!44: Help! My Dog Keeps Jumping the Fence Or Digging Under the Fence

!±8± Help! My Dog Keeps Jumping the Fence Or Digging Under the Fence

Do you have a dog who keeps jumping the fence or digs under no matter what you do? Been there, done that, have the T-shirt as they say. I have spent hours piling things up in front of holes, dragging pieces of wood over to block the fence, and repairing areas of the fence where my dogs have gotten out.

And never mind the time I've wasted rounding up my dogs after they escape. They are true Houdinis sometimes.

If you are having this problem it is crucial to stop your dogs from jumping the fence or digging under the fence because, no matter where you live, there is always the possibility your dog may get hit by a car, lost, or stolen. In my case we have coyotes in the field next to mine so it is even more of a problem.

Well, after I had used up every available piece of wood and brick to block the fence, I decided I had to move on to something that would work a little better. What I found that worked was electric wire along the top and along the bottom if you have dogs that go over and under. The great thing is, you often don't have to leave the wire on anymore after they get shocked one time because most leave it alone after that.

Now, I did have a bit of a problem with the wire on the bottom after a while because of grass and weeds growing around it and sometimes it would short out or stop working altogether. To fix that, I purchased an underground radio fence from Pet Safe and I have no problems anymore. In fact, if you don't want to mess with the electric wire you can just get the underground fence to begin with. I was surprised that it was pretty cheap and worked just as well as my friend's higher-priced fence that cost her about 5 times as much.

Unfortunately it's tough to train a dog to stay in the fence because there are so many outside factors that influence their desire to leave the yard, namely squirrels, other dogs, etc. But either an electric fence or an underground radio fence should solve your problems and keep your wandering dogs inside.