How To Stop My Dog From Jumping The Fence

In this post we will teach you what to do when your dog keeps jumping the fence.  We’ll give you the information on what motivates a dog to leave or escape, training options and solutions if your dog has strong impulses and poor impulse control.

We’ll also give you physical options to prevent your dog from being able to jump or climb your fence. Some are low cost solutions, so are more costly depending on your situation, size of fenced area, and other factors.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Dogs Don’t Generally Jump Fences

What most people don’t understand about dogs and “jumping” fences is that dogs don’t actually jump fences in most cases. At least, not your standard 4 foot high fences and definitely not 6 foot privacy fences. They don’t jump these; they climb them! They use forward momentum and the rigidness of the fence or other close objects to climb them. You can see hundreds of these videos on YouTube.

Almost everyone who has ever had a dog has had them escape a time or two. It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of precautions we try to take; our little Houdinis always seem to be able to make a break for it.

Even though you can never be completely certain that your dog can’t get out of the enclosure that you put them in, you can reduce the risk that they will get out down to almost zero. The first thing you need to understand, though, is why your dog wants to escape in the first place: it’s his natural instinct. No one wants to be locked in an enclosed area or a cage for any period of time, no matter what kinds of luxuries you might place in it to keep them entertained.

Below are some specific reasons why your dog wants out, but if you’ve tried to take care of all of these needs and they still want out (likely!). If your fence is old, falling apart and you’re looking for a superior fencing system, here are what we believe to be the best dog fence options on the market today.

Lack of Stimulation

Your dog needs either toys or it needs a mate to play with while you’re not around. Imagine living in an apartment with no TV, no phone, no computer, tablet, or internet! This is how your dog feels when they’re left alone with no toys and no one to interact with. It’s no wonder they want out! This kind of escaping is particularly a problem with ridged dog fences.

They’re Young

Puppies are always into something out of pure curiosity’s sake, so getting out may just be an adventure for them.

They’re Looking For Sex

When dogs become old enough to mate, the desire to do so is pretty strong. Male dogs in particular will want to wander to seek out females. Their motivation to do this is going to be very high, so keeping them in the yard will be a trick, especially if you want to keep your dog intact and not neuter them.

They’re Afraid

When your dog is afraid, they’re going to be pretty motivated to get away from whatever they’re afraid of. Perhaps the presence of a person or thing in the house bothers them and they want to get away or because it’s storming and they believe they can escape the thunder by leaving to be somewhere else.

Separation Anxiety

Your dog loves you. If your dog tries to leave shortly after you leave or if they cry and whine when you leave, you’re dealing with a separation anxiety issue. This is especially true if your dog has been around you constantly their whole life and then you suddenly change jobs and their routine changes. If you go from working from home to working outside the home, this can be a problem.

Separation anxiety can also occur if their primary loved one or a close canine companion has died.

Ways to Prevent Dog From Jumping Fence

Focus on fixing as many of the problems listed above as you can while attempting to make improvements to your enclosure.

There are a few different ways you can stop your dog from escaping their enclosure.

First, make sure that it’s difficult, if not impossible, for them to dig under their fencing. If you have a real digger on your hands, you’ll have to be vigilant to make sure that holes stay patched up.

Second, if you have a climber, remove items from around the perimeter of the fence to stop them from trying to climb over. If you have chain link fence, though, the nature of the fencing itself creates something climbable, so that may not work. If you’re in a situation where you have a climber and a chain link fence, you have a couple of options.

Third, if you can restrict their view so they can’t see anything beyond their yard, they’ll be less likely to attempt to escape it. If they can’t see other dogs, people, or other things that bother them, they won’t tend to try and leave.

Rigid fencing is the real issue here. If a fence is rigid enough to hold their weight, it’s rigid enough for them to climb over. This is the real problem with most kinds of fencing when it comes to dogs escaping from them through climbing; most fences just don’t fit this problem.

It’s no wonder that electronic dog fences became the prominent dog fences of today because of the way they work is without a physical barrier. They can’t dig under them, they can’t climb them and they absolutely can’t jump over them.

Chain link fences are dropping in popularity because they fail miserably when matched up against an invisible fence system from a cost standpoint, aesthetics and inability to contain a dog with escape on their mind. You can read up on the pro’s and cons of chain link fences and see their obvious flaws as well as benefits.

A Cheap Way To Stop Your Dog From Jumping The Fence

You can use an electrified wire run across the top of your existing fence. It’s a low cost, old school electric fence system that is very effective when placed at the top of the fence, where dogs place their paws to leverage as the climb and propel themselves over a ridged fence.

Putting this solution together is around $100 and a couple of hours of light work and is all but guaranteed to stop your climber in his tracks. Here is a list of what you need to accomplish that.

Depending on the type of fence you have, you may have to find a different type of insulator than what is listed on our idea list. You may also need corner insulators. Chances are, you’ll still be under $100, as long as you don’t have a huge fence.

Coyote Rollers Are A Thing

Maybe you’ve never heard of them, but coyote rollers are a cool invention that will help stop your fence climber from making his way out, but they’ll also stop coyotes from making their way in.

They consist of a round tube that attaches to the top of your fencing and when something tries to climb over, it rolls and the climber slides back off.

Coyote rollers are expensive. but can be fitted  to almost any type of fence and look fairly decent in most applications. Definitely not an eyesore.

If you think about it, the design of these rollers are to stop animals and dogs from being able to use the stable fence to climb because even coyotes don’t normally jump higher fences. They climb.

You can see Coyote Rollers here.