Homesteaders

[wyoDreamer]

My Husky would chew out of a welded wire fence. It looked like chainlink, but the wires were just spot welded instead of inter-twined like a chainlink fence is. Poor college student and it was all I could afford.

Took me about a month to figure out how she was getting out of the yard; she would escape but the roommates dog didn't. One day I noticed that she had shiny, silver teeth... She figured out that she could bite the welds and break them, and she only needed to break 4 in a row to be able to squeeze out. The fence snapped back into shape right away so you couldn't tell it was broken - hence the roommates dog never followed her out. Roommate and I tied spent the weekend with a roll of wire tying shut the broken welds and reinforcing the entire fence.

 

[Raech]

I'm really lucky with my dog, she doesn't challenge the fence and stays pretty close to the yard, only venturing over to the neighbors if they are outside. My Dad's dog on the other hand just trots up the road to go visiting a couple of houses up and then wanders back down. My problems are going to be when I get the chickens, I already can see the pray drive with Shelby and Dog is trained to kill anything small, so lots of work to be done with them. Grandpa allowed him to chase the cats and he eats the birds that are shot around the house along with the squirrels. That is why I am leaning towards a pallet wall along the bottom of my run and an elevated coop. I don't trust Dog as far as I can drop kick him.

 

[1cock2hens]

// funny thing is my dog had no need to chew through the fence time after time... she would put her feet in the holes and climb the fence like it was a ladder for several days after it was fixed.. she didnt want anything but to tease the other dogs, she was only in it at night and whenever i would wake up she was always sleeping feet away from her pen /// she really has no prey drive and loves to sniff and lick on chicks and chickens like they are her babies then just watch from afar.. her daughters on the other hand have to be watched at times, they can get "excited" but they would never challenge any kind of fence

 

[rancher hicks]

I'm really lucky with my dog, she doesn't challenge the fence and stays pretty close to the yard, only venturing over to the neighbors if they are outside. My Dad's dog on the other hand just trots up the road to go visiting a couple of houses up and then wanders back down. My problems are going to be when I get the chickens, I already can see the pray drive with Shelby and Dog is trained to kill anything small, so lots of work to be done with them. Grandpa allowed him to chase the cats and he eats the birds that are shot around the house along with the squirrels. That is why I am leaning towards a pallet wall along the bottom of my run and an elevated coop. I don't trust Dog as far as I can drop kick him.

See now here's where your thinking is wrong and unfair. To you it's "visiting", to your neighbors it might not be. A dog in it's own yard is a pet, a neighbors dog in my yard is a predator to be dealt with.

To many time on this forum we've read where folks have let chickens become victims while they deal with their dogs taste for blood. I am not anti dog but sometimes choices have to be made. Whether to keep the dog or keep the chickens.

Unless you can watch Grampa's dog 24/7 you are certain to have problems. A determined dog will make short work digging under pallets.

Please rethink getting chickens.

 

[Raech]

See now here's where your thinking is wrong and unfair. To you it's "visiting", to your neighbors it might not be. A dog in it's own yard is a pet, a neighbors dog in my yard is a predator to be dealt with.

To many time on this forum we've read where folks have let chickens become victims while they deal with their dogs taste for blood. I am not anti dog but sometimes choices have to be made. Whether to keep the dog or keep the chickens.

Unless you can watch Grampa's dog 24/7 you are certain to have problems. A determined dog will make short work digging under pallets.

Please rethink getting chickens.

I plan on putting up an electric fence around the yard to prevent him from leaving it, to me dogs shouldn't be going houses away. With my dog I live in a duplex so the neighbors are right next door, and she gets yelled at for going over there. The pallets are a visual barrier, I plan to bury wire, like has been suggested multiple times on here, so he doesn't dig under and he is kept in the house when he is with me, Dad has him as an outside dog because he doesn't like him. Dog was my Grandpa's companion that just wandered in almost 5 years ago now, with Grandpa gone I have been debating on taking him to the shelter but that is one less piece of Grandpa I will have so it is hard. If I had my way, which I might, the dogs don't get free access of the property, the chickens and my rabbits will be outside the yard so the dogs should be bothering them. Dog chases the four wheelers and I don't like it that is also why I want an electric fence, I don't need my dog learning bad habits from him.

 

[rancher hicks]

I plan on putting up an electric fence around the yard to prevent him from leaving it, to me dogs shouldn't be going houses away. With my dog I live in a duplex so the neighbors are right next door, and she gets yelled at for going over there. The pallets are a visual barrier, I plan to bury wire, like has been suggested multiple times on here, so he doesn't dig under and he is kept in the house when he is with me, Dad has him as an outside dog because he doesn't like him. Dog was my Grandpa's companion that just wandered in almost 5 years ago now, with Grandpa gone I have been debating on taking him to the shelter but that is one less piece of Grandpa I will have so it is hard. If I had my way, which I might, the dogs don't get free access of the property, the chickens and my rabbits will be outside the yard so the dogs should be bothering them. Dog chases the four wheelers and I don't like it that is also why I want an electric fence, I don't need my dog learning bad habits from him.

A word of encouragement ? I used to deliver mail and I've found those invisible fences do a good job when done right. Not sure how it would work with your dog but if you got a guarantee from the company that it would work or money back it might be worth a shot.

A combination of things might work well. I wish you well,

Rancher

 

[wyoDreamer]

My sister has an invisible fence for her beagle - she keeps telling me to get one for my dogs (they are in a fenced yard now). It works until the rabbit crosses the line and enters the yard - then the beagle chases it across the fence and into the woods. When the dog is done chasing the rabbit and returns home, the dog stands about 12 feet outside of the fenceline and bays until my sister goes out, removes the collar, carries the dog across the fence and puts the collar back on.

My older sister and her husband had one of the wire fences for their black lab. The fence kept him in when it worked, but the chipmunks always chewed the wire. When BIL got home form work and the dog met him on the road, he knew he had to fix the wire...

 

[lilwildrabbit]

Neibour had a bulldog get under his house all the time so he put up a electric fence around the house and waited until the dog got in then turned it on leftbit on for a day every time the dog tried to get out from under the house it got nailed from the fence after that day he had to pull the dog out from under the house dog wouldn't come out because of the wire he left it up dog never went back under it was never charged again and he went and put one strand of wire around his yard never charged the wire but that dog didn't know the difference and would not go near the fence!

 

[wyoDreamer]

DH and I spent 3 hours one Saturday running a single wire of electric fence around the base of a chain link fence. I had an escape artist and it took my husky 23 seconds to dig enough of a divot to allow her to squeeze out under the fence. After hooking up the fencer, we turned it on and stepped back to watch. The dog came over and laid down on the wire! she laid there wagging her tail and smiling at us. Disgusted, we went into the house to re-think the plan of attack. Not 5 minutes later she was yelping and running laps around the tree in the center of the yard. The zap couldn't get through the double layer of fur but sure didn't feel very good on the paws and nose, lol!
However, she could hear when the fence was on and when it wasn't. If the electric was on - she stayed away from the fence, but as soon as I turned it off so I could mow and weed-wack she was right there jumping on the fence looking for attention...
The fencer was strong enough to kill a squirrel who tried to climb through the fence one morning.

 

[Raech]

Well Dad found a coop for $200 comes with everything I could need including fencing and feeder, waterer and water heater. I am so excited that we found a good coop, Dad says you can't beat the price, the only trick is going to be moving it from where it is to our house, its about 45 minutes away and the coop is a 6'x9' with an add on to keep the rain and snow out of the coop. I really like it, but I wasn't sure if we could move it. Dad says it is on skids and should be a piece of cake, so he purchased it and now I just need to pay him back and then I will be the proud owner of a chicken coop that is all ready for my chickens this fall!!!!!! Best part is, it used to hold 14-20 chickens so I have plenty of space for my 5 and a turkey if I choose to go down that road later on.