Dogs, fencing, large wildlife

[MunchingonHay]

I am in need of some advice. I did a search and while some of the topics matched, I am looking for additional insight regarding wildlife.

We recently purchased a home and went from an 800 sq ft lot to nearly 2 acres, half of which is “wooded” and the middle bit is clear where the home and front lawn sit.

The neighborhood has a deed restriction on chainlink. Also, the street facing fence needs to be 25 feet from the curb. That’s fine. I can work with that.

I would like to do livestock fencing on the three other sides, and do split rail with some sort of wire fencing, across the street facing side with a wire fence as well to keep the dogs in.

Here is where it gets tricky. We have deer. TONS of deer, rabbits, chipmunks, fox, all sorts of furry fun to chase animals… here is the kicker. Black bear.

I have thought about the invisable fencing, but my dogs charge strange dogs (we have lots of people walk past our house with leashed dogs) and I worry that the invisable fence will not work on my 11 yr old boxer and my 5 yr old ridgeback.

The ridgeback came to me as an older dog and she was encouraged to chase deer by her former owner.

I would love to be able to have them off leash on our property while keeping everyone safe and happy and that includes the wildlife.

I selected livestock fence so the furry critters could run “throught” the fence should they need to escape.

The deer can jump over so I am not worried about them… I worry about bears. I don’t want the dogs to corner a bear and threaten thus starting a fight they will most likely lose.

Do I just fence off a small section of the yard, the cleared part and allow the dogs to only be able to access that portion of the property and keep them out of the “wooded” part?

Either dogs are jumpers and respect fencing, (we had chainlink at the former home), but they will rush it when they see something they deem worth scaring off and barking at. (other dogs, cats, etc).

Thanks for reading the novel.

[NancyM]

Bear will not enter the yard if your dogs are in the yard, protecting it. Deer won’t either, or if they do by mistake, they will exit immediately. Your perimeter fence just needs to be dog proof. The presence of the dogs will keep visitors out of your yard. Especially big dogs with a good bark.

[Marla_100]

I have all the same animals as you do. I have 54" no climb- 2x4" mesh w/ 1x6" topboard. Perimeter and cross fences all the same.
Deer jump in and out of pastures- no problem- and they don’t come near my house or yard.
Bears have never come over any fence here- that I know of- so they stay on exterior of my pastures and yard. At my past home bears regularly came over plain livestock wire fencing- no top board- they just pushed the fence down and stepped or climbed over.
The no climb is strong and safe for large dogs and to keep out those big wildlife except for deer.

[MunchingonHay]

thank you guys !

I will talk with the fencing people about doing something with a top board. I was hoping to get away with having metal posts and not having to drive wooden posts in the ground.

In an effort to keep costs down on a fence no one will see, … no climb would be the better pick than cheaper 4x4 inch livestock fencing ?

[jherold]

Would a strand of hot wire accross the top also help?