OT Beagles climbing over new fence

I know this is off topic but I just built a dog pen for my beagles. Before I had them each tied up on a dog run. I built a new pen out of wire thats about 2x4 squares and 60" tall. The problem is they are climing over. Someone told me that if their is a slight overhang leaning in, that they wont be able to climb over. Only other thing I could think of is to put a hot wire, electric fence wire running along the top which I dont really want to do. Wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to keep the hounds from going over the top.
Thanks
Ryan

Thinking out loud:
Use shelf brackets (8"X10" L shape)at the top to bend in the wire 10 inches at each post. Beagles will climb trees, but they can't hang upside down, or jump 5 feet high. JimN

There were a series of video"s of dogs doing
this on "America"s Funniest Home Videos"

What if you ran a wire about 6 inches from the top like a hot wire, but didn"t make it hot. Would they be able to maneuver over it and out of the run?

My 3rd black lab seemed oblivious to a 4' high fence. She would either go over or under it. and out in the road she'd go. I put an insulator on each post and strung a length of stainless mig wire around the inside perimeter and hooked it to a cheap 10 acre fencer I had. A couple "tune ups" broke her of screwing with that fence. For the rest of her life (4 years after I took the fencer off) there was a path around the inside of the fence almost exactly 12" from the wire.

My girl friend has a 30 lbs beagle/Llasa-apssa cross that cannot be contained. I built a kennel and the first time, the dog chewed right thru the wire mesh on the door. The second time, it tore thru a panel on the door on the garage that the pen was connected to. The third time, the dog dug under the fence. I reinforced the heck out of it, double fenced it and staked it good all around, but still am dreading the fourth time we try to confine this dog. We have to put the dog into the kennel when we both are at work as the dog is not housebroken fully and has a "mental" streak to boot, and too old and spoiled to train. If it were up to me, I'd let the dog run away after chewing out of the kennel, but my girl friend treats the dog like one of her kids so that's not an option. The next thing I mioght have to try is an 8 foot chain link fence buried 4 feet deep with razor wire on top.

I love dogs. I've always had at least one.

I will not keep a dog I can't control.

That mutt would be down the road in a heartbeat if it were mine.

Shelf brackets are a great idea! I had never thought about that.

I do have to second the hot wire apporoach. I knew some folks that had dogs that wanted to dig under. Put the hot wire about 4" off the bottom and a 6" standoff. That stopped that.

You gotta understand beagles are a breed meant to hunt, so they just want out to go hunting.

One pen I built for my dogs was on the cheap. 6 foot fence w/5 foot poles. Turned out, when the dogs tried to climb the fence, cuz te poles were short, the fence tilted back into the pen and the dogs fell off.

On the same pen, I dug down about 18" and burried chain-link and connected it to the above ground fence.

HTH...Good luck....don t. ....

Yes, I know. Never had beagles specifically, but have had a few hounds.

My point is, a dog is either trainable and obeys, or it's history.

How about a roof for the kennel made from hog/cattle panels?

I had to do this for my lab; she was climbing up the corners of the chain link kennel panels to get out.

I've got dogs that will run given the opportunity and would climb the fence.
I ran to hot wires one about a foot off the ground and the other at the top. Didn't take but one touch and now they stay in. Every 3 months or so I turn the fencer back on, they hear the clicking and stay about three feet back and are good for another few months.

Son of a gun, that aint funny, but is. I've had a couple of beagles, one as a kid, Sparky that was just like Houdini and always escaped to hit the girl dogs down the road and the parents would always have to drive down there, open up the door and holler, "Sparky", and he'd come running around the barn and jump in the car as the girl dogs would line up to say, "See ya next time stud". Then a couple of decades back I picked one up when I lived in Illinois, Petie, two for the price of one with a lab I got from a pound. I'd let the dogs outside when I'd get home from work, chain linked fence, go in to change clothes, go back outside and Petie'd be gone, and I'd have to go find her. One day my neighbor says that she watched Petie climb the fence and gave me a hollar. Sure enough, Petie was in her yard so I brought her home and in the house figurin that maybe my neighbor was a drinker with a drinkin problem out of control and stealin my dog Petie. I let Petie back outside with my labs, went in the house and counted to 10, walked back outside and there was Petie climbing that fence sure enough. Climbed it like a dang ladder and I saw it. Since I only had her a week, I gave her to a friend that raised and hunted with his beagles. She was a good dog, but when I'd go to work in the morning, I'd open the inside door and as soon as I'd do that, just that fast Petie would come runnin and jump up and hit the screen door latch, it'd open and Petie would be runnin down the street and I'd have to go get her and be late to work. I swear it, God strike me dead if I'm lyin, climb the fence and open the front door. I swear I aint lyin or fibbin. Yep, great dog but she loved my friend and his beagles more.

I suppose you'd be right to build a section of fence that overhangs inward and not outward, and if that don't work, well, you got yourself a real problem.

Good luck.

Mark

(quoted from post at 12:35:26 11/02/09) You gotta understand beagles are a breed meant to hunt, so they just want out to go hunting.

Click to expand...

Hunting is fine, but they have to respect territory and boundaries also. Unless you're a sporty type person that don't mind the exercise of a hunt that you have to follow your dog to where he wants to hunt. I had a bunch of beagles once that I kept in a 4ft fence with a hot wire about 18" high. After the first few days, only had to turn it on every now and then. Everyone was happy (me, dogs, and neighbors).

Dave