To Ask My Neighbour To Put An Electric Fence Up?

[midori1999]

I'm not sure...

My neighbour has a large dog. It frequently jumped into my garden as a puppy and so she made the fence between our gardens taller (from 3ft to 5ft) to stop the dog jumping it. However, the dog still jumped it.

Then she fenced off part of her garden, also with a 5ft fence, so the dog has a seperate part of the garden to her children and they can play undisturbed. So, the do ghas to jump both 5ft fences to get into my garden. The dog can and does still jump both fences. Within seconds of being let out. Every single time.

So, she resorted to tying the dog up on a long line whenever it is outside, to stop it jumping over. Dog can no longer get into my garden.

However, in the last month or so, since I have had chickens, the dog has jumped into my garden twice. Today when it happened I was very luckily in the garden and managed to grab the dog by the collar as it opened it's jaws to grab one of my hens! I think it may have made slight contact, but the hen seems OK.

I would be devastaed if the dog killed one of my hens, as would my children. They are pets. I'm thinking of asking the neighbour to put a strand of electric wire on top of the dividing fence to hopefully be an 'emergency' fail safe to stop the dog jumping into my garden if it should ever get out/be let out without being tied up. Is this unreasonable?

Just ask her to get a stronger rope! Electric fences, chickens and kids doesn't sound like a good mix.

I don't know if YABU, but if the consensus is you're not I might suggest this to my neighbour in an effort to get her bloody cat to stop destroying our garden!

Not unreasonable - neighbour must secure the dog.

They also need to be careful as if the dog jumps the fence whilst on the longline it could hang itself.

What you are proposing might work - but dog might jump straight over electric fence too - they only pulse intermittently don't they?

You can ask but she can also say no.

You could put up a higher fence your side. You could have the chickens in a run - you'll need to anyway, one of mine was murdered by a random cat (not my cat).

Yes, she is responsible for her dog jumping in your garden but her responsibility may be in just replacing the chicken as it's livestock. The chicken to you is a pet and your kids would be upset so you need to secure your pet as much as possible.

If I were you, I'd put up a fence around your hens. That way, the chooks are safe, and after a shock or two the dog should stop wanting to come in to your garden. I doubt the neighbours will agree to pay for and install a fence on their side judging by what you have written.

Electric fences aren't terribly effective. The dog will take the initial shock and get through anyway but won't return because it knows it'll get zapped.

Besides what if your children touch the fence?

electric fencing for dogs is usually underground and requires the dog to wear a special collar (and for the batteries in the collar to be charged at all times!)

any dog could go under or over ordinary electric fencing

a pointer got into our garden and killed a chicken (our absolute favourite one too ) so I sympathise, but also sympathise with your neighbour's efforts too - our springer used to regularly leap over our 6' wall until 3 yrs of training later

could you have a good talk with your neighbour and go through the options together?

Wouldn't a bit of wire fencing, leaning in to the neighbours garden, work? Less iffy than electric fencing.

Your chickens are livestock. Tell your neighbour that if the dog attacks your livestock you are actually within your rights to shoot it!

yay another dog thread. Oh. Carry on.

she should make sure her dog is not likely to get out, but you SHOULD make sure your hens are in a secure run.
dogs are not the only thing that can attack your hens - foxes being a big other one.

and when your hens are out in the garden, you should be out there too.(dog less likely to attack when you're there anyway)

If a dog can get in then a fox can surely?

So whilst you are in your rights to ask whatever you want, having seen the post-fox remains in a hen soup, i'd serioulsly suggest you need t be thinking how you cold keep animals out rather than just the dogs- a decent run. Presumably if she does electric fence the garden it woulds till elave sides exposed to foxes? We have 6 foot fences and still have had them in.

nicklebabe, I was in the garden.

In theory a fox could get in. We aren't likely to have a fox problem here though and if we did then I might think about changing how I manage my hens. But a fox is a wild animals.

I don't want to keep my hens in a run, although I have one. I feel they benefit from being able to free range the garden and I do accept there is a risk to them from wild life/cats if I do, but feel that risk is very small and outweighed by the benefits of free ranging and that risk from wild animals or cats is not the same as the risk from someone's dog, which should be kept under control.

I have four dogs myself. I do not allow them to be a nuisance to others or jump out of my garden. (They are more than capable of jumping out, but trained not to) In fact, one of my dogs is a rescue and not great with other dogs and I couldn't say for sure that he wouldn't attack the neighbours dog if it jumped in when he was out, so there is a risk to her dog too.

I do appreciate that my neighbour has taken measures to try and stop the dog getting into my garden, but I just don't see why I should alter the way I do things, or go to considerable expense because someone else can't control their dog if there is a way for them to do so? (although obviously if the problem can't be solved I may have change the way I do things for the safety of my hens)

mmm.
our hens live in a run - albeit a bloomin' huge one, but it is very very predator-proof (fingers crossed).

i want my hens to roam around the garden, too, but i had to watch one die a very painful death after being out in the garden unsupervised after a fox got hold of her. (we'd only left them out for about half an hour while we were inside).

i ould take the same precautions for dogs (even my own if i had any)

(sorry, i read your OP again - i don't know why i skipped that bit, because I read the sentence before and the sentence after it.)

There are a number of reasons we can't have a huge walk in run here. I really believe the risk from foxes/predators, other than the neighbours' blasted dog is extremely small. In any case, I would at least want them to free range when I am home, and as today has proven, even that wouldn't stop the dog. It is really only by luck that I managed to grab it in time, as I was between it and the hens.

Hens aside, the dog is also large enough (giant breed) to knock my DC flying if it got into the garden whilst they were out there.

apparently not suitable if children living in the houses

I don't have a dog (rented so not even an option) and ds1 terrified of them but better a marauding dog than an electric fence if it were my neighbours

i think you'll have to talk to your neigbour, then midori.
i don't know about an electric fence, though. not that i don't like them, i just think that as they're so expensive, your neighbour wouldn't be up for it.

at the very least, he needs to be trained or tied up, rather than be allowed to jump.

Barbed wire maybe!

No really I think your neighboure needs to make sure her dog is secured saftly in her own garden.

How about trellis at the top of the fence?

You can't put up an electric fence if there are kids around.

Get a chicken coop that is enclosed but which you can move around. As someone said foxes enjoy a nice chicken as well.

I come from a farming family, I would tell the neighbour that if you catch the dog on your property again you will shoot it.

This thread will now explode...

Can you nail some trellis to the top of the fence to make it higher? I know her dog isn't your responsibility but it could be a fairly cheap way of sorting it out.

bit of an empty threat unless OP actually has a nice long barrelled shotgun to hand