FARM Need input on electric fence

[Jakk]

I am having an issue with dogs digging under my fence. I bought a game cam and found out it's my neighbors dog doing the digging, and my dog as an accomplice waiting for the chicken to get sprung and then pouncing.

I have tried to secure my pens but live very rural and there are a lot of stray dogs in the area as well as coyotes, foxes and raccoons. Will putting an electric fence deter all these types of predators?

I am trying to find a kit that is all put together but so far I just find parts that need to be assembled and put together. I know nothing about electricity and would prefer something that can be put up and plugged in with minimal piecing together.

 

[mbabulldog]

by any chance are you located in Colorado? My side-business is Pet Stop fences, we'd be able to square you away right quick!

 

[Jakk]

I'm in South Carolina, do you ship?? lol

 

[Lone_Hawk]

Jakk,

I had a very smart escape artist dog that would dig under the fence so fast that she would be gone in the blink of an eye. I bought a roll of rabit fence. It is about 4 feet tall with 4x4 inch mesh at the top, and 2x4 mesh at the bottom. Your application would be the reverse of mine. In your case:

Lay out the fence so that the 4x4 mesh ends at ground level, and bend the fence so that the 2x4 mesh is laying flat on the ground. It won't take long from the grass to grow up and you will forget that it is there. The dogs will go to the base of the fence and start to dig and will hit wire fence and will quit immediatly.

For me, no more escapes, for you, no more illegal entries. And it is a cheap solution.

 

[Jakk]

I have 1/2 inch hardware cloth on the bottom 2 feet of the runs, and skirted around most of the coop. The one spot where the dog dug is where I couldn't lay the wire down due to a tree being close to the fence. I also didn't have the wire by the doors because I kept catching the door on it so I moved it. There is no grass where the coop is located. I have tons of pine needles that have covered the fencing, but no grass will grow up through it.

Let me see if I can find a few pics to give you an idea of my set up.

 

[Wildweasel]

If you've got a dog digging underneath your fence, you need to stop him from doing that, not electrify the fence. The easiest way to stop any animal from trying to dig underneath your fence is to put something they will not dig through underneath your fence.

That said, dig a six-inch wide trench along and underneath the fence about one foot to a foot and a half deep and back fill it with #2A crushed stone. No animal will try to dig through that because of how it hurts their paws and claws. End of problem.

We used that method to prevent critters from dgging their way underneath the perimeter fences at airfields when I was in the military. I put it on my to do list for any fence I build after seeing how it worked.

WW

 

[Jakk]

This is my coop before we put the wire down. There is a tree on the left side between my dog pen and chicken run. That is where the dog dug up.

This was as we started to surround it with the hardware cloth. There is a tree right there in front and one on the left side (out of view) where I didn't put the wire down. On the left is where the dog was digging. We took 4 foot sections of big trees (we had to take them down this summer) and laid them across where he was digging. Last night I caught him on the game cam standing on top of the logs.

I'd rather not have to surround my coop with big logs. This is why I'm thinking electric fence instead.

 

[mbabulldog]

I'm in South Carolina, do you ship?? lol

oops, a bit outside my territory.

you "may" be able to get away with an electric fence system from Petco or one of the larger pet store supply stores around you. The systems they offer don't offer a lot of the bells and whistles pet stop does, but it may do the trick.

I will ask one question, it will make all the difference: what breed is your digger?

 

[duchess47]

Are you trying to keep dogs out of the chicken pen? - you could do that with electric wire. Are you trying to keep dogs from digging under the fence around the property or dog run? - the best thing I have found to stop digging is hog panels. Cut two foot wide lengths and lay them down where you don't want the dog to dig. They are heavy, don't move, don't rust, don't give.

 

[Jakk]

He is a little Jack Russel Terrier mix and my dog is Border Collie mix. The weird thing is that Odie (the JRT mix) is always over my house and has never bothered my chickens when they are free ranging. My dog though would eat them all in a heartbeat, yet has never tried to dig around the fence. You can see in this picture the heavy cement stepping stones I put down over the wire to keep them from moving it. It is also zip tied to the hardware cloth that is on the bottom two feet of the left side pen. The right side pen is fully enclosed with hardware cloth.

 

[duchess47]

Well, you could get a small charger at the feed store if you have power out there or a solar charger. Buy the electric fence insulators that stand out about 6", put them up about 4" off the ground and run electric wire around. You could nail the insulators to the wood posts, I guess you would have to wire to the chain link. I'm guessing at the height off the ground - low enough the dogs would hit it with their head when they went to dig.

Your chickens have an outstanding run

 

[Jakk]

Here is the little bastard standing on top of the logs we put down...

 

[Publius]

Putting wire fence down around the outside the pen and anywhere else they can dig under to get in, you can search around for old wire fencing and make homemade pegs like tent pegs to hold it down until the grass can grow up around it. I have done this my self and dogs and wild animals don't think of backing up two feet to get under the wire and can't get past the wire the buried in the ground and you can bend part of on the 90 degree so three inches go's up against the pen fencing and wire it right to the chicken wire.


Edit Add: Every State in the country allows a livestock owner to kill dogs that are attacking their livestock and this includes back yard chicken flocks and rabbits and its best not to ever confront the dog owner after doing so but call the dog warden and let them know and is there is a collar with a tag give them the number off of it. You don't even have to call the animal control just get rid of it.

 

[Jakk]

Publis, that is what I did but there are spots where the trees are too close to the chain link fence that I couldn't put it down. That is where the dog dug down.

 

[duchess47]

Determined little cuss isn't he?

 

[duchess47]

Well, the one thing about dogs (at least all of mine) is that if they hit hot wire once, they avoid it forever after.

 

[bw]

there are a lot of stray dogs in the area as well as coyotes, foxes and raccoons. Will putting an electric fence deter all these types of predators?

I doubt that electric fences will affect raccoons at all. They'll walk right under.

 

[mbabulldog]

any dog with JRT in its genes is going to be a SOB to break of ANY habit. its been my experience you won't have any success with the hard fencing, they will think through the problem and keep digging. I'm actually quite surprised they simply haven't started climbing over the fence yet (it WILL come, mark my words).

you need a dog fence and collar, plain and simple.

 

[diamonds]

All of your solutions are nice but down here we eliminate the problem... Packs and chicken killers are put down... If the dog belongs to a neighbor then too bad so sad... Their rights end where your property line begins....

Flame away but I just lost all our rabbits to the neighbor dog... Dog is no longer a problem and I feel no sympathy... A responsible dog owner takes care of their animal and they do not run 24/7 and impede on other peoples rights... If it is an occasional escape situation then that is totally different and understandable...

 

[Dozdoats]

A good hotwire will definitely stop a dog, no matter how determined. And fencing can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. There are electric fence chargers available that run off 120v wall current, solar and batteries. Your local farm supply store should have everything you need in stock, and you can set up a single strand of hotwire close enough to the ground and close enough to your existing fence to zap the dogs when they touch it.

Take a look at http://www.kencove.com/fence/ for supplies, see https://www.kencove.com/fence/catalog_request.php? to request a free fence guide that will tell you what you need to know to set up anything from miles of 7-strand high tensile livestock fence to a couple of strands of hotwire to keep predators away from the chickens. Many of the farm supply stores around here have copies of one or another fence guide that they give away. Parmak has their guide online in .pdf format at http://www.baygard.com/installation.php - we've used a Parmak fence charger on our fence for years.

You can do this, and it will work...

 

[Jakk]

Thank you to everyone for your responses. I think I will go into TSC and ask to see what they have so I can set up a hot wire.

 

[Sasquatch]

This is the one I got from TSC to deter the goats from getting into our orchard. It's not very powerful but gives them a bite. Any weeds or fallen twigs across the hot wire and the ground will short this charger out pretty easily.

There are two connections, one is for the ground wire which is attached to the 8' ground rod, the other attaches to the electric wire.

My T-post driver did a good job of getting the ground rod down to a manageable point.