Any "best Friend Fence" Experience?

[Guest Bree]

Hello, does anybody have personal experience using the "Best Friend Fence" brand fencing for greyhounds? (Specifically the "Rover's Retreat" kit which is on sale right now: http://www.bestfriendfence.com/prod-fence-kits.asp ). We are living in a rental home with a nice little grassy backyard that is currently un-fenced. When we first adopted our greyhound I didn't think we'd regret not having a fenced yard since our neighborhood is perfect for long walks and we have a dog park a 10min drive away... but more and more I think how much our girl would enjoy playing in our own backyard and being able to safely come out with us when we're spending time in the yard (which is a lot when the weather is nice).

 

Some info: Our greyhound is a nearly-70-pound female. When at the dog park or in friend's yards, she has put her feet up on fences, but hasn't tried to jump even short fences. She is easily deterred indoors by any type of makeshift barrier (i.e. baby gate or cardboard just leaning in a doorway) and hasn't shown signs of becoming a daring escapist despite being incredibly strong/powerful on a leash. But she *does* have a very high prey drive for squirrels and cats. The Rover's Retreat kit has a max height of 5ft 5in which seems reasonable for her non-digging non-fence-jumping personality. Our yard is surrounded on three sides by very dense 6ft high bushes and a shed, on one side by the back of the house, and then one side is completely open facing the side of the driveway. We would completely fence it in including along the bushes but the only side with no "extra" support would be along the driveway.

 

So my question is if anybody has had any good/bad experience with this brand of fencing, i.e. if your greyhound was able to push it over easily if they leaned/jumped up on it? Did you need to also purchase a tension cable along the top? Does the "nearly invisible" aspect pose a safety problem while they're running/playing? We would use the Best Friend Fence as a supervised fencing option only and never ever ever leave her out un-attended...our intention is just to create a small run/play area that our landlord will not care about and removable if we move out and will not block sunlight to the bushes.

 

I know there are other impermanent fencing options out there like livestock fencing etc (and if you have other suggestions please let me know!) but I was first drawn to Best Freind Fencing because it came together in a kit that has everything we need to put it up and they also sell gates that fit the exact sizes of their fences.

 

Apologies if this has been posted about before, couldn't easily find a post on it and I'm new to the forums. Thanks for your time!

Edited August 18, 2013 by Bree

[tuff]

I have no experience with this fence, but would worry about any "hard to see" fence with a greyhound. Their brain can engage a few seconds after their legs when in pursuit of something. One of mine ran through a green wire garden fence that had always been there when he took off after another dog. He did 2 complete somersaults in the air before crash landing. Scared the crap out I'd me. I would want to see how invisible it is.

[Guest Bree]

Thanks, that's a good point. You'd think after being familiar with a space they wouldn't run into a fence that they already knew was there...but like you said, their legs start before their brain! This particular fencing is black and it says that's the least visible color outdoors, so perhaps we could spray paint it a bright color or string contrasting tape through the mesh? Only the area along the driveway would be the only section I would be worried about.

[OwnedBySummer]

I'd also be concerned about the invisibility. You could also tie ribbons onto it (you can even get the red plastic from Home Depot/Lowe's which they have available for free when you have something sticking out the back of your vehicle and cut it up). I think the fluttering helps. Some of us have these ribbons on our portable gates for playdates.

[Finnsliz]

We have used this fencing with no problems for 2 sides of our yard. We did put orange snow fencing over it in the furthest area so we could see if something had happened to the fence with a quick glance. Here in the north east it was checked after every snow fall. Any slightly sagging areas of the fencing tended to collect snow and had to be shaken off.

Any dog friends coming over were walked around the perimeter so they knew the boundaries. Never had a problem here, but we have always had dogs who were very respectful of boundaries and never challenged them. Also we have a VERY private back yard. The areas that are closest to the house and driveway are wooden picket fence.

It lasted 6 years, but this year we noticed some breakage at the bottom where bunnies and woodchucks were entering and leaving the yard. We replaced it with welded wire.

.

[jetcitywoman]

We have a split rail fence around our back yard with "pet mesh" stapled to it. The pet mesh is pretty invisible and I wondered if the dogs would run right through it between the rails after a bunny or squirrel. It's been more than five years now and they haven't. I'm not sure if it's because the rails are very visible so they stop and don't try to go between them or what. But if you like the look of a split rail (like to keep the open look and feel), that might be an option.

[3greytjoys]

Welcome!

 

I would encourage you to please consider metal fencing with metal fence posts. Farm center stores carry much safer, and more durable fencing in rolls or panels. There are ready-made gates available too.

 

Personally, the only time I'm even semi-comfortable using temporary fencing (like the link in your original post) is for a dog event where there are many people surrounding the enclosure and fully supervising a dog participating in a game. Your hound could escape out of that soft fencing material very easily. A squirrel, cat, bird, or a piece of litter blowing in the wind is enough to send her flying through, over, or under that soft barrier material. Hounds can rip or chew through them in seconds. We had a Greyhound barrel straight into a similar fence at an event. Fortunately, there were enough humans on guard to prevent an escape, and thankfully the hound was not injured. Greyhounds really need sturdy, visible fencing material. (Imagine a motorcycle going 25-45 mph.)

 

 

 

 

[silverfish]

I would be very wary of installing an 'invisible' type fence with a sighthound.

 

I have seen, first-hand (with my heart in my mouth) a young, fit female greyhound run full tilt at a six or seven foot high, much LESS 'invisible' fence than this one, and only see it at the very last minute. If she'd run straight into it I'm convinced she'd have broken her neck on the spot. Her gaze was fixed on some running dogs about three or four hundred yards beyond the fence and it's a miracle that she saw it at all. As it was, she only had time to try to 'climb' up it, and ended up doing an extremely spectacular back flip, screaming all the way, and landing heavily in the grass. This was at a fenced paddock, with a greyhound trainer in attendance and not one of us expected that dog to get up. She did, however, and we all considered her to be incredibly lucky. It nearly gave her poor owner a heart attack.

 

When we ran the dogs at that field again, I took a roll of black and yellow hazard warning tape with me to decorate the fence with, but trust me, the effect of a post and rails with netting between the gaps would have been far prettier and less intrusive!

[Saffron]

I have it too on 3 sides of my yard. I agree with Finnsliz. Our fence has contained 4 greyhounds over the years and one Galgo, but none of them (including the Galgo) are escape artists. I would not describe it as invisible, especially to the greys, more unobtrusive. We walk new or visiting dogs around the perimeter. After that, they know where it is and slam on the brakes as they approach it. It probably wouldn't hurt if they did hit it. It has a sort of trampoline effect so you bounce off it. Yes, I've tested it personally by running full tilt at it!

 

We used the 7' deer fencing wound around mature trees and supplemented it by posts more frequently than recommended. I'm not sure I'd trust the 5' version with our pups. We also pegged down a good 12" at the bottom and used a lot of extra pegs. We have 3 (instead of the recommended 2) strands of tension wire threaded through the fencing at different levels. We check it after every snow storm, high wind that brings branches down, and ice storm. It was only damaged in one place after the massive ice storm a few years ago. This was a storm that brought down many wooden fences. We have needed to patch the bottom of the fence a few times and we check it frequently. We'd do that with any fence.

 

The cons are that it is not as easy to install as they would like you to believe -- at least in our yard where tree roots and rocks abound. We also did not like the gates. They are quite ugly and went off line too often. We replaced the fencing at the front of our yard with more attractive 6' wooden fencing and more secure gates about 3 years ago.

 

I hope that helps.

[Guest Bree]

Thank you for all the information, everybody! This really helps.

 

Seems like even if we *do* go with this brand of fencing that it would end up being way more expensive than just the kit provides because sounds like those that have it added extra posts, the added tension wires, etc.

 

I'll look into other options of the metal fencing as suggested too...stories of greyhounds running into mesh-type fences is definitely scary. It we owned our house instead of renting, I would put up a wooden privacy fence in a heartbeat. Thanks again and keep the suggestions coming if you've had experience with this type fence or other ideas that might work.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Bree

[Guest Scoobmom]

I just noticed you're in Bay Village - we're in Chardon. You might have heard of Tractor Supply Company. We got the BEST type of fencing there just about a month ago. I know they also have this at Lowe's and Home Depot (although without the horizontal support bar in the middle). The type at Tractor Supply is called Stephens Pipe and Steel Kennel. Basically it's 6 feet tall, chain link, and you can buy as many 10-foot wide panels as you need. If you buy the complete "kennel", it comes with four panels, one of which includes a door. Nothing goes into the ground - all of the panels attach to each other and then ultimately a post of some sort on each end (we secured ours into the house, although I know you probably can't do that). We also put some support stakes every 20 feet or so - just pounded into the ground. Nothing permanent. My husband and I put up 300 feet of this in one day! At our last house we had a wooden privacy fence, which was nice, but needed to be professionally installed, etc. 300 feet of this fencing cost us around $2,000 and the best part is that you can take it with you when you go! Just unclip the panels and load it into a (very large) truck!

 

I'm SO glad we found this because you can make it as big or small as you want and you can move it around to section off muddy spots or whatever. Our adoption agency people recommended it and they have years of Greyhound experience and experience with this fence.

 

I was actually going to do a post about this fencing. I recommend it that much!

 

Here's pictures of ours:

 

 

 

[Guest Bree]

I just noticed you're in Bay Village - we're in Chardon. You might have heard of Tractor Supply Company. We got the BEST type of fencing there just about a month ago. I know they also have this at Lowe's and Home Depot (although without the horizontal support bar in the middle). The type at Tractor Supply is called Stephens Pipe and Steel Kennel. Basically it's 6 feet tall, chain link, and you can buy as many 10-foot wide panels as you need. If you buy the complete "kennel", it comes with four panels, one of which includes a door. Nothing goes into the ground - all of the panels attach to each other and then ultimately a post of some sort on each end (we secured ours into the house, although I know you probably can't do that). We also put some support stakes every 20 feet or so - just pounded into the ground. Nothing permanent. My husband and I put up 300 feet of this in one day! At our last house we had a wooden privacy fence, which was nice, but needed to be professionally installed, etc. 300 feet of this fencing cost us around $2,000 and the best part is that you can take it with you when you go! Just unclip the panels and load it into a (very large) truck!

 

I'm SO glad we found this because you can make it as big or small as you want and you can move it around to section off muddy spots or whatever. Our adoption agency people recommended it and they have years of Greyhound experience and experience with this fence.

 

I was actually going to do a post about this fencing. I recommend it that much!

 

Here's pictures of ours:

 

 

 

 

Oh awesome, thank you for that info and the photos! I'd looked on the Tractor Supply Co site before but hadn't seen this (since I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for)... I didn't realize there was a type of kennel fence that could be connected like this into any size and shape. We'd need about 150 feet worth so that isn't too bad. Thanks!