Secure Exercise Area for two naughty Beagles

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Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice.

We have two lovely Beagles - meet Biggles (left) and Beanie (right) (aged 1 and 2):

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They're really quite good as Beagles go. We do agility, flyball, lure coursing, obedience to name but a few of their activities. Until recently we also managed to have them running off-lead every day in a local, safe park. But we've had to abandon that as they simply aren't reliable enough off-lead. Mostly they're good, but every so often they go AWOL. We need a secure enclosure for them. We've hunted high and low for a field to buy but have had no luck so far.

We live in the Southside of Glasgow in Scotland and would travel up to an hour at a push for a safe off-lead romp.

Does anyone know the best way to go about locating a field to rent or buy?

We'd be interested in anything from 1/4 acre to up to 10 acres. The land doesn't need to be good quality. Hilly, partially wooded etc would all be fine. As we'd need to pay to have the land securely fenced if we rented it'd need to be a lease of a few years to make it worth the cost.

I just don't know where to start looking so any tips would be very welcome.

Here they are lure coursing....as you can see, they were born to run - we have to find them somewhere safe!
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http://vimeo.com/6142180
 
Ah that is brilliant
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They are ace! Sorry cant help just wanted to watch them lol. Maybe a stupid question and I know nothing about it but who runs with the thing they are chasing Lol. They are very quick!
 
It's actually a Deerhound lure coursing group that accomodates our Beaglets.

They have a winch made out of the engine of an old quad bike. The winch pulls a very long (500m +) line with a bit of deer skin tied to the end of it. There are little pullies all around the field to make the lure apear to zig-zag over the field like a rabit.

It really is great fun for most breeds (especially hounds and terriers) so if you ever get the chance to try it....
 
not sure if this helps.... but we use a radio frequency fence ('Dog Fence') its amazing, my beagle wears a collar with transmitter on and after about 3-4 days of training them where the boundary is they dont go near it. we have a footpath running thro our yard that the dog walkers use and my beagle doesnt even try and follow them past the top f the drive, and believe me 4yrs ago when we first got him we fell out with all the neighbours beacuse he was always running off and following dogs home!

it cost about £900 for approx 5acres , they come and lay the wire and train you how to train your dog, its never broken in 4yrs and both dogs respect it still. best buy ever!
 
Thanks for that.

Our garden is very securly fenced so they're OK there. The trouble is it's also way too small for a Beagle to get any decent exercise.

There are a couple of secure enclosures in parks near us but they aren't a lot bigger than our garden. We really want them running in a few acres.

However, I'm sure the technology that you use could be of use. Do they get some kind of low level shock if they go over the wire? Because if so, then we could use a shock collar in the same way (i.e. shock the dog when it goes out of the safe area).

We have thought of this, but have been put off by those that claim it's cruel. It's hard to get unbiased, factual info about this kind of thing. I think it would be a kindness if it made it possible for our dogs to run free!

We have got GPS tracking collars for them, but that doesn't save them if they run into a road.
 
if you do fence with physical fence I can recommend the tornado horse mesh. Our dobie is hopeless (3 weeks residential training made no difference!) and we have 40 acres so couldnt electric fence it all....

We did 5 foot horse mesh over 4 acres.

The electric collars are of course not ideal, but if professional trainers have failed, then to my mind they are much kinder than a dead dog (which mine would be if he got out). Esp as once trained the dog never gets a shock as they dont try it! I only havent used it as we had to fence for the horses anyway. I think what happens is they get a beep first then as they get closer is a small zap and then a bigger one if they keep going.
Citronella collar we tried but our dog worked out there is a finite supply of citronella in the collar and just held his nose til it finished so didnt work for us.
 
Beagles are prone to obesity - most are fat. We're lucky with ours as it's easy to keep them lean.

We *almost* managed to by a 9 acre field. Current owners had a stud farm and had cared for the land extremely well. It was VERY securely fenced with sheep fencing and electric fence. There was also a burn (stream) full of otters, brown trout, king fishers running around the outside. We were led to believe we had a very good chance of getting it as our only competition was from farmers who wouldn't pay as much. But at the last minute someone put in an offer for the whole farm so that was that!

But the chances are anything we do get we will need to fence ourselves. We've been told about £4 - £5 a metre for sheep fencing. How much did it cost you to do 4 acres with horse mesh? And it it secure enough for little, wiggly beagles? They can get through tiny gaps (think not much bigger than a jack russel.
 
well we did do 2 wires above the mesh as well ! (you can tell we were worried!) AND put mains electric on those tho we have never turned it on. So we paid about £6-7 k (!) for it in total but I guess about £4-5k without the extra wires. Not that much more than £5 a metre, which sounds a bit steep for sheep fencing to me? and would worry with the mesh size on that or pushing under, unless you have an awful lot of posts and then it costs ££ still more.

Such a lot to pay, but it also covered building a large garden sized corral for the dogs with the same spec, and we use the 4 acre one as the main horse paddock subdividing with electric tape and then the dogs go out in it once the horses are in.

If you didnt need the horses to be in it you could go for cheaper chain link type fencing, much cheaper although not tensioned so they might be able to push under unless it was attached to a bottom wooden rail which might negate the cost saving somewhat.

Bear in mind the gates have to be as tall as the fence, ours are 6 foot high and also steel mesh. Basically everyone locally thought we were going into ostrich farming :-)))

As far as wee dogs are concerned it would be absolutely fine if competently installed, it is high tension and comes right down to the ground, no gaps and they cant push under it. We have a wandering border terrier and she cant get out of it and doesnt even try now. Just watch for any rabbit runs developing and also any bits where dog runs up and down the same bit of fence line (in my Dobies case to try and stare out the sheep in the next field...:0)

It is a daft amount of money but for me it means that he can run free over a decent area and is clearly happy and so am I and so are the farmers that surround us. On that basis, its the best money Ive ever spent, and it might come in useful

Below there is a piccie of 17 hand Marcus next to the fence (he makes it look small but its him thats big!)

I hope it goes well - it is worth taking the plunge even if you wince at the time.

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hi there the 'dog fence' I mentioned is a vibrate collar, not a shock one. ive actually felt it to test it and its not cruel at all, within 3 metres its gives a real faint vibration that you can also hear, then as you gradually get closer (which they never do!!!) the vibration get stronger and louder. my two dogs the beagle and a colli x have never strayed since have the fence in place and there have been days ive taken collars off to get new batteries and they still dont go over boundary.highly recommend it, good luck
 
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