If you have a livestock guardian dog, or are thinking about getting one, you may know that the logistics of getting everything to work can be tricky. One issue you may come across is how to give your dogs access to different areas of your pastures without letting your livestock run loose wherever they want. Fortunately, special dog gates called jump gates work really well for this purpose.
As you might already know, a livestock guardian is only as good as the area they can access. Many a farmer has lost animals to predators who were savvy enough to work out where the dogs could and couldn’t access. Jump gates give your dogs the freedom to do their job while keeping your other animals in their designated pastures. They also allow you to set up dog feeding areas where you don’t have to worry about conflict arising around your stock stealing food from the dogs. Jump gates are also good in the sense that they don’t teach or encourage your dogs to breach your normal gates.
So what exactly is a jump gate?
Jump gates are simply gates designed with a dog sized hole in the middle. The hole is typically sized and shaped in a way that discourages livestock from thinking they can fit through it. There are as many different jump gate versions as there are farmers. However, many of the same principals apply to make them work regardless of the exact details of the gates.
Firstly, you want to size your hole as small as possible.
What’s appropriate will vary depending on the size of your dog. If your dogs are 80lbs, don’t size the hole for a 200lb dog. This is particularly important if you have goats as they are more apt than sheep to try things. Measure your dog, and try to size your hole to be just large enough for them to comfortably squeeze through.
Secondly, you want your hole to be up a couple/few feet off the ground.
The idea here is to place it too high for your sheep or goats to be able to just step through the hole without jumping. Dogs are athletic and capable. They are easily able and willing to jump through a small hole a couple feet off the ground. Sheep, not so much.
Thirdly, the shape of your hole matters.
A triangular shaped hole is more deterring to livestock than a square one. Orient your triangle so the wide part is at the top and the bottom is the point. Triangular shaped holes look tiny at the bottom (and thus looks to your goat or sheep like they absolutely wouldn’t fit). However, there is actually plenty of shape for your dogs shoulders to go through the top of the triangle.
There are many different materials that you can use for jump gates.
Some people use wood, some people cut holes in cattle panels and reinforce the opening with boards. Some people make portable ones, others are fixed in permanent fence lines. Our personal preference is to use bright white PVC pipes to make jump gates like those pictured in this article.
We think that this is one of the best options if you are rotationally grazing using electric fence and moving your fence lines frequently. PVC jump gates are lightweight which makes them extremely portable. They are non-conductive so we do not have to worry about them accidentally grounding out our fence. Simply pound a couple fiberglass stakes into the ground between 2 sections of fence and slip the jump gate over the top of them.
Additionally, our PVC gates are highly visible to the dogs, and they do not look anything like any fence or gate we want our dogs to stay behind. This way our dogs are not confused, nor are they encouraged to climb through our other gates or fences. This is an important consideration as you design your jump gates. You cannot undo teaching a dog something. You do not want to accidentally teach your dog how to breach your perimeter fences.
Training your dog to jump gates is easy.
Put the dog on one side of the gate (with no other escape route) and put something they want on the other side. Encourage them to climb through the hole and reward them for doing so. It will likely only take them a few tries to start using it. If your dog is new to the concept of jump gates, you may want to start with a bigger, square hole positioned lower initially. Once they are comfortable with the concept you can move to your final jump gate style.
Because there are so many variables in fences, and the size of animals, we cannot really say what style or dimensions are best for jump gates. What exact jump gate works for your farm may take some trial and error. It will depend on how ambitious your animals are about getting to the other side of the fence. Try to take into consideration how difficult your livestock is to contain as you are designing your gate. Goats are going to be harder to keep from using the gate as are animals confined to smaller areas. Regardless, hopefully this gives you a good starting place!
Next time, we are going to discuss how we made inexpensive automatic waterers. If you don’t want to miss out on that article, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
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