# Help! My gad jumped the electric fence!



## Heidi the shepherd (Jan 12, 2016)

(Sorry, it won't let me change the title to dog, oops)Ok so if you have read my other posts then you know that I previously wanted to train my dog to herd our ducks, well people said its better to just keep her away from them, this weekend it was warmer so I put up an electric fence so my ducks could explore safely. I do still plan on training her to herd eventually but for now I thought it would be easier and safer to keep her out (and keeping out the coyotes). Yesterday we took the dogs up to teach them not to touch the fence, we put the ducks away and let the dog get shocked a few times, but we were still worried about Heidi's herding instinct. We put the other dog away (they are all non herding breeds and didn't care about the ducks when they saw them through the original enclosure), and I played with Heidi to distract her while my dad let the ducks into the electric fenced area, Heidi didn't notice at first. My dad went to check on the other dogs when the big problem happened, he forgot to tell me how to turn off the fence since he didn't think anything would happen, and Heidi is a good listening dog. Well Heidi went up to the fence and got shocked, I was about to call her back when she noticed the ducks were out, and before I could stop her she jumped the 48 inch electric fence. She chased the ducks then "tried" moving them around, but of course she was doing it very quickly, I tried to turn off the fence and get my dads help but he was a few minutes away, Heidi didn't try to bite them luckily but did sniff one to the point the poor duck was to scared to move. She kept chasing and what seemed like she was trying to get them to stay together, when one went away from the others she would try to chase it back to the flock, when my dad finally got there and turned the fence off she came after calling her almost right away.

How can I train her to not jump the fence? Or at least if she did jump the fence how do I train her to not chase the ducks? And any idea if this is a slightly good sign that she didn't open her mouth once when she did this? Or turn this into actual herding?
Sorry for this being so long and I know it sounds like she was trying to kill them but after the initial "omg there's birds" she slowed down and seemed kind of in thought before she chased certain ducks back to the other ducks in the flock.
Thanks.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Once a dog knows it can jump fences, there's a risk it will jump fences. I've even seen dogs scale 6' chain link--once they know how to do it, they will do it if left outside unsupervised. Proofing boundaries to the point that you can trust them not to violate them when you aren't there takes a long time -- and if your training fails, the dog is gone. It's too much risk.

Please do not leave her alone unsupervised outside. If she's out, you need to be too to keep her safe (and the ducks).


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## Heidi the shepherd (Jan 12, 2016)

Magwart said:


> Once a dog knows it can jump fences, there's a risk it will jump fences. I've even seen dogs scale 6' chain link--once they know how to do it, they will do it if left outside unsupervised. Proofing boundaries to the point that you can trust them not to violate them when you aren't there takes a long time -- and if your training fails, the dog is gone. It's too much risk.
> 
> Please do not leave her alone unsupervised outside. If she's out, you need to be too to keep her safe (and the ducks).


Thank you magwart, I do supervise her when she is outside, I was about to grab her when she jumped the fence, I plan on supervising her always but it would be unfair to her to have to be the only dog on a leash when taking the dogs outside so I was hoping there would be a way to let her run without the worry that she would jump back in with the ducks.


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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

yeah, well "unfair" it is. That's the way to keep her from herding the ducks. An alternative is to up your obedience routine.


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

You're in a bad spot, and you "woke the dragon", so to speak.

On your earlier thread I commented that you can do one of two things. 1. Train her to leave the ducks alone or 2. Train her to herd livestock correctly. There isn't a middle road.

If you want her to leave them alone, you need to correct her for interacting with them. Staring, chasing, barking, correct it. Don't allow any of it. She isn't herding, she's chasing.

Now she's learned that they exist, and they move when she chases them, it is a VERY self rewarding behavior. You're going to have to work extra hard to shut it off, you need to watch her at all times, use a leash, and be ready to correct wrong behavior. A hot wire means nothing to a dog with high prey drive and no livestock manners. 

It's common for a dog to be curious, even playful, the first time they interact with a new species. Once their confidence grows, beware. Something will end up bitten, hurt, or dead. I'm not trying to be mean, but you're going to have a pile of dead birds if you don't get control of the situation.


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## Galathiel (Nov 30, 2012)

Work on her impulse control. There are many techniques out there, but I would make her go out on a "long leash of shame" until that is fixed ... or you will have some dead ducks eventually.


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

OP, here are some constructive things you can start working on, today.

Regardless of what you decide about her future with the ducks, you should instill solid farm manners ASAP. Fences are sacred, no matter how tall or what type. I don't let either of my dogs paw fences, touch them, or jump up on gates. I correct them for jumping up on fences, as Magwart said, once they learn that fences are "optional", your life gets much more difficult and unpredictable. Teach her to "Wait" at every single door, every single gate, indoors or out, until you say "Okay". You want the dog to automatically pause at openings, and look for you to tell them whether or not they can go in. Otherwise, if you have multiple species behind multiple fences and gates, you'll have chaos. It takes time, and a lot of patience, but it's of critical importance. If you're half-hearted/inconsistent about training this, or if other people in your house don't enforce it, it won't work. As Galathiel said, above, you're building impulse control.

I make my young dog "Down" before going through exterior doors and gates. I want her to collect her brain, look at me, and not go zooming out full speed into whatever lies beyond the gate.

When/if you take her into the pen with your birds again, make her wait at the gate, then when you allow her into the pen, make her lie down and look at you. Insist on eye contact. Use a long line, give her collar corrections, if she can't control herself, leave the pen and put her in the house, play-time is over. Don't let her run around the outside of the pen. She has to learn that the birds are *yours*.

I really hope you give try some of these things, you can have reliable, safe co-existence if you put the work into it. In order to prove to you that I'm not a keyboard armchair quarterback yelling random things from behind a screen, I set up the most ridiculous, tempting scenario I could think of and took my older GSD into it. I have a broody hen sitting on eggs in the corner of the coop floor (she hates nest boxes, she's weird). She's chortling, cooing, and had no desire to get up off the floor and exit the coop with the rest of the birds when I went in with the dog. The rooster that adores her is not happy that I brought the dog with me to collect eggs, so he's bobbing around, teasing the dog, chattering and trying everything in his bag of tricks to get the dog to chase him. 

This dog isn't wearing a collar, she isn't wearing a leash, she is listening to what I tell her because I spent a lot of time teaching her that all the birds are MINE. She would really like to eat one - or both - of them, but she won't, because I told her not to.






In order to get to that point, it takes hours and hours of this. Sit, Down, Watch, LEAVE-IT. Sit, Down, Watch, LEAVE-IT. This is my younger dog, learning the rules.










And then after you can get attention on demand, you can start trying small things off-leash....



















If at any time she starts to lose her mind and get crazy, it's back on a rope, back to basics, if she can't behave, she gets put in the house where she can't stare at the birds and run around like a fool. You can teach a German Shepherd to co-exist with all kinds of birds, but it takes work.

I hope this helps get you started. I don't think there are a ton of other people here that keep different types of poultry, you may also want to do some reading on backyardchickens.com 's forum, and BCBoards (border collie people) for some more ideas.


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## stingeragent (Mar 23, 2016)

This post may be of no help, but I've watched a few videos in the last few days of GSD's jumping on top of vans and over walls that were at least 7-8 ft tall.


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