Fencing across a driveway - keeping dog in without wrecking my driveway usability

My property is fenced almost completely around except for the driveway. I have a 20' wide pad behind the house. My detached garage is almost directly in line with the corner of my house. I want to do a fence of some kind across the driveway when we have the dog in the back yard, but I don't want a huge swinging gate that takes up the usable working space in the driveway. I was thinking of picking up a outdoor playpen like this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EF2YAHI?psc=1

I think two of them would stretch the width of the driveway. I could then mount a post on each side of the driveway (or the house and the garage) to attached them to. When the dog is out, we just unfold the driveway fence and clip it in place. I could even run a cable across the top of the fence and use a cheap HF winch to keep it tight between the buildings.

The dog is a short 30# mutt, so the fence just has to keep her back, not stop a bull. Anyone else figured out how to fence a driveway without messing up your working space?

That looks thoroughly annoying.

How about an invisible fence?

Rolling fence + garage door opener mounted sideways = automatic gate.

Two gates that meet in the middle? That's the setup I have.

Maybe something like this:

Rolls up like a window shade.

Fence in a smaller section of the back yard that excludes the entry to the detached garage.

Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: Rolling fence + garage door opener mounted sideways = automatic gate.

Beaten, came here to say this...well I didn't think to use the sideways garage door opener. My boss has the real-deal version of this but it's big money up front.

GameboyRMH wrote:

Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: Rolling fence + garage door opener mounted sideways = automatic gate.

Beaten, came here to say this...well I didn't think to use the sideways garage door opener. My boss has the real-deal version of this but it's big money up front.

I wouldn't expect a garage door opener to last very long if installed outdoors in the weather.

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AFolding%20Security%20Gates

Security scissors gate. Used for commercial settings usually but can be residential. Prices seem more reasonable than I would have thought.

KyAllroad wrote: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AFolding%20Security%20Gates Security scissors gate. Used for commercial settings usually but can be residential. Prices seem more reasonable than I would have thought.

Holy crap that looks perfect! Considering my requirement the price is reasonable as well. I'm going to show this to my wife tonight and see if I can get her onboard.

The PetSafe Yardmax system has an exclusion zone feature. With the dog wearing an invisible fence collar, you can place additional transmitters in a room or in part of the yard to keep them away from stuff. It may work without the in ground wire.

Not as cheap as the accordion thing though.

Not keen on the invisible dog fence. We have a problem with stray dogs sometimes so I'm just as interested as keeping our dog in as I am keeping strays out. Plus with three small kids the fence will at least corral them a little.

Some mobile fencing-

In reply to alfadriver:

Touche

Tennis net that drops down.

I have built and installed driveway gates, sliders and swing. A slide gate takes up very little space inside and is easier to motorize. A decent operator is not cheap, but a garage door operator will not last. I have seen a few used on gates, but they were all broken. But, a good gate, with a good operator is definitely a good selling point for a home. And, it is so nice to just push that button in your car and drive in, especially in the rain. You will get your money back. And it will not look tacky.

Accordion gates or fencing sections are ok, provided they aren't too long, and roll across a smooth level surface. The longer it gets, the more it bows as you try to push it closed. If you've got to hold it up to close it, they become hateful.

Beware of the dogs ability to go right under it. The bottom height is much greater when the fence is expanded open.

I couldn't find a picture of it or anything similar, but a neighbor had a steel cable across his 12 ft. driveway about 4ft. up. One end was tied to a post and a steel weight on the cable about 4 ft. from the post.

On the other end is a garage door opener. There was some plastic fencing hanging off the cable. He drives up, hits the opener which puts slack in the cable, the weight makes the whole thing drop to the ground and he drives over it.

Hit the button and the cable tightens after you drive by.

The new home owner removed it.

Dan

^Red Green would approve

My wife approved the accordion gate idea. There seem to be a bazillion options, so we are going to shop for a while. I still have to fence a 10' section beside my garage with real metal fence, so I've got some time.

slefain said:

Not keen on the invisible dog fence. We have a problem with stray dogs sometimes so I'm just as interested as keeping our dog in as I am keeping strays out. Plus with three small kids the fence will at least corral them a little.

I have run into three dogs recently who have gotten out of invisible dog fences while walking my dog. I am less then convinced by them tbh.

Wow, necro thread. We ended up with a wireless dog fence. So far, so good. She only has the collar on when we are in the back yard (front yard is fenced). We put out the white flags for a week, the dog learned her boundaries and that was it.

I will say that we had been training the dog for a several months prior using a simple training collar. The collar beeps or vibrates when you push the button on the remote (yes it will shock, but we disabled that function). When the dog did something bad in the house she got beeped. If she kept doing it she got buzzed (vibration) which she hated. We did the same thing in the yard training her to come back to us if the collar beeps.

I won't let her in the back yard with just the invisible fence and nobody else around, too much to go wrong. She runs around with the kids or sits by our chairs. She's not a "hang outside by herself" kind of dog anyway, too social. That's fine with me.

Make it see through.

slefain said:

Wow, necro thread. We ended up with a wireless dog fence. So far, so good. She only has the collar on when we are in the back yard (front yard is fenced). We put out the white flags for a week, the dog learned her boundaries and that was it.

I will say that we had been training the dog for a several months prior using a simple training collar. The collar beeps or vibrates when you push the button on the remote (yes it will shock, but we disabled that function). When the dog did something bad in the house she got beeped. If she kept doing it she got buzzed (vibration) which she hated. We did the same thing in the yard training her to come back to us if the collar beeps.

I won't let her in the back yard with just the invisible fence and nobody else around, too much to go wrong. She runs around with the kids or sits by our chairs. She's not a "hang outside by herself" kind of dog anyway, too social. That's fine with me.

Haha. I just saw it at the top and didn't check the date...