House fencing question

kcult

kcult

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My house sits on just an acre. We have the backyard fenced in, but my wife thinks she would like to have the front yard fenced, to give her dog more room to run.

I don't like fencing that goes all the way around a house. I think the house should be open and somewhat inviting on the front side, considering we live in a neighborhood.

If your house has fencing, how is it laid out? Is it backyard only or all the way around your property or house?
 
Old place had most of the backyard fenced in, here we did a much smaller section of the back.
 
kcult said:
And that's your preference, correct?
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Well yes but also what most HOA's do because of the look as you mentioned. You have an entire acre but how much is in the back yard? We had a full acre most in the front but still had a huge back yard.
 
Cowboy said:
Well yes but also what most HOA's do because of the look as you mentioned. You have an entire acre but how much is in the back yard? We had a full acre most in the front but still had a huge back yard.
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We're in a neighborhood, but not HOA.

I would say that the fenced in backyard is almost half of the lot. My house is pretty much centered front to back, although it is more to the right side than left.

We went with the black, vinyl wrapped, chain link fence and I like the way it makes house look. I don't think it would be as appealing with it running all the way around and in front.
 
Just the back. Looks better usually.
I considered doing the front. Some neighborhoods I might, but not for a dog, way too much expense and/or labor.
 
kcult said:
We're in a neighborhood, but not HOA.

I would say that the fenced in backyard is almost half of the lot. My house is pretty much centered front to back, although it is more to the right side than left.

We went with the black, vinyl wrapped, chain link fence and I like the way it makes house look. I don't think it would be as appealing with it running all the way around and in front.
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Well you've got a few things to think about. Resale if you believe it is not your final destination as it probably would not be the best curb appeal. The probably the most important is how is the wife when she doesn't get her way? ain't nobody happy at my house if momma ain't happy.
 
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Cowboy said:
Well you've got a few things to think about. Resale if you believe it is not your final destination as it probably would not be the best curb appeal. The probably the most important is how is the wife when she doesn't get her way? ain't nobody happy at my house if momma ain't happy.
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Long story short, when we die, we won't be in another house.

Luckily, she's not adamant. I think I have her convinced how trashy it looks. Even showed her a few examples.

There's enough room in the back that if her dog gets away from her and decides to evade her, she'll never catch it. Lol.
 
My neighbor recently put black chainlink up and I’d have to say it looks good. I would like to have my entire area fenced but not right now
 
Scsmith42 said:
A fully fenced lot, coupled with a good protection dog (German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, etc) sure is a deterrent to the bad guys...

A remote controlled gate to go with it is a good idea too.
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I can definitely see the appeal, but I think that works best with a little more seclusion and acreage.

My stepmom had property just as you described (minus the dog). She had a house and a mobile home sitting on five acres. The entire property is fenced. It looks just fine.
 
Darkhorse said:
My neighbor recently put black chainlink up and I’d have to say it looks good. I would like to have my entire area fenced but not right now
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Considering my wife paid for it, I do not regret her decision on the type and color. Lol.

But it does look really good, imo.
 
Neighbor fenced in his entire 5.66 acres. I thought he was nuts. :confused:
 
8 acre property with 1 acre fenced in. Split rail fence with 2x4 welded wire to keep dogs in and coyote out. Dogs can completely circle house and garage, while excluding the " fields beyond" ( see definition of curtilage).

I wouldn't have it any other way .
 
Check your zoning, there might be a code reason to not build a fence in front.
 
12151791 said:
I think I am stating the obvious here (sorry) but why not an invisible fence? https://www.invisiblefence.com/
Itis amazing how quickly the dog knows its limit.
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I totally forgot about that. Lol.

In that scenario, do they forget their learnin' after you drag them across it for the occasional walk around the neighborhood? From my understanding, you remove the collar after a while. Or am I wrong?
 
kcult said:
I totally forgot about that. Lol.

In that scenario, do they forget their learnin' after you drag them across it for the occasional walk around the neighborhood? From my understanding, you remove the collar after a while. Or am I wrong?
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From experience, no they do not forget the learning on the occasional walk - I think they know it is safe (not getting zapped) because the owner is accompanying the dog.
Yes, you remove the zap collar after a while. Funny all you gotta do is show the dog the collar if they try to get too close to the established boundary and they ran back so fast.
 
12151791 said:
From experience, no they do not forget the learning on the occasional walk - I think they know it is safe (not getting zapped) because the owner is accompanying the dog.
Yes, you remove the zap collar after a while. Funny all you gotta do is show the dog the collar if they try to get too close to the established boundary and they ran back so fast.
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That isn’t how we were told to use it, or how my dogs were trained. They are not supposed to know it is the collar, and there was nothing about stopping using it after a while.

Yes, they learn the boundary but some will definitely test it occasionally and if they find it isn’t there - bye!

They do learn that walking out on a leash is “safe”.


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JimP42 said:
That isn’t how we were told to use it, or how my dogs were trained. They are not supposed to know it is the collar, and there was nothing about stopping using it after a while.

Yes, they learn the boundary but some will definitely test it occasionally and if they find it isn’t there - bye!

They do learn that walking out on a leash is “safe”.


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Correct, invisible fence installer did say to keep the collar on but in my experience it was fine to take off the collar on our Beagle (maybe Beagles are a smarter breed). But to your point, our neighbor has some kind of Terrier (I think Scottish Terrier) and in 4 years he escaped to our yard once so yes, it does happen.
 
It can go both ways with dogs and invisible fences. Some learn where boundary is and will not cross with out being dragged across. Some learn which collar will bite and which don't. A few can learn when the battery is low and say "F it" and run thru it.

But the main thing is: It keeps your pet in, but does not keep others out.

We have 6 acres that is all fenced with cattle fence. Works for us because its more like a farm less like a yard.

If I had to do a front yard I would use a wood fence with welded wire behind it. Wire is hard to see unless close up to it
 
Don't become complacent with an invisible fence.

Our old 165-lb Newfoundland quickly learned the boundaries of the invisible fence, but ...

When one of my sons got into an altercation with some kids in an adjacent yard, the Newfoundland bounded right over the fence line to rescue his buddy.

One day I saw the Newfoundland apparently walking along near the fence line and I thought "what a smart dog to know so well where the fence is located." When he walked into direct sunlight and stopped, I could see that his shoulder muscles were twitching; he was walking along the fence line to get an electro-massage!
 
Yeah...all they have to do is figure out it only hurts as they cross it. My brother has a dog across the street that has figured it out, and will run full speed across it when he wants to. Not sure why the owner hasn’t come up with plan B.
 
My brother had the underground fence. His German Shepherd learned to run through the hot zone. He would back up and get a run and yelp when he went through the zone. He would roam where he wanted and run back through to come home, yelping as he crossed the line.
 
We've got the PetSafe invisible fence & it works well for our pack of wiener dogs. They all know the boundary well, as well as the difference between their yard collars & their walking collars. One of the little gits is a sneak & an explorer & is the first to know if his collar's battery has died or when the system goes down. We can adjust the level of 'correction' on their collars, as well as the width/strength of the boundary signal, which is nice because the sneak will dart across it to visit the neighbor or chase a squirrel if we don't just leave it cranked up a bit.

'Course, Dachshunds may be smart & very, very willful, but they're also small dogs & don't like getting zapped, with toothless ass Bubba being the exception.

Bigger, willful & intelligent dogs can either just take the zap & keep on cruisin', figurin' it's totally worth it, or some will figure out that when it quits chirping, they can go & have learned to sit inside the 'warning' zone & run the battery down. Don't know how to tell if yer dog will either respect it or learn to game it. Mine all learned it young & crankin' up the boundary width cured Bubba of his travelin' jonez.

Our neighbor's dogs have learned the boundary as well & when the odd neighborhood dog gets loose they go way around our yard. My 4 clowns, when they're outside are like a pack of 4-legged barracudas on meth & any animal intrusion results in getting rat-packed by 4 very pissed off 20lb badger hounds.
 
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Whatever makes your wife and dog happy. Its easier in the long run. If the dog is happy, momma is happy. If Momma is happy.....you will survive.
 
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