I admit to being a little bit of a smarty pants about the fence because I can’t think of any of our rural relatives who have fences in their yards. I don’t know how they manage to keep their animals on their own property without electronic fencing, but they do. Maybe it’s because they built their houses so far from the road. The dogs just don’t go anywhere without their master(s).
Ibizan Hounds did it for me.
The Dobermanns always knew where the line was but “primitive breed” Ibizans know nothing but “RUN! HUNT! KILL!” and they can get to the road faster than a Greyhound.
[and they -totally- disregard call-back commands when “hunting”...even though they may be “hunting” a plastic bag blowing around in the wind]
With thousands of acres of wilderness around me, not to mention a county road not that far away, it was better to have them fenced in.
With them, electronic fencing is totally useless.
At 35mph+, they’re through the line before the collar even has a chance to zap them.
Ironically, my ducks were the scourge of the area.
The guy at the end of the lane’s yard flooded every time it rained and the ducks would duck out and go play in the newly formed “pond”.
[because the big fish pond _right behind the house_ wasn’t “good enough” for them? I dunno...ducks are weird]
The chickens and the geese always stayed home.
The goats?
Too self sufficient.
They need a fence.
I’m sure being “lost” in the mountains would suit them just fine.
As it is, we have to keep the place locked up like a Supermax because of peoples’ bikes in the shop.
At least it keep the bears out, unlike the fenceless neighbors who spend hours cleaning up the messes and money buying new trash cans and storage sheds.
One of my uncles was from the Cumberland area of Maryland. He was** extremely** disciplined in training his dog, “Bootsie”. That dog would not so much as put a toe nail over the edge of the kitchen doorway. My uncle approached child rearing in the same manner. He had great kids too.