Keep fences secure

FENCES can be a very difficult subject to approach when it comes to dog ownership. Ideally I try to have a secure area at the back of the house where nobody but those living there needs access. But sometimes the power or gas meter is located at the back of the house, in which case the fence would be best arranged so that it leaves an open path for the meter-reader. This is in ideal circumstances.

In the usual less-than-ideal circumstances though, the dog owner, or parent, moves into a house with fences that leave much to be desired. In this case there is only one requirement to make your child or your dog safe, and that is to make sure the area of confinement has no weak spots, holes, areas of missing hedge or in general, areas where dog or child can enter or leave their own property. The only safe confinement is secure confinement.

However, the task of making an unsafe fence secure can be peppered with frustrations, especially if the owner of one of the houses does not want to fix the fence. Perhaps the whole fence is unsafe and needs renewal (or there is scarcely a fence there at all). The cost of a new fence would by law be shared between the neighbours who share the fenceline. But what do you do when one of the neighbours is unwilling (or even unable) to share the cost of the work? Or they want the type of fence that is not secure for either a dog or for children? A neighbour may argue that it is not his fault that his new neighbours have a dog so why should he have to build a fence? So what can you do about it?

As a dog owner you must keep your dog safely confined at all times, so if all else fails you can either build your own fence (on the boundary but on your own side of it) and that fence is yours to put up and take down as you please, as long as you do not interfere with the original shared fence; or you can build an enclosed compound with access to the back door of the house so that your dog can relax and be part of the family.

You may think that a kennel is quite adequate for the dog to be chained when not supervised? It is not. If a young child can get through a fence, it will! If a child sees a dog, it will want to play with that dog whether chained to its kennel or running free! And if that child and dog are unsupervised the situation is extremely unsafe! It is unsafe whether the dog is a pit bull terrier, a Labrador or a Chihuahua. You must see these problems before they occur.

That is why responsible parents and/or dog owners will always give the highest priority to the fences between properties. No matter how friendly the neighbours are, responsibility dictates that if you have dogs or children you need to know they are not playing together unless parents and/or dog owners are present.

There is another situation that is perhaps just as unsafe, especially for your dog. There is a good fence but it has a small hole in it or it is built with slits or brick patterns or any kind of fence that leaves holes connecting the world outside the fence with that inside. It means your dog can be teased or hit through the holes, or any kind of food can be pushed through the holes for the dog to eat leaving it open to any kind of toxic or putrid waste or food it is not supposed to eat. Or it can be given articles that are unsafe to play with that children find on the road such as old cigarette lighters, glass, cigarette packets or butts. And it can grab anything that is pushed through to it (all dogs love to grab and pull things that are passed through to them) and find that what they have grabbed and pulled is a child’s finger, arm, or even a nose. That last one cost the life of a little Jack Russell who only wanted to play.

A responsible dog owner must check the fences and know that there are no holes that can invite interaction between children on the outside and the dog on the inside. If there are holes in a solid wood fence then fill them up with putty, glue, masonry, filler, or even a piece of wood nailed over the hole - anything as long as there are no holes. If the fence design means there are areas where there are slits, missing bricks or perhaps a trellis design, then the safest option is to line the fence on the inside with solid wooden side-by-side slats.

The safety of both your children and your dog depends on the safety of the boundaries between them. Remember, it is your responsibility to know where your dog is and what it is doing 100 percent of the time (that also applies to parents regarding their children) and the only time you can relax completely is when your dog is in an absolutely safe, childproof environment. – Liz Peters