electric fence that won't harm my dogs

[Dhkoenig]

Hi All - well we just had our first bear!!! I decided to clean out my fridge and cabinets (no good deed goes unpunished....) and had a bunch of garbage bags next to my husband's truck in the driveway waiting to be put in there for him to take to his dumpster at work. Meanwhile I had stuck my ladies in a metal run that we have in the yard next to our sturdy full-time run. I usher them from one to the other and then close the door so they can have some time out of the run until free range time later. Well I was doing emails etc and thought "Oh I should look in on the girls" and I noticed that they were all standing at attention. I looked up to see if there was a hawk but didn't hear/see anything. So I walked down toward where they were and thought "whoa maybe there is a fox or something" so I looked to my left and there was a very large bear eating our garbage like 50 feet away. I ducked down and managed to get the chickens from the absolutely worthless metal run into their regular run. Shaking like a leaf I got myself out of harms way and then a neighbor thought it would be a good idea to scare it with a big 4x4 atv thing and it ran away from our garbage and went straight toward our run. then once it felt safe it went around to the backside of their coop! I had a chicken wire screen door closed so that they still had a breeze and the bear was literally sniffing around. My husband went out with pots and pans and scared it over the fence out of our yard but now it knows my chickens are there. I have two dogs so i am worried about getting an electric fence that can hurt my dogs. Tonight i was glad I had my dogs because they barked their heads off all night but I know they won't bark in the middle of the night. Can I protect my chicken's coop/run with electric fencing without potentially shocking my dogs? Anybody have a suggestion of one that can effectively stave off a bear trying to barge his way into our coop/run that won't harm my dogs? thanks!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If it won't harm a dog, it won't harm a bear. That said, a shock that will deter a bear - particularly if you bait the hot wires, is not dangerous to a dog.

and in case there is any lack of clarity in my choice of words. A splinter or a thorn does you "harm", but its not "dangerous". The electric fence should be the same.

For a bear, you want AT LEAST 1.4J potential. The little solar powered fences won't do it. A small plug in model fence will - often they will be sold as "20 mile" "30 mile". Those numbers for how many miles of fence they can theoretically charge are basically meaningless. Look for the charger's rating in Joules (J). You want something affordable close to a 1.5J rating.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

That will be difficult as you need about 7000v or 1j to be effective on bear, and that may not be enough to get through their very thick insulated coat.
luckily bear are curious and sniff everything so use that to your advantage. My suggestion is to get a 1j fencer, three lines with lowest 6in from ground. bait it with raw bacon on three lines along the back where he was near your coop. He will fry, but the bacon won’t. keep in mind a bear will gladly rip open a hornets nest and take every painful sting in the face, but it will temporarily back away if hit in the nose. A weak fence that wont deter a dog is false reassurance and if the bear wants it will go through it. As for the dogs, they may have to learn to respect the fence. one poke and they will understand. it will hurt, but it wont kill them. if the are toy breeds then keep them in the house.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The fence itself is fine, its just the charger that's a bit weak.This is what I use (to protect a much larger area, about 5 acres). Most of the time, in spite of adding numerous additoinal ground rods, I'm not convinced it would stop a bear - though it has stopped a wild hog, and hog-hunting dogs more than once. The one time I touched it after we had inches of rain (with my head, don't ask) I lost about 1/2 second of memory. THAT would have stopped a bear, it just isn't the usual experience with the fence.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

another thought. if you store or keep food in coop (ever) or run at night remove it. the bear wants the food, not the birds. but they will take chase after birds once in the coop.

 

[NatJ]

Can I protect my chicken's coop/run with electric fencing without potentially shocking my dogs?

The dogs will probably get shocked once or twice, and then leave the fence alone.

You will need a strong electric shock to deter the bear.
But if there is a way to adjust the level, you could let the dogs have their first shock at a lower level, and then set it to bear-level. (I have no idea whether electric fences have adjustable levels of shocking.)

 

[allenw]

An electric fence won't hurt your dogs but they will get shocked and so will you at some point if you have one for any length of time. My understanding for a bear it needs to be a hot charger. If possible I would suggest a perimeter fence around everything possible.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

okay thanks - Iended up going with Starkline's kit for electric netting. It comes with a ground and 164 feet of netting and an energizer so I am hoping that will be okay

SOLAR?

or Plug IN?

The Solar is rated at 0.25J Good for rabbit, squirrel, cat, small dogs, not much else.

The Plug-in is rated at 0.8J Not enough, in my view - I don't know any Mfg that claims a .8J potential will stop anything larger than a big breed dog or a goat. Maybe you get lucky, and have great, highly conductive, moist soil.

When its set up and plugged in, touch it with the back of your DRY thumbnail. (assuming you have no seizure disorders or heart conditions. Its safe, I test my 1.2J fence that way a couple times a week. It is "annoying". But you will know first hand the intensity of the shock.

Why a thumbnail? Because human nails are similar to hair or feathers - and chickens, dogs, and bears all have a lot of them to insulate them from the charge carried on the wire. Part of why people bait wires for bears - so they hit it with a nose or tongue, instead of some hair-covered part.

 

[Dhkoenig]

A low fence to keep the dogs from touching it. how big are your dogs? maybe 3 feet high hot wire?

I decided on electric netting. It is 48 inches high. I guess I am going to have to use the flags I have from training them on the invisible fence and train them not to go near it.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Would it might help to run a sprinkler around the chicken pen? That would be a way to keep the ground nice and wet so it conducts electricity well, to help make the bear's first shock memorable. (I am assuming the bear will come back within a few days, and hopefully touch the fence at that time. Keeping the ground wet for weeks or months at a time would be a lot of bother, and might cause other problems.)

Absolutely it would. Much of my problem is that I'm on a hill in FL (I know how stupid that sounds) with clay soils. Essentially, some of the worst ground you can have for conducting a charge. Water runs off, it doesn't soak in. Closest standing groundwater is 40' elevation below me, and the water table is 180' below me.

But for that brief period the ground is moist? The fence works REALLY well.