Hi summergardener:

Pictures. Please post some pictures. What a great gift to you and the pups. Very special people adopt from rescue shelters. I know I have five kitties. When I raised dogs and cats together what worked for me to stop pups and grown dogs from chasing my cats was to keep leashes on the puppies/dogs at all times. Whenever they would decide to chase the cats I would step on the leash. It took a while but they got the idea. Once they knew not to chase the cats I would remove the leash. viola! They were trained. Maybe you can do the same thing with your pups whenever they approach the pond. Good Luck and give your pups kisses from me.

Jenny

Congrats on the new puppies Summer. Dogs know how to swim so the question is your pond built so that they can grab a hold of the rocks or something to get out?

Another thing to consider is when the pond is ice covered. My dogs leave the pond alone until winter and try to get on the ice. One day I held my breath when I saw both dogs on the ice and heard it start cracking!!!!! Because of that we put that orange plastic snow fencing around the pond in the winter.

The best thing you can use is invisible fencing around the pond. I know lots of folks who use invisible fencing to keep dogs out of flower beds and gardens. It will keep the safely away from the pond, without the unattractive obstructions (such as electric wire or regular fencing). A single active breed dog is bad enough, but two of them will tend to get into more mischief and the pond may be just too attractive to them to stay away on their own.

I agree with ccoombs 1. I LOVE my underground fence. I first had it installed around 3 acres of my hobby farm (I live on a busy road) and then had a loop put around my pond after a month of trying to train 2 labs and 2 goldens to stay out of "my" pond and use their own kiddie pools. Too stressful on me, the dogs, the fish and the plants :o) They all love water, duh.

They make a wireless variety now - just plug it in and train the dogs to the perimeter. I've not had experience with these, but certainly worth some research.

S