Fence Hight

Hi all,

I am considering building a fence in my backyard for my Cav. I am wondering if a four feet (about 116 cm) tall fence will be too low?

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bimmerguy

I can't imagine a dog jumping that but you never know. I've seen a program on TV that said trellis on top of a fence is a great deterrent to burglars as it's hard to climb over. Why not use 6' posts and use 5' of fence and 1' of trellis on top?

Before I built a 6' privacy fence around my back yard, I had a 4' high wire fence. Well actually about 3'-8" high because I had about 4" of the bottom dug into the ground. Never had a dog go over the top.

I highly recommend digging a fence at least 4" into the ground in case your dog decides to become a digger. In the summer when the ground is thawed, we walk our fence line every few days just to be sure. We have a couple dogs who like to dig. Although, since we built the privacy fence, they don't seem to dig at the fence line like they used to; I think it may be because they can't see beyond the fence, so there is nothing for them to want to go out for.

It is rare, but some Cavaliers are climbers.

I know of a cavalier (rescued mill dog) who climbed a 4 ft x-pen, got his foot caught in the wire and fell down onto the other side. Poor baby had to go to the animal hospital because he hit his head and was temporarily paralyzed. He's fine now, but that's scary ...

So ... based on that, I'd probably never get a wire fence where there is a place for them to rest their paws to climb (chain link & the like). I'd go with a wooden privacy fence if you are able to.

We've had no problems with 4 ft tall fences for our cavaliers in 4 years. We had a wood picket fence installed at our previous house, and a vinyl picket fence at our current house; both times we had the fences custom made so the pickets would only have 2.25 to 2.5 inches between the pickets. This keeps them from trying to put their noses through. Normally pickets are 3.5 inches apart, I think.

Thank you very much for all the replies. Now I have some ideas at least.

I think that height would be fine for most cavaliers, though Teddy's ancester, Toraylac Joshua, scaled a very high fence, and tragically died, as a result (he was run over). Teddy's mum scaled a four foot wire fence, which his owner had to replace with something more solid. Teddy, thankfully doesn't climb and indulges his need for high rises by turbo jumping to shoulder height and escapes only from his crate. I also spoke to a breeder, whose stud dog scaled a 6 foot mesh fence, while attempting to reach the ladies.

turbo jumping to shoulder height

Click to expand...

:rotfl:

Mary Alice and Rosie jump straight up onto tables, as if they've got springs attached to their feet.

A 4' fence is fine for our cavs, but ....

beware, if you have a big plant pot in front of the fence, you may find your cav on your neighbour's shed!!!! Or at least this is where OH found Cailean this morning - Cailean has a 5-6 heart murmur and advanced MVD - maybe someone should tell him .

Just like the late Heidi, Donna (Xaraworlds) little ruby. She jumped over a half door, if you remember , and photos of her mid joint were shown to prove it. Heidi had a very bad heart , too.