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!

 

[nuthatched]

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

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[McChooky]

You can put up an electric fence and keep the dogs inside or call the game warden and hope they can give you some tips on how to stop one coming back after you've fed it.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Dhkoenig]

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.

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