I am so excited!!!

We are going to be putting in a new fence in a couple of weeks, with the main purpose to be dog security and also privacy

Yote loves to be outside, and I would like for him to be able to spend more time out there.
He would never be locked out there of left out when we were not home, but it would be nice if he could sun himself with me checking on him frequently.

Anything will be better than our falling apart old chain link!!

We want to go with a privacy fence for the main part of the yard, but we are considering extra safety measures for the bottom portion of the fencing.

possibly burying cinder blocks or pouring concrete around the base and then planting shrubs in front of it. This would be in addition to invisble electric fencing.

(yes I am paranoid, but for good reason when it comes to huskies in my experience)

Then there is the gate.....
More than likely we will be having it made, or modifications made to a purchased gate in order to get it fit just perfectly.

This will be a large gate at 8 feet wide, and I would like to go at least 6 feet tall.

It needs to be as houdini proof as possible, we have no idea what we want to do yet though.

What would you do if you could have any gate you wanted with the idea of it being somewhat attractive but also very secure??

One inexpensive option would be to lay galvanized chicken wire from the base of the fence inward perhaps 18 - 24" to prevent digging. This would be under the soil/turf. I've heard this is done to keep predators from digging into a chicken yard. Your dogs will love their new safe play yard!

I thought about chicken wire, but he tears up chain link so easily I don't know how well that would hold up to him.

We put up a 6' wood fence this past Sept. and it's great, except we didn't think we'd need the extra precautions (like the chicken wire around the bottom like Barbara said) and we need to!

Jennifer, we had the idea to staple chicken wire up to the posts along our fence (so we can still take off the pallets-we did pallets and not single slats) and plant some fast growing, and durable, vines to make it look nice inside the fence. Of course that doesn't take care of the gate I have no ideas for that, sorry!

I would never recommend vines to anyone after the fight we have been waging against the vines at our house for the last 6 years. We had wisteria, japanese honeysuckle and some unknown varieties all tangled up and growing along the fence.

That is part of the reason it is in such bad repair now, that and the vines tend to choke out anything else living within 5 feet of the fence!!

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

I thought about chicken wire, but he tears up chain link so easily I don't know how well that would hold up to him.

I saw something on Animal Planet about a place in Minn. that cares for wolves and they use chain link fencing that's like 9-10' tall (not for sure on that) But the rest of the fence at the bottom comes away about 3-4' (I am sure on that!) and that's so they won't did out or try digging a couple of feet away. It's covered with a foot or so of dirt. If that works to keep wolves in, it could possibly work for your pooch, IDK though.

The things we do for our dogs!

Jennifer,

We have a 6 foot cedar fence around our back yard. We don't have issues with digging, so we've never had to do anything with the base, but the fence does come down fairly close to the ground. We did have a problem once with our neighbor's Italian Greyhound digging under the fence to get at Hans. He hasn't tried to do that since, seems he didn't appreciate how big Hans is from his side of the fence.

When we had the fence built we wanted to be able to get heavy equipment into our backyard without having to take down the fence, so we had the landscaper put in a double wide gate that was hinged on both sides and latches shut/opens in the middle. That didn't work too well, the gate didn't hang properly because of the weight. So the landscaper sank a long sleeve into the ground and dropped a post into it. Then he drilled holes through one side of the gate and the post and secured them with a couple of long bolts and wing nuts. So now, if we want to open both sides of the gate, we just remove the bolts and slide the post out of the sleeve, and the gate opens wide.

I hope that made sense.

As I said, we don't have to worry about Hans digging under the fence. But if I had it to do over again I think I would have poured a concrete apron under the fence that would come out about six inches to make mowing easier. As it is now I have to go back with a string trimmer after mowing.

I'm having a hard time picturing what you mean about the gate, do both sides still open independently, or are they attached together now and open together?

This is not a gate that we use very often at all, but it is there nonetheless and we want to make it possible to get back there with something big.

Jennifer,

I have a 6' cedar privacy fence around my backyard with one single gate. Its not used much either only to get the lawn mower in and out. I was paranoid too still am to some degree. It only had one latch but I have added a padlock also from the inside. The bottom didn't seem to close up as tightly as I wanted and I was afraid if another dog or whatever would come up he would be able to push the bottom part open even if only enough to get whatever was out there. My dad put a safety latch on the bottom too. It works well. So well in fact that I have to fight with it to get unlatched! I also have a dog next door who tries to dig under the fence. They know she does it and someday she is probably going to get her paw or nose bit. I have filled the hole in more than once so that is a concern.

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

I'm having a hard time picturing what you mean about the gate, do both sides still open independently, or are they attached together now and open together?

OK, let me see if I can draw a mental image for you. Imagine you are standing on the east side of my yard facing north. On your left is my house with a post in the ground right next to it and a gate hung from that post. The hinges of the gate are on the left, at the post. On your right is the fence, with a gate hanging from the last post, with the hinges at the post. So the two gates swing either towards you or away from you.

As the gates were originally built they meet in the center and there is a latch that latches them together, closed. But the gate on the left was too heavy and would sag. So the builder sunk a polyethylene sleeve into the ground and dropped a a post into the sleeve and bolted the left gate to the post. Only you can't see it from where you are standing because it is on the other side of the gate.

Is this more clear? The point of having the two gates is to have the ability to get something big into our back yard.