I want to fence off part of the garden for Floyd for when he gets bigger. We have a large shed he can have and I want to add a fence so he can also go outside when I am not here. (Don't worry he gets loads of exercise in the field and I only work 3 mornings).We have fields on 3 sides of us but one side of the garden borders a road so I want to make somewhere safe for him outside. I realised I had no idea of how high I should have it or what type of wire I should use. Can anyone advise me please? This is my first DH - how high can they jump?
Also has anyone tried invisible fencing?
Any advise appreciated.
Thank you

I hate to say this but the beasts can jump extremely high when motivated to do so - they can clear a six foot fence in an instant. My solution has been to never leave my lot outside when I am not home as I am certain they would take it into their heads to go look for me. The only solution I can see, apart from leaving them indoors which would be my preference, is to build a dog run out of chainlink fencing with a top on it. In fact these sorts of runs are easily purchased. Dunno, what do others think?

My main worry would be theft, its big buisness now a days,
you only have to look at dog lost to see the amount of dogs
either stolen or missing.

i am the same, my dogs are never left out side,
i would worry to much just incase anything happened,

The electronic fence's i wouldnt bother with,
it has been known for a dog to push beyond the stim
because somethings frightend them or they've seen something to chase
and end up on the other side of the fence with no way of getting back.

Electronic fences also do not protect the dogs in any ways - some run one wire on top of a chainlink fence to keep their dogs from jumping it .
I do have 6 foot fence , my 4 dh girls can go in and out as they please ( only exception : when they are in heat ! ) and they do not jump , even when highly motivated ( wildlife- they do hunt a lot and are passionet about it ! - , other dogs on the other side or similar ) Having written this , 2 times it happened over the years that they jumped the fence - once an about 6 mths old puppy ( ! ) who decided it was finally time for her to join us on our regular walk jumped the fence faster than I could close the gate ( she has never done this again , going onto 8 years now ) and once one of mine , who was very afraid of fireworks , jumped the fence in her panic and took off - luckiliy I found her several hours later , several miles away and totally unharmed ....

Most Deerhounds don't jump unless you teach them to, but if they do decide to 6 ft is nothing for them. We have ordinary height garden fencing and have no trouble, but I never leave them outside when there's no-one home. I don't know where you live, but in some places there is definately a risk of them being stolen and I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone.

Having said this and read the other posts, maybe we're all being a bit negative. I know a few people who keep their Deerhounds in well fenced runs and have never had any trouble.

Pam

I live basically well hidden in the bush of BC - no real nighbours here , only during the summer holidays . And , my girls usually do not venture out much when I am not at home - they have a good hike before I leave and just wait on their various indoor beds and couches for me to come back . They do guard to a degree though , barking at wildlife ( or dogs ) who might wander by - 4 barking deerhounds will look intimidating enough I assume...

Murphy has never jumped, we have never encouraged or taught him too. We did have a good DH Lurcher years back, that could clear 6 ft fences with ease! We have normal 6 ft fences around our garden, we also have a small picket fence around 'our' garden, he has never attemtped to jump this either.

The theft thing worries me, I would be distraught if some gypsies stole my beautiful boy to cross with their lurchers. I would however love an outdoor kennel/run for days when I am out, but fear of hime being stolen would be too great.

Mine have never jumped either and I have 6 foot fences around the entire garden. I too would love an outside run for them when I go out but it is too risky due to theft. I already have a security camera and heavy duty chains around the gate as even when I am in I worry that someone may open the gate and steal them as we often have travellers illegally staying around here

A horseman told me that double jumps are very much harder to get over. With that in mind, I drawed a inner "fence, merely made of some simple wire poles and one wire it stands as high as the shpulder blades of my deerhound, and as far from the acual fence as the distance between his fore- and hindlegs.
He can easily get across/under that inner fence but if he wants to jump the next fence, he must stand sidewards and jump without a run-up. That makes it quite a lot harder. Simple as it is, the inner fence's unly purpose is to prevent his run-up for jumping the actual fence.

What a good idea. Thank you for passing it on.

My patch is divided into 2 with a low fence and a gate. The part by the house has low fences but a thick hedgerow, the upper paddock the same but only a low fence seperating us from the farmyard next door on the one side. I only let the dogs up to the paddock when I'm with them and in the day the chickens are let out into it.

I've never encouraged mine to jump and he has never tried to, also he's never shown any inclination to try to wander, he gets plenty of walks and that seems to keep him happy.

I used to think that it would be best if I could leave them outide, in the day if we all were out but am too worried to do so in case they are stolen. I don't think that the dogs would actually want to be left outside as whenever we put them out in the day when we're doing anything in the house they just stand outside the patio windows looking very sad and wanting to come back in. They will go outside to the toilet and then, unless there are any rabbits or squirrels about will just want to come straight back in. When they are left alone, very occasionally for up to 5 hours I'm totally convinced that they would much rather be in the house asleep on the setee than in a run in the garden.

my deerhounds don't jump so the fence is 1m50 and they never jumped even Grèine who's a jumper but she stop at 1m20, 1m30

Ronnie and Bernard decided that they wanted to drink from a little pond on the other side of this fence today. It was only about 4'6" high, but they both popped over it like it was not there....

Mine love the choice of going in and out as they please , though only the young ones seem to go out while I am not at home - my neighbours ( only here during the summer ) always think I have only 1 or perhaps 2 and are really astonished to see me with all 4 every so often . And , though they easily jump /fly over all kinds of obstacles
( like really big fallen trees , underbrush aso ) when we are out hiking , they do not do it here at home . Even when some really good " prey " is just beyond it , like the poor blackbear they had treed for several hours last week - the hounds barking from inside the fence , the bear sitting up a tree not even 30yards away from the gate on the outside . I was pretty pleased to see that - would have been really worried if they had jumped it.

Thank you all for your replies, they have been very helpful-it seems I will need a high fence and locking door to be on the safe side-oh well, it will keep hubby busy. I have noticed that Floyd likes to dig so will have to take that into account too.