Round pen ideas

a round pen can take away from enough length to teach a pup to stop a runner unless you make the pen large enough...to save on fencing I have built 2 bay pens (with help) that work pretty good that we built differently than a round pen...

we started out running 2 fences parallel to each other like if we were going to make a rectangular pen...lets say 80 ft. wide and 100 ft. long. the way we made it the length will change but the width will stay the same... instead of running fence on each end to make a rectangular pen of 80x100 just ran the sides for now...

lets say the long side of the pen is running from east to west so you can visualize better how we built the pens

We ran a string line on the east end from pole to pole (the measurement where the fence would have been if building a rectangular fence) which is 80 ft...the mid point of the string line is going to be 40 ft and at that spot we drove a rounded stake or metal rod in the ground and we tied a string that was exactly 40 feet in length...we then pull the string to one of the corner posts to verify that it meets exactly at the corner of one of the fences...we kept the string taught and walked it around to the other post to make sure it matched up as did the other side...

once we verified it is right we used that string as our guide to drive the fence posts...we did the exact same thing on the west side...the pen width is still 80 ft. and the furthest point in the length will be 180 ft.

you will not have corners on the pen where a hog can back up into...and having a longer pen will help the pups learn how to stop a hog if they have it in them to do so...it will definitely give them confidence and you will know if the pup will work or not...sometimes a proven dog will quit baying in a pen but still bay in the woods...

hope this helps...