How high should the fence be?

That would certainly high enough to deter jumping over, his real concern will be digging under. Some smaller dogs have serious Houdini tendencies, I have dealt with that in the past by digging a narrow reach a foot deep under the fence line and extending the chain link down that far. Special care taken with corners and gates.

Yes, Frodo could squeeze between the slats on mine so Jay put chicken wire up which as he said, looks like trailer trash.

@candimajor is right. My sister’s schipperke is totally an escape artist. My sister finally had to use hot fencing.

Four feet would not be high enough for a larger. dog (I once saw my whippet jump a 10 foot retaining wall from a standing start), but should be fine for this little guy.

A four foot fence should easily be adequate. (Of course, there are always exceptional dogs that make exceptions.)

In addition to your dog’s ability to jump, you should also consider the ability to climb. My Shepherd mix used to jump to reach her legs on the top of the 5-foot chain-link, then manage to scramble over. I think this would be easier with a chain-link than other types, but if the dog can achieve purchase on the top, it would then be able to scramble over.

Unless stray dogs don’t roam your neighborhood, you’ll also want to consider a higher fence just to keep out other dogs. I’ve noticed that strays are usually larger dogs, and they can be aggressive toward smaller dogs.

Mine is 4 feet high and my dog can stand up and look over it, so I’m positive if she wanted to leap over it she could. I would think that is plenty high enough for such a small dog.
But as a few have already said, it’s the digging underneath that could be the problem.

In most cases, I would say that should be high enough but my medium schnauzer can jump very high. I say she has go-go gadget legs. My husband said he had a dog that could jump and reach the top of a 6’ fence. So it depends on the dog. However, the major problem, as has been said, is digging under the fence.

I’d put in a hidden fence which resolves both problems. My dogs were both escapees. One of them is a real Houdini. However, after we put in a hidden fence, no more chasing dogs down the road as they romp off on one of their escapades. The cost is reasonable when one considers the cost of dog safe fencing and the potential vet fees if they escape. We (touching wood) haven’t had a breakout since we put the fence in and that must be 8–10 years now.

@Earthbound_Misfit Well, this is a colleague who asked me about the height so I’m not going to intervene too much.

Perhaps you can suggest a ‘hidden’ alternative. I can’t speak highly enough of my experience. A trainer came around and spent a few hours training our dogs and the collars last for ages. We’ve replaced them once. Probably just jinxed myself and I’ll be up for new collars soon :-).

I mentioned it to him.

@Earthbound_Misfit I checked your link and I am wondering, does this type of system use a “shock” collar?

@Yetanotheruser, it uses multiple methods. Flags so they get a visual signal they’re too close to the fence. We left ours around the garden for a long time. A sound. So they hear a beeping noise when they get close to the fence. And finally, yes their collar gives them a shock. However, ours are set to the lowest level and our dogs know as soon as they hear the beep they shouldn’t go closer to the fence. Before we bought it, my husband wore the collar to test how scary the zap was. I asked him to describe it and he said “Will only hurt the dog if it’s on high and the dog gets caught in between the electric fence and say a solid fence. Wouldn’t cause physical damage but stress”. The shock at low levels is more of an ‘ouch, I don’t like that’ rather than ‘aaagh! make it stop’ sort of thing. We didn’t want our dogs hurt or terrified (which they aren’t). We just don’t want them run over by a car.

You do still need a traditional fence (imo). We have a section of fence we can remove when we’re gardening and need to get a trailer in the backyard. Go-go gadget legs knows if there is a break in the fence and she really wants to pass, she can run at the gap and she’ll get through without the zap. She might do this if say my husband (who she loves) is on the other side of the wire (which is buried under the ground). However, if there is a fence there that acts as an additional barrier, she knows she won’t be able to avoid the zap and she won’t make the attempt.

A 6-footer (cedar) around the back yard would be better. Dogs can jump and climb chain link. I thought my German Shepherd couldn’t jump higher than his head but he could clear a 4 foot fence!!! Never underestimate a determined dog! Some of them take a fence as a challenge to overcome.

It’s not a chain link; it’s a plastic picket; the pickets are three inches apart.

It might work. But plastic pickets are for decoration, not dog retention. With my dog, I had to fashion a collar out of regular ¼” chain, like on tire chains, and fix the s-link so that he could not pull out of the collar, no matter how he tried. (Regular store bought heavy duty choke collars wouldn’t hold him.) Then I hooked him to a 23’ length of chain that slid along about 50” of ¼” aircraft cable stretched between the house and a sturdy tree. Beat the heck out of a fence, was cheaper, and kept him contained. A section of wire fencing running away from the house from the tree outward kept him from getting tangled around the tree. Of course, my dog was a very strong 60 lb. male German Shepherd.

My daughter had a boxer that regularly scaled a 6’ wood fence, so no, a four footer is not enough.