Dog Proofing

[aidenspoppy]

I thiught I had my coop built prettt well but a dog came by and shredded my chicken wire. I am thinking of wrapping it in the wire that has the 2x4 holes. Any suggestions? The dog comes at night or when we are not home

 

[Ridgerunner]

A couple of years ago a lady on the eastern end of our state posted some photos of what dogs did to her chicken wire. They not only ripped it, they pulled so hard some of it unwound.

Another guy that was into breeding show chickens had chicken wire pens that protected his chickens for a lot of years, but eventually two dogs found them and wiped out his championship breeding stock. Chicken wire is a deterrent, but a determined big dog, raccoon, or coyote can get through if it decides if it really wants to.

You can never build a totally 100% predator-proof run but you can get pretty close. I mean, how do you stop a determined bear?

I use the 2” x 4” welded wire around my run and it has stopped some pretty big dogs. At least it slowed them down enough so I could shoot them.

I think your plan is pretty good. It would be a big improvement. But if you can manage it, a hot wire will work even better. A hot wire will even stop that bear.

 

[aidenspoppy]

I thought about the hot wire as well. He is not rating them just catching and killing them then he moves on to the next one! So frustrating when you put in yimr and effort

 

[SobbaChickens]

I'd go with the hot wire personally. You could do welded wire or hardware cloth. Not sure, out of the three, which would be cheaper

 

[Kelsie2290]

With dogs, hot wire combined with some pretty heavy gauge wire is probably the safest way to go. Spaced right, electric keeps them off the fence and keeps them from climbing over and from digging under, the heavy stuff slows them down long enough for you to get there if the electric is off. Heavy gauge 2x4 wire works pretty well, the lighter stuff they can pull the welds apart so fast it isn't much better than chicken wire. We've also used a lot of chain link, and while dogs can get through it, it takes a lot of work. They also make welded wire livestock panels 2x4 or 4x4, called goat or horse panels around here, that no dog is going to chew through, they are expensive but might be worth it if you only need a few for certain sections. To stop smaller predators you pretty much need 1/2" hardware cloth to keep racoons etc from reaching in.