We adopted our precious little LiLu in June of 2000. She was our neighbor's dog and would frequently escape their yard to come and visit our Golden, AJ. We knew she was an escape artist when we got her but what we didn't know was just how smart and tenacious she is! I have to say that she is ALWAYS supervised when she is in the yard and yes, she does this right in front of me! Over the past two years we have tried a bunch of things to keep her in the yard...

Right after we adopted LiLu we installed a 6 foot wooden privacy fence since we knew she could escape the existing fence. It took her about three days but she figured out that she could jump our new fence by using the middle rung as a place to put her back feet and then launch herself over.

She attended and passed beginning through advanced obedience at Narnia, a wonderful place to train btw. She still jumped.

We attached tarps to each fence panel in order to remove her ability to use the middle rung. She still jumped.

We contacted a pet communicator who told us that LiLu lives for fun and that she just likes the feeling of being launched into the air. If we provided (and promised) fun activities for her she would limit the fence jumping. It worked for a few days but then she jumped.

Success! We took a clue from the wolf parks and installed the rigging pictured. It all cost under $40 from the local Menards store using scrap lumber and snow fencing cut in half lengthwise.

You can see how LiLu tested (and still does) the fence. We have to inspect the rig frequently to fix any loose spots.

*Update - we are now convinced that LiLu jumps the fence because of her high prey drive. She has been very successful in hunting and capturing critters after she escapes the yard. We are doing our best to keep her in and the varmints out for everyone's safety.

** Note to cat owners - PLEASE keep your cats inside the house. We had an experience recently that thankfully ended up OK but could have been disasterous. A neighborhood cat was walking on top of our fence at the exact same time we let the dogs out in the yard. The dogs of course rushed the fence knocking the cat off and into our yard. Luckily LiLu was on a leash but because of our fence rigging is confgured to keep her in the cat couldn't get out. One of our other dogs pinned the cat on the ground but let him go when we asked him to. We got the dogs inside and helped the terrified cat out of the yard. It would have been horrible if someone's beloved kitty didn't make it home that night because they didn't keep it inside. There are way too many dangers - my dogs and yard are just one of them - for outdoor cats.