Fence escape artist!

[Hello Kitty]

Our neighbors have a dog who has turned into houdini. He's incredibly persistent in digging under their privacy fence. They've tried boulders, and he moves them. Chicken wire doesn't faze him. He's been 'staked' in the middle of the yard, but gets tangled up.

This morning, he was outside his fence, but still tied up to a zip-line-type overhead tie thing (:o sorry for the poor description) that ran in the fence. Our neighbors are really nice people, and their dog is friends with our dog. We don't want to see him go :( but unless we can think of anything else to keep him in, it may come down to that.

Does anyone have any suggestions to keep him in? Or any ideas to what could cause this behavior?

[TazLuv]

I'm no expert but my beagle likes to dig as well. Usually she is after something, she smells a bunny on the other side of fence, sees a cat or something like that. I've also heard dogs dig because they're bored. A solution I have heard, though I haven't tried it, is to give them an area in the yard where they CAN dig. Like a sandbox type area - to train them that it is okay to dig there you bury treats and toys in it so they get a "reward" when they dig there versus other areas.

Since they have a privacy fence maybe he just doesn't like not being able to see what is going on. Maybe it would be possible to replace one section of privacy fence with regular chain link on a corner or at a gate so that he could see out?

Those are just things that I've heard and that come to mind for us - with our Molly we have a chain link fence and we just had to put some stakes in it to make it tighter so that she couldn't get under it. She digs a lot less now.

Good luck.

[fuzzy]

Any chance they can shorten the zip line/lead so he won't be able to reach the fence?

I don't know if this is feasible, but...

I read an article about what to do if you garden and have a digger (and we do). The suggested that you lay chicken wire under and dirt/mulch (I suppose you could use this "under" grass, too). The dogs can't get dig through the wire and give up trying. I haven't done this yet, because I'm afraid my psycho puppy might keep digging and tear up her pads, but...

[Hello Kitty]

Hi - thanks both for your replies. Here are the updates:

I found him wandering around this morning, so I let both of our dogs play for a bit, then his owner came to get him, after driving all around town. I found out that Boots is under 1, so he may have some puppy-ness in him still (he's a lab mix). He's also not yet neutered, which I said would most likely make a huge difference. He doesn't want to dig, but he wants to get out and explore.

They fenced in a smaller section of his fence, and are in the process of lining the edges tight with boulders. He got out this AM in a section that was un-bouldered. So hopefully, they can line the rest of it and see if that keeps him in. Fuzzy - that's a good idea about shortening his zip line.

Tazluv - I've always wondered about dogs that can't see outside their fences. I think that's a great suggestion.

I also wonder if he may be a little bored and restless. This family has 3 small kids, one of them with special needs, and I might offer to take him on walks when I walk my dog - but we've only met them recently (when the prison breaks started occuring, lol) so I don't want to seem like a psycho :p

Fuzzy - we loaned them chicken wire from when our pup was in a digging phase. I can tell you, it absolutely worked for her. She never hurt her paws on it either. But I think the feeling was kind of unplesant, so she stopped. She eventually grew out of digging all together.

[Sophia]

Our mini-dachshund used to escape. The only thing that stopped him was lining the entire bottom perimeter of the fence with landscape timbers.

[Hello Kitty]

Just to update - Boots jumped the fence-inside-a-fence last week and hasn't come back :( Our other neighbor said he got picked up by animal control, but so far, Boots hasn't returned to the yard - I'm thinking either his owners gave him up, or he didn't really get picked up by A.C. :(

[TazLuv]

That is too bad - it sounds like he needs a home with lots of room to run, hopefully they'll find one for him. :(

[lml41981]

Bumping this for ideas...Our dogs are digging furiously. I know they're trying to get to our neighbor's dogs. Our neighbors keep their dogs outside all the time and their side of the fence has an electric fence. So, their dogs don't dig because they don't want to get shocked. Instead, they taunt our dogs and make our dogs dig.

Because they're digging to get to the neighbor's dogs, I don't think giving them a sandbox will work, but we need ideas. We've had lots of rain and they've destroyed the grass in our backyard with their damn digging...so everytime they come in the house, I end up cleaning up muddy pawprints from my floor. If I slack off on cleaning it, the dirt gets ground in and I spend an hour scrubbing the floor. So, I am hoping that stopping the digging will work.

What do we use? DH thinks they'll just dig under landscape timbers. I hesitate to use an electric fence because it just seems cruel...plus Maggie and Gretchen aren't the brightest dogs in the world. I worry they'll keep going back for more.

Ideas?

[Hello Kitty]

Well, Boots has become an indoor dog, for the most part, after his owners picked him up at puppy prison. I see him contentedly in the fence inside a fence occassionally, but it really stinks for them that he can't have their full yard. Their concern is keeping him safe and with the family, so I have to give them a lot of credit for that.

LML - If it were my dog, I would do the underground fencing right alongside our existing fencing. IMO, I see it as keeping her safe. And from what I've read, the shocking is more like an insurance - it's really about teaching them boundaries and where they need to stay.

Could you bury the timbers in the ground a bit? They might get discouraged that they can't dig out immediately and stop digging.

It does stink that your neighbor's dogs seem to be part of the problem, and like you say, taunting your girls. I've had to do a lot of work to get my dog's focus off of other dogs because she's addicted to playing with other dogs when she sees 'em.

[NotDesperate]

What about an invisible fence? It could go along just inside the perimeter of the big fence and he would eventually not even go near the fence.

I think he needs more exercise! Can't they walk him? Play with him? Give him some kind of mental stimulation?

[fuzzy]

Just offering my opinion -- the electric/invisible fences? They rock and aren't cruel, I promise. Daisy isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and she "got" it within a few weeks.

I've also received suggestions that you should lay chicken wire down on the dug areas and then re-soil/seed/sod. If the dog digs again, they'll run into the chicken wire. I'm sure it stops them, but that seems cruel to me, as I can just see bloody paws pads going on there.

[NotDesperate]

I also do nto think invisible fences are cruel.

What is more cruel is allowing your dog to keep escaping to end up in God knows what kind of danger.

With a fence he gets a little shock a dozen or so times and then he wanhts to stay in his safe yard from now on.

I do not think chicken wire will work for such a hard-headed, determined dog.

Ever read "Marley & Me"? Marley was like this dog you are describing and chicken wire would have not worked.

[Sophia]

Lynds, we installed the landscape timbers 2 1/2 years ago. Before that, Milo, the mini dachshund, would dig out at least once per week and run around the neighborhood, which, aside from being mortifying, made me worry he'd get run over. Ren, the older chihuahua, would often follow him (we didn't have Monte at that point). We'd block off one area and he'd find a new weak point. Since the landscape timbers were installed he hasn't gotten out a single time. They go all the way around the perimeter and are set down a few inches into the dirt, right up against the fence. It was also quicker and easier to install those than any of the other things we tried (here and the previous house), none of which worked anyway. After we put them in we got new neighbors to one side, and their dogs drive my dogs (especially Milo) NUTS. But he hasn't been able to dig under the fence.