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My family and I live on a 5 acre lot with neighbors about a 1/4 mile apart, but we recently got a fullblooded Sybiran Husky and a Black German Shepherd (both about a year and a half old now) they eventually started running off (both separately and/or together) and going to all of out neighbors yards. At first we thought they were just exploring so we added some boundaries but they still would run off just about every time we looked away. We have a 9ft block wall they normally stay in but they still get out, we then intstalled an electric wire around the 5 acres, still no changes. We then added another fence inside the block wall with concrete poured around it and under it and they still get out.
Today one of our neighbors came over and had the dogs tied up and he was enraged seeing as this isn't the first time, but he told us they were attacking his livestock and peeking into other neighbors houses and with very good reasoning threated to sue. We have tried multiple different ways to prevent them from running off and nothimg seems to work.
I understand and dont dissagree with the neighbors about this, but i also dont want to get rid of the dogs. The neighbors are 100% in the right about wanting to sue i just dont know what else to do other than give them to someone that can do a better job then we have.
If anyone can help i would greatly appreciate it and thank you for your time.
How are they getting out? Are they going over the fence? If so, put up coyote rollers. I cannot image they are going over a 9 foot cinder block fence so I'm having trouble picturing what kind of fence you actually have.
Maybe you need to try e-collars and watch them from inside the house and give them a serious hit for even *thinking* about going near the fence. You need to do something because I can almost guarantee you that your dogs are going to be shot (and it is legal to do so in most places if they are harassing or harming livestock)- and you still might get sued. There's also the option of keeping them in the house! Until you resolve it, I would not be letting them out unattended.
You're lucky I'm not your neighbor, because I would have shot both of your dogs. A lot of places have laws stating farmers can shoot to kill any dogs that are harassing their livestock. That's a state law where I live.
Same here with the livestock laws. You are lucky your neighbor talked to you. You need to do something ASAP. With two young dogs running like that they are packing up so to speak which makes them more dangerous to livestock or even people. Huskies are notorious escape artists and GSD's can scale about any height fence. Think about the dogs we see on TV in the K-9 units. I know with mine when the fence salesman saw her he said that from experience even 6 ft chain link would be nothing to her if she wanted out. Another poster gave links to good fence solutions.
If you keep both of them you might try letting them out one at a time. They may not get into as much trouble then. I would definitely supervise regardless at all times. If this is too much you may want to rehome one or both. They are still very young.
At this point, I have more questions than answers, but that is because the answers all depend on things you haven't told us.
First off, I like OBZB's advice on this. Next, in my experience, when a dog is taking off, it is not getting enough work or exercise. Note that work and exercise need the owner to spend time with the dogs. If you put a 9 ft fence around 5 acres, and just give the dogs free run of it, and consider that sufficient, you are wrong. They need structured time - time with you - the human in the equation. And it should be time moving around that 5 acres so they know where YOU think the boundaries are. A dog has no automatic respect for a fence as a boundary.
But HOW they are still getting out is an excellent question. Close that hole.
Next - e-collars, with perimeter fencing, or just field training collars. They can really do a great job, but you still need to spend time making sure things are set up so that they DO work. You can't just hang one around a dog's neck and expect it to work.
Back to exercise. Give the dogs a RUN 360 days out of 365. A RUN, not a walk. Ride a bicycle, or a horse, or a x-country motorcycle, but put them through an aerobic half hour to hour minimum. If your 5 acres is fenced, you can do this without a leash tomorrow. If you do it elsewhere, you'll have to teach the dogs to be well-behaved trail dogs (search youtube). If you have a 4 wheeler, set up a perimeter trail. Run the 4-wheeler around the perimeter a couple of times to tire the dogs out, and simultaneously teach them that it is a perimeter. And remember, do that 360 days out of 365!
That should take care of the basics. Now we come to livestock. Might be good to take each dog individually to meet, greet, and learn to behave around livestock. Get on good terms with one or two of those neighbors, and conduct early session on lead, until you have a 100% "stop", "leave it", or "drop". Some command that the dogs will honor to cease whatever they are doing - immediately and regardless of the distraction. You have that, and give them a couple intro sessions with the livestock, and go from there. Keep in mind the livestock will likely have an instinctive prey response to a dog who shows any tendency for unwanted interest. That prey response might be aggressive-hostile, or it might be flee. A fleeing animal can break their neck running into a fence. It really happens. Since you aren't training the dog to herd - but to live peacefully with the livestock - you don't want any fleeing animals.
That's it for now. Get them enough exercise. Spend more time with the dogs, and more time training the dogs. Work up to a good "stop". Close the holes in the existing fence. Spend time with the neighbors and do what it takes to be on good terms with them.
And if you have to keep the dogs on leash until you can get the compliance you need, do it.
How are they getting out? Are they going over the fence? If so, put up coyote rollers. I cannot image they are going over a 9 foot cinder block fence so I'm having trouble picturing what kind of fence you actually have.
Maybe you need to try e-collars and watch them from inside the house and give them a serious hit for even *thinking* about going near the fence. You need to do something because I can almost guarantee you that your dogs are going to be shot (and it is legal to do so in most places if they are harassing or harming livestock)- and you still might get sued. There's also the option of keeping them in the house! Until you resolve it, I would not be letting them out unattended.
I agree if they are getting over a fence that is 9 ft they are jumping up and hooking front paws over the fence which is what most dogs do with fences and gates so coyote rollers on top of the fence would prevent that. As others have said you are lucky the neighbor did not shoot them.
Are they allowed in the house? If they were my dogs they would be inside with me and only outside when I am out with them.
You have unfortunately chosen two breeds of dogs that are aggressive hunters by bred-in traits.
They are naturally following their instincts to wander and hunt and to guard "their" territory.
In my experience with numerous owners of both breeds, these dogs are difficult to keep from "wandering".
I have one neighbor who keeps his German Shepherds under control only by having them confined into a full chain-link kennel enclosure. It's got 8' high sides and the dogs could jump out of that. He stopped them from jumping out by enclosing the top with chain link fence. He stopped them from digging out by enclosing the bottom with chain link. He keeps them from leaving his 1/2 section ranch by using shock collars on them when they are out … and they are only out when he or a family member is present.
He's also a rancher who will drop your dog the moment it comes onto his property. Alerted by his dogs, he knows when other dogs come onto his place. He's lost $xx,xxx of sheep due to other dogs either running or attacking/killing his sheep for sport. He has zero tolerance for other dogs on his place. The zing of a .17 will be heard and the dog will make it to the compost heap within minutes.
Personally, I lost an entire flock of guinea hens to a neighbor's "prized" Siberian Husky. Took that dog about 6 months to wipe out 150 birds. After that, the dog would come "visit" my place when I was raising heritage breed (Bronze breasted) Turkeys. The last year I raised turkeys, the dog killed 20 of them … he'd run the birds around and then take a big "chomp" on their breast/neck area. I'd been running the birds in our garden areas to eat bugs, and they were doing a great job during the day before returning to their coop. Most of the turkeys were in the 25-28 lb range and worth $7.50/lb, so this was a substantial loss. Despite the owner paying me several times for the killed birds, he didn't make any additional effort to keep the dog on his property. From our house, I saw the dog attack and kill 3 birds one afternoon, two weeks before they were to be taken in for processing. The dog was smart enough to run home any time he saw me out on my place, so I didn't get a chance to collar it and take it to the county pound. But the dog wasn't smart enough to stay away from my neighbor's sheep flock, which solved my losses to that dog.
The bottom line here is that you must take aggressive action to confine these dogs when they are not under your immediate control on your property. Otherwise, in a rural environment you may well expect that your livestock owning neighbors … much as they may love and appreciate dogs … will do what they have to do to protect their livestock.
Alternatively, you might consider that these dogs are not appropriate for your rural situation and place them out for adoption in more suitable circumstances.
If you must have pet dogs, may I suggest that you acquire dogs that are livestock safe and less prone to wandering? There are many breeds of working dogs that fit this profile, will still perform as property watchdogs, and make excellent companion dogs. But aggressive hunters such as a Husky or Shepherd do not fit this profile.
Are they house dogs? If so do not let them out unsupervised. Buy some 10x 10 kennels, connect them together and put panels on the top of the cages. This will keep them contained if you can't watch them. You can find used ones on craigslist and FB marketplace.
Obedience training?
Good luck.
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