How do I make a garden secure for a dog?

The three ways dogs get out — over, under and through — and how to close each one, plus the gate and hazard details people miss.

Difficulty: intermediate
Time: 4 hr
Read: 6 min
Safety: caution

Short answer

Dogs escape over, under or through a boundary, and you have to address all three. Height suited to the dog with nothing to climb from, a dig line closed with buried wire or a hard strip along the base, and every gap under gates and between panels blocked. Then walk the whole perimeter at the dog's eye level.

A boundary that looks solid to a person often has three or four obvious ways out at dog height. The single most useful thing you can do is walk the entire perimeter crouched down, slowly, looking along the base of the fence rather than at it. Almost everyone who does this finds something within the first ten metres.

Safety

A dog that escapes onto a road is the risk this guide exists to prevent, and it also creates a legal exposure: allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place is a criminal offence, and a dog that causes an accident can leave the owner liable. Garden chemicals matter too — slug pellets, weedkillers, rodenticides and cocoa shell mulch are all dangerous to dogs, and any suspected ingestion needs an immediate vet call. Never rely on an invisible or electric containment fence.

What you'll need

Wire mesh or weld mesh
Gravel boards or timber for the base
Fixings suited to the fence
Trellis or a fence topper (optional)
Self-closing gate hinge and two bolts (optional)

A dog-proof boundary in section: over, under and through

Step by step

Walk the perimeter at dog height first.Crouch and go slowly all the way round, looking along the base and into the corners. Note gaps under panels, missing gravel boards, holes behind shrubs, the space under the gate, and the point where the fence meets the house. Fix what you find rather than what you assumed.
Set the height by the dog, not by the fence.A metre and a half is enough for many dogs and nothing like enough for an athletic one — collies, huskies and many terriers clear far more than owners expect. Judge from the dog's actual behaviour, and remember that a dog only needs to succeed once to learn that it works.
Remove everything that acts as a launch pad.Bins, log stores, planters, compost bins, garden furniture and the shed roof all reduce an effective two-metre fence to a one-metre fence. Move them into the middle of the garden. This is more often the problem than the fence height itself.
Close the dig line along the base.Dogs dig where the ground meets the fence. Options in ascending order of permanence: a line of heavy slabs or a hard gravel strip laid tight against the fence; wire mesh buried and turned outward in an L along the ground at the base, then covered; or a concrete gravel board set into the ground under the panel. Turning the mesh outwards horizontally works better than burying it straight down, because a dog digs at the base rather than a foot out.
Block every gap the dog could push through.Feather-edge fences develop gaps as boards shrink, and panel fences gap where they meet the post. Weld mesh fixed to the inside face of the lower half of the fence closes all of it at once and is far quicker than repairing boards individually.
Treat the gate as the weakest point, because it is.There is always a gap under it, the latch can be nosed open, and it is what visitors and deliveries leave open. Fit a board or brush strip to close the ground gap, a bolt at the top out of reach and a second at the bottom, and a self-closing hinge. A sign on the gate telling people to close it is genuinely worth having.
Add a topper for a climber, angled inwards.Dogs that climb rather than jump need the top to lean back over the garden — trellis angled inwards, or a smooth strip that gives no grip. A vertical extension just gives a taller thing to climb.
Deal with the boundary you do not own.You cannot alter a neighbour's fence without permission, but you can put your own barrier just inside it on your land. A separate mesh fence a few inches in front of a shared boundary solves this without a dispute.
Remove the garden hazards while you are at it.Slug pellets, weedkiller, rodent bait, antifreeze in the shed, cocoa shell mulch, and compost heaps, which can contain mouldy food that causes tremors and seizures. Ponds need a way out or a cover, and a dog that cannot climb a steep pond edge can drown in a shallow pond.
Test it before trusting it.Spend time in the garden with the dog and watch what it does, particularly along the fence line and at the gate. Do not leave a new dog unsupervised in a garden you have not watched it in — and do not leave any dog outside unattended for long periods, secure garden or not.

Tips

The most common escape route is not the fence at all: it is the front door and the open gate. A double barrier — a hall gate inside the front door, and a self-closing garden gate — prevents more escapes than any amount of fencing.
Make sure the microchip details are current before you need them. An out-of-date phone number is the reason many found dogs are not reunited quickly.
Do not use an electric or invisible fence. They do not stop a determined dog, they do not stop anything getting in, and they work by hurting the dog, which creates fear problems of its own.

Common mistakes

Raising the fence and ignoring the base — Most dogs that get out go under rather than over. A taller fence with a gap at the bottom changes nothing.
Leaving bins and furniture against the fence — They turn a secure fence into a step. This is the commonest reason a fence that worked last year suddenly does not.
Assuming the gate is fine because the latch works — Gates get left open by delivery drivers, gardeners and visitors, and dogs learn to nose ordinary latches. A self-closing hinge and a high bolt address both.
Relying on the neighbour's fence — You do not control its condition and cannot alter it. If it matters, put your own barrier inside it.

If it doesn't work

Dog gets out and you cannot find where

Cause: A gap you have not seen from standing height — Fix: Walk the perimeter crouched, and look for flattened grass, hair on a splinter, or scraped soil. There is almost always physical evidence at the exact spot.

Dog digs a new hole as soon as you fill the last one

Cause: The dig line is not closed, only the individual hole — Fix: Close the whole base with an L-shaped mesh apron or a hard strip. Filling holes one at a time never ends.

Dog clears a six-foot fence

Cause: Athletic breed, or a launch point — Fix: Remove everything near the fence first, then add an inward-angled topper. If it persists, the dog should not be in the garden unsupervised.

Dog escapes only when visitors come

Cause: The front door and gate, not the boundary — Fix: Fit a hall gate inside the front door and a self-closing hinge on the garden gate. Put the dog behind the gate before answering the door.

Questions people ask

How high does a fence need to be for a dog?

It depends entirely on the dog. Many are contained by a metre and a half; athletic breeds are not contained by two metres if there is anything to climb from. Watch your own dog and judge from that rather than from a standard figure.

How do I stop a dog digging under the fence?

Close the whole dig line rather than individual holes: bury wire mesh turned outward in an L along the base, or lay a hard strip of slabs or gravel tight against the fence.

Are invisible fences a good option?

No. They rely on delivering an unpleasant stimulus, they do not stop a motivated dog from crossing, they do nothing to stop other animals or people entering, and they create fear and anxiety problems that are harder to fix than the fence was.