Gracie, oh my...

[bethh]

You could buy a sufficient sized diameter plastic culvert pipe for the creek to run through and build up around the culvert with dirt to allow adequate fencing. That way the water can run through but Gracie can't. You can drive some rebar into the creek bed in front of the pipe if the diameter is to large to keep her in.

Thank you. I’ll share this with my hubby.

 

[Baymule]

How big, deep is the creek and what is the water flow/flood stage? Pictures would help. Do you have a water gap?

 

[Latestarter]

I made my suggestion based on a pic she shared somewhere of Gracie playing in the creek. It wasn't that large. Of course it wasn't in flood stage either. But if heavy flow is a concern, you can do a larger diameter pipe or multiple smaller diameter pipes. In a 1000 year flood, the water will back up then flow over the top/around the sides & through the fencing... This was my plan for the drainage ditch the previous owner ran down the side property line here. So I can fence across it. I have had water over top the side and run down through the yard.

 

[Southern by choice]

I do believe in teaching dogs to have a time of boredom, it is a good exercise. However, putting her in a smaller more confined area is only going to create more issues. She is bored, has no real job and penning her is counter productive with a LGD. At her age she is also prime for "time to play with poultry". This is also one reason why dogs are in pairs. LGD's play lgd games and get out energy when young in a healthy way by playing with each other learning and practicing their skills.

 

[greybeard]

How big, deep is the creek and what is the water flow/flood stage? Pictures would help. Do you have a water gap?

I believe this is it. Water level appears 'normal' in this pic, but you can see it runs much higher by the exposed roots, and may even run higher than that in flood stage.

Placing a culvert in a dry swag that only flows when it rains is one thing, but doing so in a 'usually running' creek is another matter altogether and I highly recommend against placing any kind of bars or screen in front of a pipe. Even with nothing in front of the culverts, they are very prone to still get plugged up by debris that floats into them. It just takes one stick to get lodged sideways, and that stick catches twigs, which catch leaves and it's downhill from there. I have dual (side by side) 36" culverts under a drive that I have to clean out at least 2x/year because of what I just described.

A swinging water gate might work ok, depending on the terrain outside what is shown in the picture, but narrow steep sided and relatively deep channels are harder to design for but if that picture is indeed the troublesome creek, there appears to be no shortage of debris around and presumably upstream as well.

 

[Baymule]

Yeah, that looks like it would be tough to design and put into use a water gap that would let sticks and debris go through, yet keep a Houdini Dog in!

What about fencing off the creek entirely?

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Oh Gracie! Queenie went through lots of plastic when she was teething and still chews some. She has no reason to be bored. I think it’s become more habit. It used to be just water bottles that the kids dropped but I caught her chewing on the picnic table yesterday. (It’s plastic.) We went on to another project!

 

[bethh]

Here is what we have done so far with the creek. Sorry for the duplicate. I couldn’t figure out how to delete it. I’m a work in progress. Now it’s time to figure out the fencing. It’s been mentioned that Gracie needs a job, a second LGD and livestock. Can you give me suggestions on livestock for a beginner? If I were to get a 2nd LGD, my thoughts are older than Gracie so maybe it would help train her. Am I on the right page? What kind of job?

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Job would be livestock. Depends on what interests you. Don’t get anything too rare that it’s hard to find resources.

Start small. Example: 3-4 goats/sheep, 2 half grown cattle. You want something that can defend itself against Gracie and not let her chase/harm it. Introduce slowly with supervision.

I’ll let someone else answer the age for the second LGD...

 

[Baymule]

I like the gate. Just a heads up, I watched in amazement as my female GP, 67 pounds, squeezed herself through a 9"x12" pop door into the chicken coop. Then I watched in further amazement as Parker, 105 pounds, did the same thing. I thought I had them blocked out of the chicken coop with that little hole...….