Fences…

[scotch_egg]

I know most tracking is done on a line. However I would like to hear on how folk train fences.

I won’t let any dog jump a fence. Double Top wire or barb wire is too much a risk to me.

 

[Shabz]

I hate my dog jumping fences but it’s hard to stop them sometimes! I try to train them to stop at a fence and wait for me to throw them over. Most of the fences I encounter are deer fences so they have no chance of getting over them on their own.

 

[Pedro]

Dogs should be discouraged from jumping fences. It'll be a disaster sooner or later.

 

[John Gryphon]

Dogs should be discouraged from jumping fences. It'll be a disaster sooner or later.

Having a history of 'long dogs' (lurcher types ) all our dogs could hurdle any farm fence on the fly in pursuit of game,they learned from a young age and boy we had some awesome fencers. I could tell a story about my dog JACK jumping into the deer pen on command then jumping out again on command and it was a 6' deer fence too but it would take too long to effn type.

 

[Overlay]

my dogs don’t free range or do fences, fences are there for a reason either keep you out or keep something in, consideration should always be given, most people have found deer hooked up and dead in a fence
best to learn as you go, not learn by your mistakes

 

[Jon P]

I discourage my dogs from jumping and always carry a small wire cutters in my stalking bag just in case they do get twisted in the top strand of barb- it a lot easier repairing a fence then trying to free them once it has twisted around its leg. I have had 2 dogs over the years that required stitching from belly injuries from barb wire.

 

[Keith Edmunds]

Times have certainly changed. My Lab and lurchers were 'trained' to jump fences and I would then do a whole load of retrieveing training over fences. The risks are great indeed, we just saw it as essential. With the dachshunds, it is obviously not a problem but if I were to get another dog with 'proper legs' I would have trained it to jump without a second thought....Hmmm maybe, now, I wouldn't. I think our outlook on working dogs has changed a lot in 40 years.

 

[reiver]

That’s why I have springers instead of labs!! . So much easier to lift over a fence and also a bit lighter
Seen too many dogs hung up on barbed wire over the last 40?years of shooting especially later in the day when the dogs start to tire .