How high can he jump?

[Izwebusr]

Hi Everyone:

 

In my yard, there is a meter-high fence that closes the yard from a public space (that leads to the dangerous world). I think that this meter-high fence will not be enough to secure my future adult dog (now he is a puppy). How high can an adult BC potentially jump and, thus, how high should the fence be?

 

Thanks

 

[Sue R]

This is an interesting question because while these dogs tend to be very athletic and capable of jumping and climbing barriers higher than a meter, some respect barriers that are much shorter than what they are physically able to jump. I'm looking forward to the answers.

 

That said, I'd say that many are capable of jumping up into a truck bed, or scaling a fence higher than that.

[denice]

I had a dog that would scale his 6 ft kennel and get out but never jumped out of the yard or jumped into the sheep pasture that had shorter fence. Simply did not like being in the kennel. Many of mine think nothing of going over 4 ft if they want to. Where there is a will there is a way...especially for a bc.

[JohnLloydJones]

From practical experience a wall needs to be greater than 7 feet to prevent a dedicated jumper from getting over it. A fence might need to be higher if it offers some foothold. That having been said, most border collies do not need anything like that -- most will respect (or can be taught to respect) a low boundary.

[rufftie]

I have seen my dog jump to the top of a 5ft wall from a standstill, but she respects the 36" fence around our front yard. she has many opportunities to leap over it- other dogs passing, cats, children on skateboards, but chooses not to.

[aschlemm]

A Border Collie can get out of any yard he/she chooses too. It is entirely a respect issue. I learned this the hard way, Fortunately nothing bad ever happened. My males understood that they were not to leave a fenced area. The females thumbed their noses at the fence and the littlest one climbed the corner like a spider monkey. They both had to be taught to stay in the fenced area. Good luck.

[Gloria Atwater]

It depends a lot on the dog, I think. In the UK, working dogs routinely leap 4 foot gates in the course of their work. But some dogs live contentedly in a 4 or 5 foot fence and never even think about jumping out. So ... I'd say it depends.

But if you live somewhere that security is a concern when you're not home, I'd say definitely look into ways to double that fence height. Especially if it might prevent stray neighborhood dogs - or stray suspicious humans - from jumping in and doing harm.

~ Gloria

[GentleLake]

Yep. Totally depends on the dog.

 

My first border collie easily jumped into the bed of a full sized pick-up truck with the tailgate up. He jumped to the top of the 6' steeplechase obstacles on the Bluegrass grounds when we asked him to try.

 

We didn't have a hard fence at the house at the time and he wouldn't cross the boundary. He learned it from the other dog who was on a IF system. That dog would still cross the boundary when the mood struck him, but not Mirk. More amazing was that no matter where we went, he would respect the boundary line of any property he entered with us even if he'd never been there before and wasn't shown the perimeter.

 

My current border collie won't try to jump fences most of the time, but once I left him in a friend's 3' fenced yard while we went in the house for a few minutes. He's a bit of a mama's boy and probably got nervous without me and jumped the fence easily.

 

Some dogs will never try to go over a fence but will look for ways to slip under, or perhaps to dig out. The lurcher (only 1/2 border collie) I have now doesn't try to jump my jump 5' fence or the two 3' gates or dig out, but if there's a gap or even a small hole in the bottom of the fence she'll squeeze out and look for others when it's been fixed.

 

So, yeah, it's important to teach a dog to respect fences. Otherwise all but the tallest are pretty useless for a determined border collie.

[Lawgirl]

Only one of my boys ever escaped the yard, and that was when he was left alone in the yard without his brother. It would have been a 6 foot cinder block fence and he climbed it by wedging himself between a rainwater tank and the fence and then climbing like a mountain climber in a chimney/crevice - paws up then back up a few inches at a time until he could get his front paws on top of the fence and over. Most bizarre thing I have ever seen. But if he has another dog in the yard he would not think of leaving it.

 

Another time I had locked him in the laundry while I took his brother to the vet (to avoid another escape attempt) came home and could not find him. Was about to rush out to drive around the streets to try and find him when I saw his head in the bathroom window. He had somehow managed to jump through at smallish open window at my chest height into the bathroom from the enclosed porch/laundry area. Then could not get out again, as the bathroom door was shut.

 

We take all three for runs in a baseball diamond at a local off leash park, and even when there is a dog on the other side, they never try to jump the waist high fence.

[Maja]

I agree with everybody, and it depends not only on the dog but also on where a particular dog is in its training. My dogs don't jump over a 2ft sheep fence, because they are not supposed to (they will jump on command). However, when I say "over" they will jump anything, a 5ft fence is no problem.

 

The youngest dog had the attitude "Fence? what fence?" - she would jump over everything and anything, particularly if there was a sheep on the other side. Now she is reliable and respects the 2 ft fence, but when she was a sheepdog in progress, a fence had to be more that 5ft.

[mum24dog]

I had a 16 in mongrel that would easily scale a 6ft fence if a cat or a squirrel went over it. 7ft kept her in.

 

Same dog had to be kept in a run with a roof when she was in kennels otherwise she'd get out and head for where the food was stored.?

 

Not as smart as my lurched though as he would open the door using the catch if not locked in.

 

Had other dogs perfectly capable of tackling 7ft but they never did.