Exercise Area Question

[vern3]

I am about to enclose about an acre for the dogs to just run and play in.
What is the best wire to put up, ie (height and gauge)?
ALso is it best to lay the wire on top of the ground and use some type of staple
pushed into the ground to keep dog from just pushing under it? I am worried about
it rusting by contacting the ground, but also concerned if it is off the ground it
will be easier for dog to try and dig out.
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Vernon

[windswept]

Height is a good question. It depends on whether or not you have jumpers. I have two exercise yards with 5 foot chainlink but my dogs aren't jumpers. For the first yard I used top rail on both top AND bottom. On the second yard I saved a little money and had the installers stretch a cable along the bottom between the poles and wired the chainlink to it. Both have worked well for me. Good luck.

[Fireside]

If you have super diggers, I have gone so far as to dig a trench 12" deep and 24" wide (extending into the dog area). Lay 2"x2" galvanized wire mesh (that is 3' tall) in the trench and hog ring it to the bottom of the chainlink. Fill in the trench and voila.... no more dogs going under the fence!

[ezzy333]

I would use a good quality 5' welded wire on the outside of the posts and strech it tight an inch or so above the soil. Also use a 6' post so you can strech a single wire above your fence if you need it. If you have diggers strech a single wire about 3" above ground level using insulators on the inside of the posts and electrify both the top and bottom wire if needed.

Ezzy

[bobman]

I run a horse electic fence wire about 10 inches off the ground and a ground wire about 5 inches above it so I get a good ground, once they hit it once or twice and you wont be able to drag them up to it.

Then you can turn it off. The dogs will never go near it again ( too bad horses aren't that smart).

Its a good idea to leave it off anyway because they attract lightning hits, ours gets fried on our horse pasture every year.

TIP
you should do is let the dogs find out the hard way one dog in the yard at a time that the fence "bites".

If you have several dogs in the fence at a time and one gets shocked it can start a fight because the shocked dog thinks a dog near him did it.

I have horses also so I already had everything.

[fuzznut]

We fenced in about an acre for the boarding dogs to run in.
We used a plastic coated wire (black) that was 6 ft tall with 1 inch square mesh. We used 8 ft metal T poles from the farm store and when we put them in we made it so it didn't have "corners", but rather made them a sweeping curve. On the curved areas we put the fence on the outside of the poles....the weight of the fence is actually against the poles and they hold it up very well. That way the we didn't have to worry about supporting corner poles.

We stretched the bottom tight and as close to the ground as we could get it, but left the top fairly loose. In no time, the grasses, and weeds etc, grew through the bottom portion of the fence and holds it very securely...only a dedicated digger would get out of it. When we mow the area, we stay about 1 foot away from the fence, leaving that grass to grow. The curve also makes it easier to mow the field... no corners to have to mow!

The top we left fairly loose so if a dog tried to jump or climb it wouldn't have anything to grab onto, the looseness of the fence wouldn't hold their weight, and they can't get hold of it. Putting a top rail on there is just giving them something to grab onto and haul themselves up on.

It's been in for 4 yrs, no dogs have gone under or over so far and the fence still looks great! The black almost disappears into the background, and it's hardly noticeable. Security, when taking care of other peoples animals is important, and I don't worry about anyone escaping. And it was really easy to put up. My hubby and I did it all in about 3 hrs.
Fuzz

[Karen]

I ran an invisible fence wire around the top rail of a 4 ft fence and set it to keep the dogs a couple feet from the fence line to prevent digging and jumping.