Barbed Wire

[MnVzFn]

How do most of you handle teaching your dog about barb wire fences? The farm I hunt on has a few and last weekend my 8 mo old Vizsla cut her leg on one-do you teach them to avoid, or what? Thanks

[Sharon]

They usually learn the hard way. When you let a dog off the leash , many things can happen . Experience is a wonderful trainer .You can't train to avoid all trouble. Old fence half buried is a big hazard too.

In the days before GPS' , I found a dead beagle hung up on the fence. Not my dog thankfully , but I had the unpleasant task of having to call the owner.
My JRT likes to rip out the door after squirrels. One day last week, he leaped up high to try to catch a squirrel , and caught his collar on the fence. If I hadn't been outside ..................

PS Welcome to the forum.

[Neil]

I don't teach them to avoid them, I teach them to go through them - carefully. But Sharon is right, they are going to get scares.

[MnVzFn]

Thanks for the welcome-I'm new to pointing dogs, ran labs for years before this, never had one get cut by fence before this though-just lucky i guess

[greg jacobs]

The high speed ones don't seem to even know what got them. They are through the fence and don't care. When you get back to the rig they smell the blood and give it a good licking. All of my old dogs had battle scars. People on here talk about stitching and stapling. Probably a good skill to have. How do you teach them? I don't have a clue. I know I'm pretty nervous when I see them blast through a fence till I get my hands on them for an inspection.

[Soarer31]

Yep,
half buried star picket barbed wire fence , a week before this he fell down a 10 metre mine shaft , my son had to harness up and lower him down using the SUV winch , the dog was miraculously unscathed !
.

[Neil]

I guess you could train one to avoid nationwide the same way you would break them off deer or snakes, but you would be trapped in the same field forever . I start them as wee pups to learn to cross a fence. Years ago I trained them to go over woven wire, but it was hard to keep them in a kennel.

As you have learned it is just part of it.

[bonasa]

When I come across old barbed wire in New England, I clip it. I do the same with porcupines, works for me and pays it forward to the next guy/gal and their dog. Active farms, the fence is more visable and the dogs negotiate it better. It's the old ones, rusty, that have a single strand 7-10" above the ground you have to watch out for. Saw a pointer catch its elbow and open its leg up to the foot. Another one did the same the whole length of its back foot. Greenbriar, old multiflora rose and young black locust do terrible things to dog ears. Nothing you can do other than not hunt it or carry iodine and a suture kit.

[chwagn11]

Walk a dog up to one and show it how to go through them correctly. It takes a few times and a pup has it down. Hunted around barb wired fences my entire life never had an issue, but always show puppies how to get through them. Had a friend his dog got tangled in some that was wound up in a ball left in a field but luckily just had a few tears.

[Dakotazeb]

That's why I carry a stapler in my first aid kit. It's happened more than once and I'm sure it will again.

[marysburg]

We don't always hunt where there is a lot of wire, but the areas where we train are rife with it. We taught the dogs to go through above the bottom wire, and below the middle one. It pays off eventually; our dogs run straight at the fence and still at top speed, dive between the wires like they are diving into water. Heart stopping for us, but never a wire cut so far (6 gundogs). It is hard though, when you have a dog who has not grown up around wire, and really there is no way you can prepare for a tangle of wire grown into the grass, except to carry stapler and wound wash. Happy hunting this fall, and I hope you find lots of birds and no wire...or skunks...or porcupines..or snakes.

[mnaj_springer]

I'm a big fan of the Skidplates. I figure if a $35 purchase saves a $500 vet trip once, or even their life, it's well worth it.

[lovemypooch]

This http://amzn.to/1iFaeDR is so much better than a fence, barbed wire or even just chain-linked. Barbs suck - should be outlawed except around prisons!