Fence Height

[christinepi]

We'd like to build a bigger enclosed run area for our hound. What we currently have is a six foot fence right outside our back door (tiny area) to prevent the dog from escaping out the door. We are thinking of either a 5 or 6 foot livestock fence for the new area. 5 foot just doesn't seem that impressive (the new area would be large enough to gather speed/momentum), but 6 seems to be getting unsightly, but if that's the smart thing to do, we'll do that. What are peoples' feeling on this? Our hound is a slender, fit 73lb male, if that bit of info matters.

[Guest scfilby]

We've had this discussion here before. Our greys do well with a 4 foot fence. Some greys can and do jump 5 and 6 foot fences. It really depends on the hound. If you are unsure, err on the side of caution and go 6 feet.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

It doesn't really matter how much room they have to build up speed. Remember, greyhounds can get to top speed in less than 50 feet if they try. Also, my female can jump a 5' snow fence when she is standing right next to it, she doesn't need any room to run up to it, yes I have seen her do it. In my experience males are less inclined to jump fences. I have seen 4 hounds that jump/climb fences and all 4 were females. Not to say males don't jump, but my experience says its rare. I would think that a 5' or 6' privacy fence should do just fine. Reason I say privacy is so that if there is something that is on the other side, or something that runs and gets under the fence, they will no longer see the target and have less inclination to follow.

 

Chad

[Hubcitypam]

I've never had a problem with a 4 ft. fence and lots and lots of dogs. If I were doing it new and could choose I'd probably do 5 ft. , especially if I took my garbage and recycle out to the curb. I have an alley and I don't have to fart around with unlocking the gate now, I can toss stuff in the cans over the fence and am not sure I'd trade that.

 

Like Scifiby said it depends on the dog. I placed a 7 o8 8 year old broodie that could get over a 6 ft. privacy fence and be waiting on the front porch in the time it took her Mom to walk thu the house to the door.

[Guest Lovey_Hounds]

some of the greyhound farms i have visited have 4 1/2 foot chain link fences around their dog runs and that seems to work them. i personally have a 4 foot fence and everyone has stayed in ok, but i dont have an dogs who like to jump a lot. if you feel he might jump be on the cautious side and go taller.

[Guest sheila]

my fence is 3.5' and I've never had an issue with fence jumpers. My dogs have a 90x12' run too.

The bigger issue I've had is with the neighbor kids bouncing a ball into the run and leaving the gate open after retrieving it. I've had to resort to putting padlocks on all the gates for this reason.

[Guest Ola]

I probably wouldn't go with a fence less than 6' tall with any medium sized dog or bigger. Since it will be a big area though make sure that the fence is easily visible so they won't run into it while chasing something that caught their eye and not paying attention.

[gryhnd_adoptee]

When we fenced our yard, we went with a 6 foot livestock fence with 8 foot poles every 10 feet. We get a lot of snow our way, I would go with nothing less than 6ft. Because livestock fencing is not very robust compared to chain link, they are also never out there unsupervised. Also with this particular fencing being very hard to see, especially when the sun is low in the sky, I tied plastic garden ribbons on the fence about every 2.5 feet at eye level. Leave enough of a tail so they can clearly see the tape is there.

[Guest gurehaundo]

I always thought that my hounds would be inclined to jump a short fence. However, the house we are at now has four foot fencing in some places and maybe five foot sections in other areas. So far the hounds haven't even bothered trying to get over it. The fencing is made for farm animals so it has four inch wire square mesh (if you can call it mesh). As far as the Greyhounds go, they can see the cows and sheep on the other side of the fence and don't seem to care.

 

To answer your question, I think it depends on the hound. I know that doesn't help, but maybe you can visit a fenced in area that actually has a shorter fence and see how your boy does. I know that a lot of dog parks have four foot fences. Perhaps your hound won't even notice the height of the fence, but will notice that there is a fence there. Both of my males weigh about seventy-five pounds. Ace is tall and thin, Jac is a little shorter and stocky-looking.

 

This is our current fencing situation:

 

 

 

Here's Tenn chillin' with the cows. She's the coyote-hunting Greyhound who would be the most likely, in my opinion, to do something crazy like scale a fence. My NGA boys can't be bothered. (And as it turns out, Tenn can't be bothered either!)

 

[Guest MyBoys]

Our old house had a 4 foot fence, which always made me nervous because they could stand up at the fence so I was always outside with them in all kinds of weather . When we moved we had the solid PCV fence installed, at the top of the posts it is actually 8 feet, I also keep locks on both gates, It's my own little compound, I doubt my boys are getting out anytime soon.

Edited August 24, 2010 by MyBoys

[winnie]

We have a 5' spaced picket fence - no problems.

[Guest KennelMom]

I'd go as tall as possible, but we've had LOADS of greyhounds through here and only one has ever gone over our fence (our girl Tater). We have a mix of four foot and 6 foot sections...Once I had a foster that would climb out of her crate (7 foot high chain link, open at the top), but never even thought about going over our fence (though if she lived here for any length of time it would probably just have been a matter of time).

 

Most greys can clear four feet w/no problem...most never have the desire or inclination. 5 feet is better, 6 is ideal. If you are there with them, 4-5 feet around a large space is probably sufficient. If I ever enclosed an area where dogs would be unattended it'd be 6 foot minimum and NO chain link.

[Guest MyBoys]

Our old house had a 4 foot fence, which always made me nervous because they could stand up at the fence so I was always outside with them in all kinds of weather . When we moved we had the solid PCV fence installed, at the top of the posts it is actually 8 feet, I also keep locks on both gates, It's my own little compound, I doubt my boys are getting out anytime soon.

This is our fence, the solid part is 6 foot and another 2 feet to the top of the post.

[4greyhounds]

We had a 6' fence but when we bought our house in Apollo Beach due to the HOA restrictions we were only able to have a 4' fence and there has been no problems!!!!

 

We do stay outside with them though and the back of the property backs up to water!

[Guest Tokolos]

We have a 4-foot fence. The said, Sprinkles is pretty laid back, so I don't see him scaling it.

[Guest hshirlow]

We put up a 6 foot fence. When I go out the gate, Sunshine jumps up and looks over to see what I'm doing. I have a jumper on my hands!

[Guest Houndstown]

When we moved in the house we are in now, I was a little hesitant to install the 4 ft. fencing that everyone else had. After letting our pups run around in a neighbors yard, we discovered quickly that it was all they needed. One thing to remember is that though greyhounds can be wily, MOST do not think 3 dimensionally-they look at a target and go straight toward it, and if something gets in their way they try to go around it-not over it. Of course, every dog is different, and when it comes down to it, you just have to know your pup.

[Guest LindsaySF]

We've had this discussion here before. Our greys do well with a 4 foot fence. Some greys can and do jump 5 and 6 foot fences. It really depends on the hound. If you are unsure, err on the side of caution and go 6 feet.

X 2

 

I know someone with a male Grey that jumps 6 foot fences. I have a 4 foot fence, lots of dogs and fosters have come through here, never a problem. If I put them in the yard and walked away and they saw me leaving, or a cat came in and they chased it over the fence, that might be different.

[GreytNut]

6 feet is definitely better if you can do it. Depending on where you live, you may find that snow piles up against the fence, effectively shortening the height of your fence after a storm. If you have a 4-foot fence and 2-foot snow drifts, you have a 2-foot fence. Even if that's not any concern where you live, they are certainly capable of jumping 4 feet if properly motivated.

 

I have 4-foot chain link in the house I've just moved to and worry about it because we do get big snow drifts and because there are lots of loose cats, antelope, turkeys and deer that like to flit past the fence and drive my dogs nuts. They are allowed only into the separately fenced dog run when I can't be there to supervise, and as soon as we can afford to do so that fence is getting replaced. Ideally it would be with a solid privacy fence, but the winds tend to shove those over here so it will probably be 6-foot heavy duty chain link, with privacy slats in problem areas.

[kudzu]

Something like this just came up at an M&G today. Visitor & I both had similar experiences. Dogs that get out tend to either climb or dig under fences. My climbers didn't care how high the fence was or for the most part what type. One would go out of 6' privacy with hot wire around the top. However, she wouldn't go back in, just hang around the gate waiting for someone to notice & let her back in.

 

So it's 4' wire fencing for us. It is less climbable than chain link & very affordable compared to other options. We've yet to have a dog go over it however we had one go under. Not a single Grey has ever tried to get out. For a long run, approx 250 ft x 30 ft, I turn the power off to the 42 inch electric mesh fencing used for strip grazing. I stay out there with them & it works very well. They only run for a little while & then back into the dog yard. It is working very well for us & was easy on the budget. The dream is to ultimately finish the 48" livestock wire perimeter fencing with at least a top board railing. Beautiful dream! Should be attained before the mortgage is paid off. lol

 

Here's Tenn chillin' with the cows. She's the coyote-hunting Greyhound who would be the most likely, in my opinion, to do something crazy like scale a fence. My NGA boys can't be bothered. (And as it turns out, Tenn can't be bothered either!)

 

THAT is the type of fencing we plan for our perimeter. However, I did ultimately decide that for the dog yard I was going to leave the rail off. It makes the wire more climbable. As it is right now. The top of the wire fencing has a lot of give & actually seems to discourage climbing. Doubt that matter for my Greys & Staghound but it certainly did for my prior dogs.

[Guest grammarules]

We have a large 5' high pen. Shelby's has never jumped over it but, we made the mistake of putting a dog house in one corner. We thought we were smart by adding another 1' of fence around the area but, she climbed on the dog house and jumped out. Luckily she wasn't hurt. Needless to say we moved the dog house.