frufru Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 (edited) Just wondering what people on small acreage use to fence their property. We have just purchased 2.6 acres and want to fence the whole property. We have 1 mini poodle and 2 standards. Currently the property is fenced with barbed wire and wooden fence posts - we want to leave this as is and attatch some dog proof wire/mesh. Suggestions and pics greatly appreciated. Edited January 5, 2012 by frufru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jade~Harley~Bella Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 We have just got star pickets and dog mesh. The rolls of wire were $250.00 for 100m and 1.42m high (one of my dogs could jump over the standard height) so it does get costly. I'm on an acre and a quarter. We are going to put up a nice front fence though eventually! The picture is the fence line we have just replaced. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laneka Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 I don't think you can get a cheap dog fence that works really well. We are on an acre and we put in 6ft chain mesh fencing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Willow Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 We're on 5 acres and just fenced off the house yard with dog mesh & star pickets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espinay2 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 'Cheap' may still cost a bit. And remember a fence is not cheap if it is going to need constant 'shoring up' if the dogs breach it. Note too that fencing will be a LOT cheaper if you install it yourself so worth it if you are able. What we have around our house yard on our property (about 2 acres) is a 1.5m high fence consisting of 1.8 m star pickets spaced 2.5m apart and every 4th post is a metal post concreted in. We used 1.8 metre fencing (waratah) mesh which gave us a 30cm 'apron' at the bottom of the fence. Our gates are normal 'farm gates' specially made to 1.5m height. This fence works very well for us and was economical compared to many other options we considered, though possibly a little 'over engineered'. It has stood up to wear well though and has proved a trustworthy boundary. On our orchard we did similar, though spaced the posts 3m apart and used larger/longer gal star pickets each fourth post instead of the concreted in metal posts. We had a little issue with it in one spot that was very very wet at the time with all the floods, but once dried out and 'set in' it too has proved very strong, so you could get away with the 3m post spacing no problems IMO (which means less cost as less posts). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frufru Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Thanks everyone, the existing barbwire and fence posts are in excellent condition and we were looking at what type of mesh or ringlock fencing we would need to add in order to dog proof - need an appropriate vocab and some idea of products before we speak to a fencing contractor. Our dogs will not be allowed out off leash until our fencing is adequate so just looking for ideas. Jade - did you do the fencing yourself or get someone in? Looks good as does yours espinay! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smooch Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 I don't have pics of my fencing atm. but mine is similar, I added the heavy gauge chicken wire to the barb wire, added a strand of plain wire right on the bottom of the fence to secure the chicken wire to. I had to run a second lot of narrow chicken wire to the top and next strand of barb. I also have a strand of off set elect fence about one foot from the bottom and about half way up to stop the dogs trying to dig under or to jump up on the fence. None of our dogs are jumpers and all are elect fence trained. the elect fence also stops the cows or horses rubbing on the fence when they are in our top 2 acres. No idea of cost as the fence was replaced a few years ago, I have added the chicken wire to the fence over the last couple of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancinbcs Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 I have friends who used deer fencing to get the extra height a lot cheaper than chainwire. The mesh is smaller at the bottom and gets wider as it goes up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Podengo Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 My parents have 1/2 an acre in deer fence off the side of the house, which the dogs have free access to and can be locked in when no one is home, and the rest of the 5 acres has sheep fencing. They are only allowed out there with supervision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 I've got some chicken mesh and some dog mesh. The chicken mesh has gone saggy (professionally installed) but the dog mesh is still pretty good. So I wouldn't use chicken mesh again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frufru Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 (edited) Thanks Smooch - that does sound like what we want to do. Off to investigate deer wire - that sounds like it would stop the mini wriggling through the bottom and be tall enough to keep the standards in. These guys have always lived behind a 6 ft paling fence so being able to see through the fence will be a huge change - they are mad about chasing birds out of our yard (magpies mostly) and we are going to a place that abounds in roos, wallabies and emus (yikes) Training will comence upon arrival! :D Edited January 5, 2012 by frufru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyosha Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 (edited) If you use deer wire you will likely need chicken wire along the lower part as well. Even though the squares look quite small they are quite easy for dogs to squeeze through and similar in size to standard hingejoint. They will also get stretched if you have bigger dogs that want to try squeezing through - once they've learned how to make some of the rectangles into circular shapes they will keep doing it and getting through. Our borzoi and foster greys we've had stay in hingejoint mesh, but I have had afghans and salukis squeeze through deer wire without a second thought. Edited January 5, 2012 by Alyosha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donski Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Another option to consider might be electric containment fencing eg. Innotek. I'm on 5 acres and it has worked really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frufru Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 I did think about electric but I would prefer the security of a physical fence and want to be sure other dogs cannot get in as well as ours not getting out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwp4me Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Our galvanised dogmesh fence has rusted away, in areas, where we dug it into the soil, to stop our dogs from digging under. We tied the fence onto ground with the odd tent peg. We are surrounded by state forest, nothing will stop our two GWP dogs from running away to follow their noses, when given a chance to escape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frufru Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Thankfully none of our 3 are diggers ( we live on very sandy soil at the moment which is easy to dig and never had a problem). I am worried about other dogs pushing under when my girls are in season (of course, they will only be outside when someone is with them). They are basically inside dogs but it is hard moving from a very secure backyard to wire fencing but the extra space will be great. Our dogs are inside when we are not at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancinbcs Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 If you use deer wire you will likely need chicken wire along the lower part as well. Even though the squares look quite small they are quite easy for dogs to squeeze through and similar in size to standard hingejoint. They will also get stretched if you have bigger dogs that want to try squeezing through - once they've learned how to make some of the rectangles into circular shapes they will keep doing it and getting through. Our borzoi and foster greys we've had stay in hingejoint mesh, but I have had afghans and salukis squeeze through deer wire without a second thought. There must be different sizes in the Deer Wire. The one my friend had was only about 2" square 3' off the ground. It was smaller than that at ground level and bigger above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tralee Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Just wondering what people on small acreage use to fence their property. We have just purchased 2.6 acres and want to fence the whole property. We have 1 mini poodle and 2 standards. Currently the property is fenced with barbed wire and wooden fence posts - we want to leave this as is and attatch some dog proof wire/mesh. Suggestions and pics greatly appreciated. I did think about electric but I would prefer the security of a physical fence and want to be sure other dogs cannot get in as well as ours not getting out. I frufru. Firstly, you will not be able to attach some dog proof wire/mesh to the cattle (barbed wire) fence because it is not legal. However, if you want to have your property double fenced, as in the DPI code ,then the dog fence should be inside the cattle fence. I left a 4 metre margin from our cattle fence. Electric fence is brilliant. It took me nearly 2 and 1/2 years to keep my houdinis' in but after I installed electric fence, I didn't really need anything else. If you want to keep other dogs out, and who doesn't when you have 'girls,' then you might consider a goat fence. I've had one and they are brilllant too. Depending on your contractor a goat fence is $25/m. And I don't know how your 2.6 acre property app. 10400 sq/m is configured but fencing 100m x 100m is $(4 x 100 x 25) or $10,000. I would pay that for a fence. Px Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frufru Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Thanks Tralee, will contact council tomorrow to see what restrictions apply - our 2.6 acres is actually within the town boundary of a very small village Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laneka Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Our galvanised dogmesh fence has rusted away, in areas, where we dug it into the soil, to stop our dogs from digging under. We tied the fence onto ground with the odd tent peg. We are surrounded by state forest, nothing will stop our two GWP dogs from running away to follow their noses, when given a chance to escape. We are also surrounded by state forest, that is why we went to the extra expense of chain mesh. We also have yards inside this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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