behavioral issue at the root of the problem

[anon40672407]

Hot wire doesn’t work. Once the dog’s legs are off the ground, the hotwire doesn’t have anywhere to direct the electricity.

[skydy]

@HungarianHippo

The only way a dog is clearing that high of a fence is to get a good head start and jump high enough to get their front paws over, and then clamber and claw with their hind legs the rest of the way over. I think the above suggestiom of an inward-slope top section, like you see on chainlink security fence, would fix things.

That would solve the physical issue, but perhaps also consider adding a couple dog windows to the fence? Might help the behavioral issue at the root of the problem

That’s a good idea when combined with the fence topper .It may distract the dog enough to keep him from trying.:yes:

[skydy]

@anon40672407

Hot wire doesn’t work. Once the dog’s legs are off the ground, the hotwire doesn’t have anywhere to direct the electricity.

That makes sense.

[ReSomething]

We had the dog run with the roof, 30x4x6. Cattle panels t posts and the chain link kennel panels and two overlapped cattle panels for the roof. He was able to leap from the dogloo roof to his shade tree and bounce up and over the Open top chain link panel kennel.

We shifted it to another shady area away from the tree and enlarged it, but the cattle panels vs chain link gave him the space to reach through and grab the flymask and then the blanket till I learned not to put anything at all closer than three feet to the run. I would have way preferred a formal cement floor and open top because 4 feet tall made cleaning it not so fun, but we never had an escape problem afterwards.

[Bluey]

Long ago, a fellow with basenjis had one that was an escape artist.
We know because we had one of his show up here, lovely dog, I wanted to keep it if no owner was found.

After putting the word out, the owner claimed him.

What finally worked is, where the dog was getting over their yard fence in the city, he added a strong wire thru 2-3’ garden hose pieces along the top.
When the dog’s paws hit the hose pieces as he jumped to catch on the top, they grabbed on the plastic, that turned on the wire and flipped the dog back into the yard.

I have since heard some use wood pieces hung to roll on wires strung along the top, similar to what the hose the basenji owner used.
Most dogs have a certain place they jump out, so no need to fix the whole top, just that part.
May not work for the OP’s dog, but is a quick and cheap fix if it did.

[StormyDay]

We have a invisible fence, I think it’s called petsafe. We got it online. It works really well for our dogs. One of ours was a digger, jumper, and bolter (despite living on 4 acres) and she learned that invisible fence and we never had issues with her after that. Only issue is that if the power goes out, it doesn’t work, and she did learn to be able to hear the electricity to know when it was off.
She died a few years ago, but our current dogs still use it and respect it. And, aren’t smart enough to know when it is off 😉

[OverandOnward]

The invisible fence is hit or miss. A lot of factors determine if it will work. or not, and they may be hard to quantify.

If the invisible fence doesn’t work the problem can be worse than with no fence. Adrenaline and desire will get a dog outside the fence, but then they can be too intimidated to get back in. And may then be off wandering and looking for a new home as their instinct takes over.

And as said above, nothing is keeping other dogs out.

[xeroxchick]

I saw a way to keep dogs from being able to get purchase on the top of the fence to get out. You have a wire with two pic pipes, one smaller inside the other with the wire going through them all along the top of the fence. The pipes roll and the dogs cannot grip it to get out. Does this make sense? The top of the fence, all along the fence has pipes with wire through it so it rolls/spins and the dogs can’t get out. Also some dogs climb the corners so you can block the corners too.

[Simkie]

What bluey is describing is called coyote rollers and does seem to work VERY well. You can DIY or buy pre made–Google will give you both options and lots of examples, but this’ll get you started:

https://coyoteroller.com/

I did invisible fence for my dog who looooooved to jump on the fence, barking at the people walking by. Covenants said it could only be 4’, and there was a path behind…just a really bad set up for that dog. The invisible fence did work very well to keep her away from the fence, but her goal wasn’t to go over.

[trubandloki]

Hot wire will work if you use like we (general COTH) suggest people use it for their horses when they want to keep them away from something. Set up a very hot fence inside the existing fence. If the dog can not get close enough to the wood fence to jump up it, then it will likely not be able to jump over it.

I like the coyote roller idea.

[anon510129]

@StormyDay

We have a invisible fence, I think it’s called petsafe. We got it online. It works really well for our dogs. One of ours was a digger, jumper, and bolter (despite living on 4 acres) and she learned that invisible fence and we never had issues with her after that. Only issue is that if the power goes out, it doesn’t work, and she did learn to be able to hear the electricity to know when it was off.
She died a few years ago, but our current dogs still use it and respect it. And, aren’t smart enough to know when it is off 😉

Yes, PetSafe is what we are looking at! They seemed to have good reviews.

Thank you everyone for your input! We bought chicken wire/“no climb” to staple to the inside of the gate today.

We do know our dog is using the wood on the inside of the fence (the piece that is diagonal on the inside of the wood gate) to grab onto and hoist herself over. There are lovely scratch marks on the inside of my dads brand new wood

If this doesn’t work, we are going to get the PetSafe!

[anon510129]

@OverandOnward

The invisible fence is hit or miss. A lot of factors determine if it will work. or not, and they may be hard to quantify.

If the invisible fence doesn’t work the problem can be worse than with no fence. Adrenaline and desire will get a dog outside the fence, but then they can be too intimidated to get back in. And may then be off wandering and looking for a new home as their instinct takes over.

And as said above, nothing is keeping other dogs out.

Yes, when I was growing up we had a very determined German Shepherd who would run through the invisible fence daily. We had 4 acres and my parents did invisible fence around about 2 acres. Ended up being a huge waste of money.

Dog would chase the horses, not do anything to them - just for pure joy, then not come back into the yard but stay in the pasture area or go to the neighbors and not come home until we went to get her.

[rockymouse]

Those coyote rollers are brilliant - so simple!

[carman_liz]

The rollers, and angles at the top are all great ideas, but what if, depending on how large an area you are dealing with of course… why couldn’t the op set up temporary hotfence, the kind used for goats or chickens where it is about a 4ft tall netting and see if that would stop him? If the scratch marks on the fence are below that point then you know he needs to get some grip before that and the jolt of that fence may keep him off it?

[trubandloki]

This dog sounds determined enough that I would guess the temporary zap of the electronic dog fence collar will not be much of a deterrent.