Many families have dogs, and to keep them safe and stop them running off as they roam around the garden, a new chain link fence is often the go-to method of keeping them close by.
However, not every dog will stay inside and will try to escape from a perimeter fence. Some larger dogs can jump or climb yet finding the dog digging under fence is the most common scenario.
It isn’t just that your dog can get out from the fencing; it makes a mess in your yard and can encroach onto the garden of your neighbor.
You can find out how to keep a dog from digging under a chain-link fence in our guide. By the end, you’ll have enough dog digging under fence solutions to ensure your dog stays out of trouble and where it should be.(Find the Best Weed Killer Safe for Dogs)
What Can I Put on the Bottom of my Fence to Keep My Dog in?
Many dogs, large or small, can resort to digging when they want to show their skills as an escape artist. Even though they wish to find a friend, it can be a nuisance as they are not safe, and depending on your dog, anyone in the street may not be safe. Besides this, you find some dogs loves digging for no reason.
Some dogs resort to digging after you cut off their chance of climbing or jumping. You can extend your fence using a lean-in or L-footer. A lean-in will take some chicken wire and make a kind of awning pointing inward of your yard. The dog sees this fencing and stops climbing. Now, it is here the L-footer runs around the fence along the bottom and faces inward.
For this, there are several options. You can use chicken wire, hardware cloth, or place chain link fencing you fit at the fence base. It can be buried to look tidy, or you can just lay it across your yard and hold it down using rocks, mulch, or gravel.
If your dog is a guard dog and often patrols, the digging can be a need to protect. The easiest way to deter them from digging and keep these dogs inside is to block their view to the outside. If your fence is a chain-link fence, it is easy to run plastic slats through it. You can also opt for reed fencing or even bamboo to block the view around the existing fence bottom.
How Do I Keep My Dog from Digging Under the Chain Link Fence?
Here you can find some of the popular ways to prevent digging from your dog or other animals. All these methods are less extreme than using redundant fences and putting another fence inside the main fence. (Learn Is Scotts Weed and Feed Safe For Dogs)
While two fences work effectively, these second fences stop fence fighting or dogs making a mess of the neighbor’s fence. They can also make dog training much easier.
Here are more straightforward ways how to keep dogs from digging under fences.
Place large rocks and boulders around the base of the fence. Sit these rocks on the soil, and they can stop your dog from getting close enough to the fence to dig.
Monitoring your dog when it is in the yard means you can take on the role of dog trainer. When you understand why they are digging, you can correct their behavior. As soon as your dog starts digging, shake some coins in a can, or make a loud noise to startle your dog and grab their attention. Reward the good behavior from your pets with lots of praise and a treat or two.
Even if dogs can run around the yard, it is good practice to exercise them. Your dog can be bored or has too much energy, and dogs dig to get rid of both. A long walk often helps, as is providing your dogs with toys to keep your dog busy. This stops most dogs from digging through boredom.
Lay foundations under your fence may sound extreme, yet a concrete footer can be what it needs to stop your dog from digging under the fence. Even though there could be loose soil around the concrete, they will realize they can’t get underneath. (Learn How To Stop Chipmunks From Digging Holes In Yard)
This is the same as above, and you just have to simply bury the chicken wire or chain-link fences deep underground. So long as the dogs can’t burrow underneath, it’s enough to stop their digging habit.
Another way to deter a dog from digging under the fence is by laying large rocks around your fence. You get a double bonus here as it stops your dog to start digging and keeping wild animals or other dogs from getting in.
Give your dog its personal digging zone, as this can be ideal to stop them from wanting to dig under the fence. If you have space, add loose soil to a play pit like a kid’s sandpit. If the dog loves digging, they can dig as much as they want and lay in the cool soil without any harm. It takes some encouragement, yet once they have started digging, they quickly get used to it and even bury their bones.
Creative landscaping can be ideal as it hides your fence and stops your dog from getting anywhere near it. Pots and other dog-friendly plants can create enough of a barrier to stop their means of escape. (Learn Is Peace Lily Toxic to Dogs)
Often a dog starts digging in an open area, and if there are things such as pots and plants around your house, it can stop yet pet digging holes along the fence line.
How Do You Fill the Gap Under a Chain Link Fence?
Chicken wire can be a blessing for dog owners to stop their dog digging. It is easy to work with and far cheaper than other materials. Chicken wire can be a fantastic deterrent to any dogs who start digging under your fence.
You can do this task inside a weekend, so if your dog digs on one day, you can have cured your dog digging under the fence in a day or so.
Here are the quick steps for this job. You can also find this method is the best to fill holes you have beneath a new chain link fence where your yard is at a different level.
- Dig a trench around the base of your fence. It should be around 12 inches deep and about 6 inches wide.
- Cut the strips of chicken wire and bend the bottom section into an L-shape. Make sure you bend all the sharp edges inward.
- Place this in the trench with the L-shape on the bottom of the trench. Connect to your existing fence with zip ties and use tent stakes to hold your existing fence close to the ground. Tent stakes can stop the chain link fence from being loose and enticing a dog to dig a hole in the ground underneath.
- Bury the wire with stones and soil, and then cover. You can cover with grass once your pet dog finds sit can’t get out to the other side when digging under the fence.
