I like many people, believed for years that fences were only important to keep your dog contained. While this is true, it is not the only good reason to make sure your fur baby has a secure fence. Terri and I have in fact been successful with no fence before (Harley and River‘s first 2 years of life for example) but it is hard, risky and requires a LOT of attention and work to keep your pup safe. In the article below I’ll attempt to line out the risks involved that I am aware of with not having a good fence and maybe a few things you can do to mitigate the risk.
To be clear, people have been successfully raising dogs without fences longer than America has existed. It absolutely can be done but there are risks and you should be fully aware of those risks and be prepared to mitigate those risks. Having a fence is probably the single most effective physical thing you can do for your dog(s) to keep them safe.
As always, this article is based on our extensive personal experiences and research. You should also do your own research and/or consult your veterinarian before reaching any final conclusions.
Keeping them contained
Yes, keeping your dog contained is the primary reason for having a fence. It can keep them out of the dangerous streets and prevent them from becoming irritants to the neighbors. In general dogs (especially Golden Retrievers) LOVE to play and run. When they play and run, they have no concept of danger from the road or property boundaries. This especially troubling for hunting and shepherd breeds since when they get a scent or see something that looks like it should be chased, they often focus on that to the exclusion of all else and potentially run for miles. Even Golden Retrievers are prone to this. Our Harley loved chasing deer before we built our 5′ non-climbable wire fence in our immediate back yard. Our local deer know her and are in fact playing with her but it becomes dangerous as she is FAST and could get off the property or injure herself in the forest. In our case, we are on the back side of almost 3 acres of heavily wooded land so the road is a bit of a hike but she’s fast enough to do it.
If something happens (fireworks for example) that panics your dog, they can run for miles in a wide-eyed panic. Boundaries can to some extent be trained but even then, they will often forget in the heat of the moment. A properly sized and secure fence (see below) is the best deterrent to these issues.
Wild and Other Animals
Do you live in a suburb or city and think you don’t have to worry about wild animals? Think again. Deer, Coyotes and other wild animals are feeling the pressure of human expansion and encroaching more and more into suburban and urban areas. Feral dogs (domestic dogs gone wild) will join up in packs and pose some scary risks – scarier even than coyotes in some cases. In our case, we live in the country and have massive amounts of deer and other wild animals. Your neighbor’s pets may even pose a risk since you really don’t know in most cases if they are all vaccinated or prone to attack other animals.
Other animals pose several risks. They are often carriers of dangerous parasites and deadly diseases that can be transferred to or infect your dog.
Aside for the physical risk of meat eating wild animals, allowing a coyote (for example) to even walk through your yard poses a very real risk of infecting your not-yet-fully-vaccinated puppy with the deadly Parvo virus for example.
Those beautiful and seemingly harmless deer are covered in fleas and ticks and are commonly carriers of Giardia and other parasites which they leave behind (pun intended) in their scat (puppies LOVE eating deer scat). In the fall when deer are in “Rut”, bucks get aggressive at times and their antlers are weapons at that point. In the spring when doe’s have babies, they are very defensive of their children and their hooves can be deadly.
Neighborhood or feral dogs pose both physical and infectious / parasite risk (although the infections are the biggest risk to not-yet-fully-vaccinated puppies). 
Wild animals can lure your dog on a chase that takes them to dangerous places or make them become hopelessly lost. Deer are notorious for this. They may be running out of fear or actually playing with your pup but the effect is the same.
Wild dogs are VERY often infected with the venereal disease called Brucelosis. While sex is the primary transmitter, it can also be transferred by urine or simply sniffing the privates of an infected dog or drinking water tainted with infected urine or postpartum fluid secreted by infected females.
One last issue (and yes this has happened to us): Wild animals are not selective where they die.
If a deer (for example) dies somewhere within a mile or so of your home, you dog will know it after they begin to decay. Almost all dogs are drawn to animal corpses and will go chew on them, maybe even eat them. This is expected behavior, not a sign of a behavioral problem in your dog. It is your job to prevent it happening. Those corpses are nasty, rotten, covered in all kinds of bad things and your dog will likely bring back trophies. Fences prevent this entirely as long as the wild animal did not jump into your yard before passing.
These are but a few examples; use your imagination and do research but unknown animals around your pups are a very real risk.
Fences are Convenient
Most dogs need exercise; especially active working breeds like Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers and Border Collies. If you do not have a safe back yard for them to run an play in, you will need to jog or bike with them on a very regular basis or take them to dog parks after they are fully vaccinated. It’s much simpler to have a back yard to let them run and play in. Even playing fetch is much safer with a fence.
Potty training is much easier with a proper fenced yard of your own. Your puppy will need to go outside a LOT during training and using a leash to “walk” them takes longer to train than just letting them go out back. It is much less likely that your yard is infected with parasites and disease than anywhere else.
A word of caution here: If you just moved into an existing home with a fenced yard, make sure you know who the previous owners were or if they had dogs. Parasites and Parvo can stay troublesome in the soil for a very long time. It is possible to treat the ground but it often kills the grass so do your research.
So What is a Secure and Proper Fence?
This bit will concentrate on effectiveness, not your personal preferences. There are many fencing materials to choose from that may affect the visual effect on your property. I will not discuss that here and those things are a personal choice and beyond the scope of what I’m trying to communicate.
The specific fence you choose will depend on many factors some of which include:
- Dog breed and size
- Dog attitude
- Neighborhood restrictions
- Budget
- Prevalence of wild animals
Height
The height of your fence is very important but specific requirements will vary. Note that the height of your fence is not just to keep your dog in but also to keep other animals out. Coyote, deer and large feral dogs can easily jump over a 4′ fence for example. 
If your desires included keeping out wild animals, go with a 5′ to 6′ fence. 5′ will keep most canine species out and 6′ will keep almost all of them out. Either of these will discourage deer (use 8′ if you want to keep ALL deer out). Keep this in mind as you evaluate your specific circumstances.
Try to use some form of “non-climb” fence as the most common way for pups to get over a fence is jumping part of the way a literally climbing the rest of the way. Wooden fences are very hard to climb but it can be done if they can hook their paws in the “dog-eared” tops of the fence. Hurricane fence is not all that hard to climb since the layout of the wire gives convenient footholds for the pooch. Wire mesh “non-climb” fences have openings that are narrow and tall. this configuration is hard for most breeds to negotiate since the taller opening makes it very hard to get the “next” step up.
Small breeds are the easiest to fence in. If you have a small breed like a small poodle and live in an urban area, a 4′ fence may do what you need. Remember though that smaller breeds fit through smaller holes or can dig out easier and a 4′ fence is easy for wild animals and feral dogs to get over.
If you have a larger breed like a Golden Retriever or any mid sized jumping breed like a Border Collie, consider 5′. If your dog is really active and loves jumping a lot, you may need 6′. Our German Shepherd mix Gandalf that we had fenced for over half his life could get over a 6′ wooden fence when he was younger and really motivated so taller is better.
Secure
A tall fence means little if it has holes or loose fence slats, easy to dig under or is made of wood and your dog is very motivated to chew. Our Aussie mix Lexi for example suffered from separation anxiety and chewed her way through a wooden fence several times during her long 17.6 year life.
Holes and loose or missing slats are easy to remedy: FIX THEM. Be sure to check your gates as well as they tend to be the places where gaps occur most often. Be sure to also look for gaps at the bottom of the fence or gate that your pup could squeeze through.
If your dog suffered from a high level of separation anxiety and/or is an extreme chewer, consider a hurricane or non-climbable mesh fence to prevent chewing their way out. If you have an existing wood fence you can line the lower parts with thicker wood. You can also put up an electrified wire down low (be sure to use one that is dog safe). We did this for Lexi since she was so very persistent and it was very effective. Even when it was powered off, our dogs avoided the fence. Be warned that these wires require maintenance and can be rendered ineffective by tall grass and weeds.
If your fence is easy to dig under there are a few things you can do. You could line the problem areas with large rocks (5 – 10lbs) 
This can be decorative and if the dog tries to dig under the rocks, they simply fall down into the hole they dig. You could also try a or a xeriscape border of medium sized rocks (rocks big enough to be hard for your dog to move), bricks or pavers. It’s also possible to bury 2×10 treated boards in problem areas as dogs seldom dig further than 10″ deep to tunnel out. This can hide your efforts and be more attractive since they would be mostly underground but requires a LOT more work than rocks to install and over the years will rot. The electric fence wire referenced above will often work as well if you keep the wire low enough.
Afterword
We at Texas TLC Goldens do not (as of this writing) refuse to sell our puppies to families that do not have a fence. We allow it because we have personally been successful in the past doing it but recognize that it requires careful, constant and fully informed effort to keep the pups safe; it is not easy. We expect any applicant to describe in detail how they will handle their pups without a fence and encourage ALL of our puppy parents to get a home with a fence and/or build one as soon as humanly possible. Another temporary solution for puppies if you have a yard but no fence is to put up a temporary fenced enclosure (dog run) that you know is clean and healthy for them to eliminate in. If after a few litters we have too many bad experiences with puppy parents without fences, we may change the policy but for now we are trying it; hopefully this article will help.
About the Authors
Bryan and Terri Curry love all dogs in general, especially Golden Retrievers. They have had dogs for all but 6 months of their long lives and all have lived happy and much longer than average. Bryan and Terri are co-owners of Texas TLC Goldens; a small responsible breeder producing high quality Golden Retriever puppies.