[Jacob-list] portable electric fences, and dogs

[SharHill at aol.com]

I was wondering if anyone has used portable electric fences to confine 
Jacobs.  We have a big garden area that is overgrown with high grass (our 
lawn mower was broken down a good part of the summer).  I would like to put 
the sheep in there to eat it up without putting up a permanent fence around 
the whole thing.  There is good chain link on 2 sides.  The kind of fence I 
saw in the catalogues is woven wire with built in poles.  I would also like 
to know if these fences are effective in keeping out dogs.
I'd appreciate it if anyone with any experience with these fences could 
advise me.

After reading all the bad stuff about dogs, I felt I should say something 
good.  I was out walking my son's show lamb in our back fields a few days ago 
and my border collie came with us.  I saw him alert to something on the side 
of the path and make a wide, careful, cirle around it. I stopped short and 
listened, and soon I heard an ominous rattling sound.  I took a couple of 
steps closer and saw a big rattlesnake curled up ready to strike in the high 
grass right by the path about 10 feet away.  I had been hurrying along with 
the lamb without paying attention to stuff like that, and it is highly likely 
that if the dog hadn't been with us, either me or the lamb would have been 
bitten.  There was no one else at home to help me either, so my dog may well 
have saved my life.

Sharon