Pet Fence Repair: Fixing a Fence to Hold a Dog

Most escape problems are fixed without a new fence. Seal the base, brace the gate and close the gaps, in that order. A dig guard, a set of self-closing hinges and a kickboard cost a fraction of a rebuild and solve the majority of cases.

Find the escape route first

Before buying anything, work out how your dog is getting out. The evidence is usually there: scratch marks and loose soil at the base mean digging, paw marks partway up a picket mean climbing, a gate that swings free means the latch. If you cannot tell, watch from a window for twenty minutes, or ask us to walk the line during a free repair estimate and we will point out the weak spots.

Fixing the wrong thing is the most common waste here. Height extensions do nothing for a digger, and a buried mesh skirt does nothing for a climber.

Sealing the base

Retrofitting dig prevention is straightforward on any fence type:

• Buried mesh in an L shape. Dig a shallow trench along the line, set galvanized hardware cloth about a foot down, and bend the bottom outward away from the yard. A digger hits wire a few inches in and gives up.
• Kickboard or rot board. A horizontal board fixed flush to the ground closes the gap under a wood fence and takes the chewing damage instead of the pickets.
• Concrete footer. A narrow poured strip. The permanent answer for a determined digger, and the most disruptive to install.
• Paver or gravel run. Quick to lay, no tools beyond a spade, and enough for a dog who scratches rather than excavates.

Gaps open under fences here without any help from a dog. Austin clay swells after rain and shrinks in a dry spell, and a fence that sat flush in spring can have an inch of daylight beneath it by August. Posts that were set shallow move first, and our clay post depth guide explains what the ground needs. That same movement works posts loose, so check the line as well as the base; our leaning fence guide covers what to do when the posts have moved.

Bracing the gate

Gates are the most common escape point, and almost all of it is hardware:

• Anti-sag kit. A cable and turnbuckle across the gate frame pulls a dropped corner back square. The cheapest fix on this page.
• Self-closing hinges. No gate left ajar by a delivery, a child or the wind.
• Latch height and type. Move the latch out of nose reach, and use a two-action or lockable latch for a dog who has learned to lift one.
• A threshold strip. If the gate swings clear of the ground, the gap under it is a dog-sized hole. Close it with a low strip or reset the gate lower.
• Hinge screws into solid wood. Most sagging gates are hinges pulling out of a post, not a broken gate. Longer screws into sound timber fix it.

If the post the gate hangs from is the problem rather than the gate, that is a post reset. Our guide to resetting a broken post covers the method.

Closing the gaps in the fence itself

• Loose or missing pickets. Replace rather than nail back; a board that has worked loose once will do it again.
• Mesh behind iron or wide-picket fences. Welded wire fixed to the inside face stops a small dog slipping through, and it disappears visually within a season.
• Privacy slats in chain link. These do two jobs: they block sightlines and they stop a dog getting a toehold in the mesh. See our chain link repairs page for what fits an existing frame.
• Corner and post gaps. The triangle where a fence meets a house or a retaining wall is a classic escape route, and it is usually the last place anyone looks.

Storm damage and the urgent version

Austin storms take fences down in the same few ways: wind pushes a run over from the unbraced side, saturated clay lets a post lean, and a falling limb takes out a section. With a dog in the yard that becomes urgent rather than annoying.

If a section is down and the dog needs containing today, temporary options buy time: a run of welded wire panels zip-tied to the standing posts, or a portable pen across the gap. Then get the section rebuilt properly, because a temporary patch left through a wet season tends to become permanent. We handle storm repairs as part of our fence repair service, and after any big blow it is worth walking the whole line rather than only the obvious damage.

Dog fence maintenance through the Austin year

Heat does slower damage but it matters for pets. Dark metal fences and gate hardware get hot enough to be worth keeping a dog away from on a summer afternoon, and shade along the fence line helps more than anything else. Sun also dries and splits wood, which is how a picket becomes a gap; staining on schedule keeps boards sound, and the pet-safe stain colors guide covers what to use once it has cured.

Worth checking each season:

• Spring: gaps opened by winter soil movement, and gate alignment after rain.
• Summer: shade, hot hardware, and boards splitting on the sun-facing side.
• Fall: the staining window, and any post that has moved over the year.
• Winter: after each storm, walk the line and check the bracing on long runs.

When a retrofit stops being worth it

Add-ons assume the fence underneath is sound. When posts have rotted at the ground line along most of the run, or the whole line moves when you lean on it, you are spending money on a fence that is already finished. The rough test is the same one we use for any fence: once more than about two thirds of it is failing, replacement costs less over time.

At that point it is worth building the next one with the dog in mind from the start, which our dog-friendly fence guide covers.

Choosing what to build it from is the other half of that decision, and material options compared weighs each one against Austin heat and soil. For the upkeep a wood fence needs either way, see wood fence care basics.

Frequently asked questions