Oh my! Here on the farm, when pulling up to our home, you'd think it's Fort Knox! That's what it feels like.
Initially, we didn't have any fencing. We parked a trailor and lived in it while we built our home. During that time we just had Sky. She had complete run of the farm. There were no problems with this until she was about a year old. Our neihbors had 16 ugly, smelly, stinky ducks. Sky took to eating them! Yep, she loved them. How many did she eat, you ask? Now they have 4, you do the math!
Needless to say we had to hurry along and move into our home where we had a 3 board fence and a large dog pen. Our aunt and uncle had given us a PetSafe underground electric dog fence which we went ahead and installed. We didn't bury our wire, we simply run it along the bottom board on our fence. Sky being as brave as she is would still take the buzz and jump thru the boards. We then found a new collar made for the fence called a Stubborn Dog Receiver. This was wonderful. It has a much higher buzz setting and proved well with our containment problems.
We then got Tonka and introduced him to it and he did great too! Then came Star. Well, Star is the exception to every rule. Her coat is SO fluffy the metal prongs can't reach her skin. Thus Star can get out of our yard. We took to shaving Star's neck right at the prong area, which worked until I decided to show her and had to let the fluff come back. So to the pen with Star during the daytime and inside the secured house at night.
Cheyenne joined our family in early 2006. She took to the collar well from the beginning and spends her days in the yard with Tonka and Sky. She's been super.
Sky took to running out of the yard thru the entrance. We bought a metal gate with some extra wire around it to prevent that and also a push button gate opener that closes after 15 seconds. Sky doesn't get out that way anymore.
My fence pro hubby decided he had the answer to the fence problem with Star. We took high tinsel wire and stretched it between the middle and bottom board on our fence. Then we ran goat fencing from the ground to the top of the bottom board. Oh now, it simply must be inpenatrable. Nope. Not for Star. With her shocks not really affecting her she has plenty of time to squeeze between the tinsel wire and out to chase the cows.
I am in control of the next fencing decision. I plan to run the goat fencing from the ground to the top board and stake it to the ground. I believe at that point our dogs could all roam the yard freely. The only thing holding that up is time...