Fence Jumping

[Heather Thompson]

We are ready to add a 2nd doodle our household, and have been looking at rehomes & rescues in our area.  We found a rehome near us, the family is having to rehome her because they have a split rail fence that backs to open space with a walking path, and the doodle girl clears the fence every time someone walks by with a dog.  Their HOA rules won't allow them to build a higher fence, and they're worried she will one day either not come home or will get hurt.  She's 3 so they've been "dealing" with the issue for quite some time.  They are sad to give her up, but feel its in her best interest.

 

We have a 6' privacy fence, and another doodle to keep her company.  I'm not concerned about her jumping our fence, but am concerned she might dig under our fence in lieu of jumping.  Anyone have any experience with a similar issue?  I'd love your thoughts before I talk to the family.  Thanks much!

[1xar0x2rcx0li]

I have a fence jumper too, and I would never give her up just for that. There are other options. But maybe this is thier loss and your gain. You could add an underground electric fence to you existing fence about a foot inside your property. That way the dog can learn to not go near the fence to attempt a jump/dig, and the solid fence keeps other critter out (the common complaint with electric fences). We are thinking of this for our current puppy. We have a fully fenced yard and she can climb the fence faster than spiderman. You can also attach chicken wire to the bottom and bury the other end in a trench to extened about a foot into your yard and resod grass over top. More work, but can deter a digger somewhat.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

When we put up our new fence, we left our invisible fence for this very reason. hasn't become a problem, but I can see where it would work. We also have a neighbor with 2 doodles that have the split rail with the plastic coated wire to keep them in. These guys just chewed a hole in the wire. We also have a neighbor with an old english sheepdog that had invisible fence and the neighbors were complaining because the dog would charge the street with a mean growl when people walked by. If you didn't know he had invisible fence, you would problably be scared to death. He also came through the fence a few times as I saw him standing in the middle of the street. They put up an 6' solid vinyl type privacy fence and now you can hear the sheep dog jumping up on it on the other side. he can't see out, but he can smell and hear. I keep waiting for the panel to just come down one of these days. The little labradoodle that we just fostered was a jumper. We bought a new babygate while he was here because he jumped the original one. We bought a 41" one, and within 5 mins he just jumped right over it. No running start or anything, just standing flat footed to straight over the gate.

[Adina P]

There's a cool rolling bar thing that can be added to the top of fences that prevents animals from crawling over the fence!  I have to look it up...might be an option for that family IF they would prefer to keep their dog.  As for digging...may or may not switch from jumping to digging. But I would imagine digging takes longer to accomplish, thus simple supervision would keep the dog from digging under.  Tough though!

[Adina P]

Hmmm I just re-read your post and if the dog can clear the fence (vs climb it) the roller bar won't help.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I agree with Jane.
But also, a typical split rail fence is 3' high. Jackdoodle could practically step over that, and probably would if the motivation was strong enough, i.e., one of his friends on the other side. That's really not any kind of containment system at all, and the dog is just doing it because she sees other animals walking by, it's an immediate response. With your 6' privacy fence, the dog most likely wouldn't even see the other dogs, so there would be no motivation to try to get to something that she can't see. And by the time she could dig a big enough space under the fence, the other dogs would be gone.
If she isn't a 'digger", she's unlikely to become one just to escape from the yard.
Now, if the family isn't being honest, and she's jumping the fence all the time whether there is another dog walking by or not just to get out of the yard, that's a different story.

[Kate MacKenzy]

Sounds more like the dog was bored and got distracted when someone or something the other side looked more interesting. Hopefully she will have enough to keep her occupied on her side of the fence. Or you could attach a width of chicken wire to the bottom edge of the fence and bury it into the turf as a precaution as they do to stop rabbits out.

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

You could section off an area and build a large dog run area for them within your already fenced yard, if you can't be out with them all the time. This would cut cost on adding either an E.F. or you could trench and extend the fencing, than cement. I would also be concerned that she is jumping the fence just to get out?

[Eva (Lilo and Rocky)]

Our neighbor's dogs used to dig under our joint fence and came into our yard to play with Lilo and Rocky. We didn't mind, but the neighbors did ;) So they dug down a 2 foot deep along-the-fence concrete barrier and we haven't had spontaneous playdates since. This was a lot of work and I'm really glad they did it, so we didn't have to... Perhaps the dog's escape tendencies is due to the fact she is bored and understimulated... it will take her longer to dig out than to jump a low fence, so you will have time to stop the behavior if you see it.

[Heather Thompson]

All, thanks for the feedback. We've only traded really basic emails up until this point, so I wanted to get some other opinions on the matter to help me round out my list of quesitons. I agree that if this is her only undesireable behavior is escaping to see a friend, then Ruckus will likely be plenty of entertainment for her. Glad to hear that she's likely not going to be a digger if she's not one already. But these doodles are just SO smart!