[Marilyn]

Tink, the electric wire will work, also. We've used it in the past when we lived in the country with a fence similiar to the one you are describing. The only problem we had was one hot dry summer, a blade of grass got against the wire and started a grass fire. It was big enough that hubby got a call that our house was on fire (it wasn't, only the grass) and rushed home. The city fire department responded and put it out, so we got a nice bill from them. It was a mess, so we got rid of the hot wire. It was cattle strength and did not hurt the dogs. They only had to hit it once to learn. We had cocker spaniels back then. With bigger dogs, you can probably put the wire high enough and you probably mow enough to not have the problem that we did. We had 3 acres with several trees and sometimes it got a little high in the back before we got it all mowed. That was back before weedeaters, also. We were young and doing our best.