Please help, all advice and suggestions greatly appreciated. I have two sibes that we love greatly but we are about done with our female When we got our first husky, the female, we did a lot of research and we thought we new what we were getting into. Long story short, when we got her we lived in an apartment. We immediately bought a house because we knew she needed a fenced in yard. That worked for a while but she soon began jumping the chain link fence. About a year later we spent $4k and installed a 6ft privacy fence. That worked for a few months but she began to dig and broke 2 fence pickets and has started escaping AGAIN. We have spent a lot of money trying to keep her in. We've even gotten 2 citations because she escaped. My male does great out there we don't have to worry about him trying to escape, the problem is he follows her What do we do now???? I've seen people talk about coyote rollers the problem is she doesn't jump it. (the flat surface is facing us) she digs out. It's about 100 ft of fence so what would be the cheapest thing to do so that she can't dig out anymore??? Please help, we love her so much but I don't know how much longer we can deal with this.

I have 3 recommendatins - the first being my preference and what I use: Invisible fence. We used it without any additional fencing - since you already have a privacy fence, I would just run the wire around the bottom. I use a petsafe yard max (self-ionstalled, about 300. for 1 collar and 500' of wire with charger, transmitter and surge protector.) for 2 huskies - my own and my son's when he is out of town. We got the mother of all tests last week - a deer ran through the north lawn, maybe 50 ft from the dogs. Who took off after the deer faster than I've ever seen them move, deer and dogs heading west into the woods. I assumed the dogs were so prey driven and running so fast that they would run right through the wire and keep going (there's probably 1-2 miles of woods before hitting a road (well, there's a small lake just before the road.) I came in the house to shut off the fence and get husband to find the dogs - nope, they were lying under the pine trees, panting to beat the band. We've had the fence almost 2 years now, and there have been chickens across the road, cattle in the pasture next to us (and in our yard) loose dogs on the road, deer in the field across the road, people on bikes, on foot. They've never left except for Ami once when his receiver collar was really loose from stretching (Archer likes to haul on Ami's neck.)

If you don't like the idea of invisible, then you can run a hot wire like they do for agricultural fencing - the original "electric fence" Agway or Tractor Supply a good source for equipment and information.

A third, which many people have success with is either burying chicken wire attached to the privacy fence and then running horizonally along the ground for about 15" under dirt, lawn or mulch. Or concrete pavers placed under and along the fence border. Or a poured concrete footing under the whole fence.

I think the self-installed and trained invisible fence is the least labor, least cost and very effective for your situation. My boys still get excited when the see their fence collars come out.

Stop by a feed and seed and pick up some chicken wire. If you bury it along the bottom it should discourage it. If you decide to try an e-collar, you should use it in conjunction with your fence.

How much training and interactive games do you do with her? Sometimes the best thing is to exercise the mind to help discourage them from finding better amusement elsewhere.

I am like Amy I used invisible fence on my wooden split rail and chicken. Wire fence this trained my husky away from the fence. He was climbing over the fence.
Besides the other suggestions she made I would suggest making a line of paver block stones at the base of the fence. But the buried chicken wire is probably better.

I would also ask how much stimulation and exercise do they get? Could be bored or not exercised enough and doing more might help.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. The excersice and stimulation I will say we don't get to walk her everyday. My husband and I talked about that and we are going to try to do better with walking her everyday. I could be wrong but I honestly don't think it's that, she's just always been a REALLY hyper dog. And even when she was in the house with us all the time she would get into stuff and do things we didn't like no matter how much we played with her and toys we bought her. We even got our male JUST so she could have a companion during the day, but she was still hyper But like I said I don't want to give up on her so I'm going to find ways to stimulate her more. She's actually a great dog I love her, I just hate that she escapes so much.

On another note, the suggestions about the fence. I worry about the invisible fence for 2 reasons: I've heard if they're so determined they don't care about the "shock" and i'm worried she's so determined that the invisible fence won't stop her. and two, her and my male rough play a lot and sometimes chew their collars off.
Now the electric fence, does that hurt them like really bad? I don't want to hurt them lol. I have thought about the electric fence though, is it just one wire running on the bottom of the fence or would it be several wires?

And the chicken wire does sound like alot of work but if it works it'd be worth it. What would i do? Staple or nail the chicken wire to the bottom of the fence? Is it possible that she could pull it off? but if it's burried she still shouldn't get through.

When we installed the fence I built it on the inside of my chainlink fence thinking that if she dug out shed be stuck. boy was I wrong she's a smart one and just learned to dig under then climb up chainlink.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Also have you looked into a GPS tracker like whistle? Once again it is on a collar but I ha e never had a dog chew off another's collar. Rough house yes.

We have 2 that play like they are rival wolves in the wild including grabbing onto neck ruff and wrestling each other to the ground. The worst that happens is the nylon webb collar strap stretches a bit and if I don't check the fit when I put it on in the morning, it may be too loose to be effective (which is no longer an issue - they've learned the boundaries and the consequences and won't go out without a human and a leash.)

I've heard the "so determined they will take the shock" and was worried about that. Frankly, after seeing the dogs in full on, hot pursuit of a deer, I don't believe it anymore - either there was ineffective training, the collar was loose, the correction level not high enough or not functioning. Initially, in the first phase after proofing, Archer breached the pool boundary chasing a small dog that came in the yard. He got his correction and now he is rock solid. I have seen the dogs running parallel to the boundary, wanting desperately to cross to either play with another dog or chase prey and they will not do it. A few weeks ago, when Ami had not seen Archer for several days and had a LOT of pent up energy, a new calf was born in the pasture next door - he was wooing and whining and running up and down but never even tried to cross into the correction area. I am so confident in the invisible fence, now, that, if I were not worried about someone stealing him or a power outage, I would even leave him free while we left the property. The power outage could be handled with an uninterupptible power supply but that won't stop a thief.

Also - the reason I chose the PetSafe Yard Max is that it has a function called Run Through Protection - in yard max mode, the correction is only from the wire outward (which prohibits any kind of loops within the boudary such as we have around the pool, which I didn't know when I bought the system but it has other benefits for me, so I kept it.) THe run through protection works to infinity - they get correction for 15 second cycles until they return to inside the boundary - and returning to inside does not shock them like the "traditional" mode does. In traditional mode, the shock is on both sides of the wire for a set distance, anywhere from 3 - 15 ft. ONce outside of that distance, either inside or out, the correction ceases. With run through, outside the wire an inch and they get zapped in 15 second intervals (on 15 seconds, off 15 seconds).

As for the electric fence - he won't be hurt as in damaged. He will be highly startled and back off (you can even bait the fence with peanut butter or some such, he will learn not to touch it and quickly.) I very firmly believe that a momentary shock is far better than getting into the road and maimed or killed. Our neighbor had not 1 but two labs killed because they just let them out at night to pee by themselves without fencing - traffic on our road is scarce. But people drive way too fast - there is NO police patrolling out in the boonies.

And...the chicken wire can work, the pavers, concrete, large boulders, blocks. They will most likely work...but so will you putting them in. Also - for the first year, we used a 100' overhead trolley system - but we had to add a 2nd snap shackle as Ami learned how to undue his tether

The chicken wire will work if you take the time to install it correctly. Make sure that it is nailed into the posts well and bury it. They don't like the way their nails feel when they hit it. Most of all though exercise will help. Some dogs just require more than others even among huskies. While your male might be fine with a 1mile walk in the morning and a 1mile walk at night your girl may just need more. Look into biking if she is old enough or train for a specific job so that she has something to put her mind to other than digging. Huskies predominantly aren't the sit around and chill type. That's more of a hound trait. They like to go and do all the time. Look into puzzle treat games for them to work on in the house, but at the end of the day a happy husky is a tired husky and training and exercise (lots of it) is how to achieve it.

I also echo the biking - either joring with dog out front or something like a walky dog attachment. BUt, though it can certainly lessen her Houdini impulses, honestly, I don't think it will cure the problem.

HuskyLear wrote:

Also have you looked into a GPS tracker like whistle? Once again it is on a collar but I ha e never had a dog chew off another's collar. Rough house yes.

No I haven't looked into a GPS Tracker. We always find her right away but I'm afraid one day we won't, so i'm going to look into it. And yeap my parent's tell me my dogs are crazy lol but I can't tell you exactly how many collars they've gone through. We just get home and the collar is on the ground chewed in the middle.

amymeme wrote:

We have 2 that play like they are rival wolves in the wild including grabbing onto neck ruff and wrestling each other to the ground.  The worst that happens is the nylon webb collar strap stretches a bit and if I don't check the fit when I put it on in the morning, it may be too loose to be effective (which is no longer an issue - they've learned the boundaries and the consequences and won't go out without a human and a leash.)  

I've heard the "so determined they will take the shock" and was worried about that.  Frankly, after seeing the dogs in full on, hot pursuit of a deer, I don't believe it anymore - either there was ineffective training, the collar was loose, the correction level not high enough or not functioning.  Initially, in the first phase after proofing, Archer breached the pool boundary chasing a small dog that came in the yard.  He got his correction and now he is rock solid.  I have seen the dogs running parallel to the boundary, wanting desperately to cross to either play with another dog or chase prey and they will not do it.  A few weeks ago, when Ami had not seen Archer for several days and had a LOT of pent up energy, a new calf was born in the pasture next door - he was wooing and whining and running up and down but never even tried to cross into the correction area.  I am so confident in the invisible fence, now, that, if I were not worried about someone stealing him or a power outage, I would even leave him free while we left the property.  The power outage could be handled with an uninterupptible power supply but that won't stop a thief.

Also - the reason I chose the PetSafe Yard Max is that it has a function called Run Through Protection - in yard max mode, the correction is only from the wire outward (which prohibits any kind of loops within the boudary such as we have around the pool, which I didn't know when I bought the system but it has other benefits for me, so I kept it.)  THe run through protection works to infinity - they get correction for 15 second cycles until they return to inside the boundary - and returning to inside does not shock them like the "traditional" mode does.  In traditional mode, the shock is on both sides of the wire for a set distance, anywhere from 3 - 15 ft.  ONce outside of that distance, either inside or out, the correction ceases.  With run through, outside the wire an inch and they get zapped in 15 second intervals (on 15 seconds, off 15 seconds).

As for the electric fence - he won't be hurt as in damaged.  He will be highly startled and back off (you can even bait the fence with peanut butter or some such, he will learn not to touch it and quickly.)  I very firmly believe that a momentary shock is far better than getting into the road and maimed or killed.  Our neighbor had not 1 but two labs killed because they just let them out at night to pee by themselves without fencing - traffic on our road is scarce.  But people drive way too fast - there is NO police patrolling out in the boonies.

And...the chicken wire can work, the pavers, concrete, large boulders, blocks.  They will most likely work...but so will you putting them in.  Also - for the first year, we used a 100' overhead trolley system - but we had to add a 2nd snap shackle as Ami learned how to undue his tether  

Thanks so much for the great info Amy! I'm thinking I'm going to go with the invisible fence AND put some chicken wire in lol. You are right, a shock is better than being killed. Did you say you got it from PetSmart? I think I'm going to go with both options because I'm a little worried one method will fail on me lol.

And I'm too scared to ride a bike with her. She pulls like crazy, and trust me we've tried many different collars and worked with her to not pull but she won't stop. I'd be scared to be on a bike and she pull me. All I can really do is walk or jog with her. When we run she pulls even harder to go faster and we've almost fallen a couple of times lol.
I'm going to have to exclude the male and leave him outside while we play with her because she is VERY toy agressive. Any and all toys in the house are hers, well she thinks that. So when we bought her this toy to stimulate her she kept fighting with the male becuase he would get close to see what she was eating (we put treats in there). I hate to have to leave him outside when she's inside but I think that's what it's going to take. She just had a litter of pups so she has "matured" a little lol
But anyone have any suggestions on which puzzles i could use for her? and it can't be too hard cuz of course if it is she gets bored right away.

If she is an escape artist then you may want to do more than just get the gps tracker, you should also look into getting her spayed after she has weened the pups if she hasn't already (if you haven't already had her fixed). With her escaping she could get pregnant by any old dog out running around and then you will have even more puppies to try to find homes for. When she goes into heat also it isn't entirely impossible that stray dogs won't come around and try to help or lure her out of the yard.

With the biking you want her to pull. It fills that need for them to do what they were bred to do. The walky dog is a side mounted bike system so that she can't pull you over. You have more control with that system and keeping them on a shorter lead makes it so that they can't redirect on you and you run them over or them pull you over.

Petco and Petsmart carry several different puzzle toys. Outward hound makes a few. If you go to either of those store's websites look for treat dispensing toys. Should pull up all different kinds. You will have to select the one you think your dog will work on the best. There are balls that spit out treats all the way to things they have to figure out how to flip over to get the treat.

Petsafe Yard Max. I bought mine from Dogfencediy.com because they had a 60 day return policy and I wanted to make sure it would work for me. Looks like that is no longer their policy, is now 30 day return. If you google petsafe yard max their are multiple retailers that sell it. I found very little price variation at the time I purchased it. There is a thread on here some place where I posted my experience installing and training. I did not start the thread but think it was "training to invisible fence" or something like that.

I believe mine is Pet Safe also. I know LOWES and Petsmart carry them.
Here is the thread Amy was talking about... invisible fence thread

Thanks all!! Well Niko (my male) dissapointed me this morning lol. He left! My female was tied on the runner so she couldn't leave. The good thing is that he tried going back home but couldn't so I just went in the neighbors yard and got him. But as I type this my husband is looking into that particular invisible fence. I'm thinking for sure we are going to get the fence fixed and that invisible fence installed this week. Maybe next weekend we can put the chicken wire in...
But i had a question, my husbands and my idea was to install the invisible fence 1 foot away from our current privacy fence, that way if they crossed it to start digging they would be corrected and back away. Does that sound like a good idea or do we need to do it close to the fence? Thanks everyone

It doesn't have to be at the fence (other then for convenience) but if you are planning on using it in yard max mode and want some correction before they get to the fence, then a foot away would be reasonable. Or, you could use it in traditional mode, put it at the bottom of the fence and lose the run through protection but the correction would go out anywhere from 3-15 ft on BOTH sides of the wire.

As Amy said.
We installed ours on the fence and then the beep started about 3 feet from the fence and the shock / vibrate (depends on model) was at about 1 foot from fence. (mine is a Innotek)

Here it is not on as we eventually turned it off after about 1.5 years cause our jumper Bourbon learned to stay off the fence. YOu can see the yellow wire zip tied to the fence.