In this thread, once more argueing about pit bulls, there are several mentions about dogs chewing through a chain link fence.
My bullshit alarm is screaming like a mimi.
Can any dog literally chew through a chain link fence?
Peace,
mangeorge
I provided two links from people who claimed first-hand knowledge of wolves being able to do so, including one person who runs a wildlife refuge.
Here is someone asking how to keep their dog, who “literally eats through the chain link fence” from doing so and here is a reviewer saying their rottweiler used to chew through chain-link kennels.
I don’t actually have a dog in this fight (so to speak) because I’ve never owned one of these dogs, but as an owner of basset hounds my experience is that dogs can be profoundly stubborn and I’m not sure offhand why it would be impossible for them to chew through a fence. I suspect that in some (many?) cases the dogs are not literally chewing through a fence so much as worrying it enough to get through, which has the same end result, but there are enough people out there saying that their own dogs chew through chain-link that I’m not terribly incredulous.
Argh, missed the edit window. Anyway, the people at Dow Fence recommend that chain-link fence be “manufactured from steel that has minimum yield strength of 45,000 pounds per square inch” (310 MPa if I’m not mistaken) and this article describes tooth enamel as having a yield stress of 330 MPa. Since I do not have dental coverage, I do not want to experiment myself, but I’d think it is not physically impossible to chew through the steel of a chain-link fence, if you were sufficiently dedicated.
Hey, Alex.
I went back to the linked site, and there you were!
Anyway, bite strength wouldn’t be the only problem. The dog would also have to be able to get a purchase on the fence. I measured, and my fence squares are only 2’ accross. I don’t see how one would be able bite on one of the wires. Then he’d (were talking about a bad-assed male here ;)) need to bite through 7 of these to get a foot of slot to get through. And I wonder if a dog big enough to gnaw through steel could fit through such a small split.
Remember, this dog would have to use his back teeth, fangs won’t cut.
I wonder if the Myth Busters have addressed this one.
I’ll be back.
Ah, that’s a good point. I don’t have a chain link fence to measure or destroy–is it possible, if you were a Vicious Dog, Hell-Bent on Escape, that the thrashing of your muzzle might separate the wire enough to get a purchase on it? You’re right, I’d been sort of thinking of them as living wirecutters, which isn’t appropriate.
At the same time, there are a number of people who claim that dogs (even their dogs) “chew through” fences. Perhaps this is only possible under certain circumstances (already deformed fences with compromised tensile strength, narrower-gauge wire than is appropriate, mutants) and many of the reports boil down to “I secured my dog in a chain-link fenced area, came home twelve hours later, there was a hole in the fence and the dog was gone. He must’ve chewed right through it”?
On the other hand, Una Persson, in the other thread, says that the website dogsbite.org was not used for the information in the article, but I wonder if it wasn’t the source for the “numbskull report” the original article talks about. This bit of mouth-frothing, for instance, complete with occasional big purple text so you know how serious they are. The claim there (“Pit bulls commonly snap chains, crash through doors and chew through chain link fences to reach their targets. This breed of dog cannot be “contained,” even by responsible owners”) with its unique, war-propaganda phrasing, would probably peg anyone’s BS meter.
Dogs jaws are significantly stronger than ours, I dont know about their teeth but I could see a determined fairly large dog breaking chain link given some time.
I have seen a dog (pit cross) grab hold of chain link fencing and twist their head back and forth and side to side and it seems to unravel (for lack of a better word) the linking design. It was a solid, determined dog, although not angry, it just wanted out. And was stupidly pleased with itself after the effort.
I had a golden retriever chew through a wood fence in a few days. Chewed a hole big enough for her to get through. As you know goldens are not small dogs.
I think I can see that happening. The way installers “cut” the fencing to lengh is to pull the vertical wire out.
There are all kinds of varieties of fence that people call “chain-link”, ranging from what we called on the farm ‘chicken wire’ up to very heavy #6 gauge wire fabric. So I expect that some of these stories people are about fences that are toward the weaker end of ‘chain-link’.
Personally, I doubt that any canine could chew through a strong chain-link (9 gauge or stronger) fence. They could probably tear it loose from the frame, or pull it enough to get underneath it. But biting through that steel wire seems beyond belief.
My parents operated a dog boarding kennel where the runs were made of 8-foot high galvanized chain-link fence. It was built in 1954, and that fence fabric is still strong & solid, despite years of use to separate stranger dogs of many breeds from each other. Many dogs have chewed & pulled at this over the years; none has been able to ‘chew through it’.
I was about to point that out, t-bonham@scc.net.
Thanks.
I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that it’s possible for a dog to chew through a chain link fence, but I think the path of least resistance in almost all cases is under or over it.
When I was a kid, I made a trap out of 3/4" plywood. Caught a raccoon… The next morning, there was a neat round hole about 6" diameter gnawed through the plywood. Raccoon was gone. I’ve never messed with a raccoon since…
I need to be clear on what we’re saying here. You, and others, mean that dog is biting through a piece of steel wire. Many times.
Hello All.
I have a 6 yr old female pit bull that keeps chewing her cage apart !! I’m not even sure if I would even go to the extremes to say she’s eating it… I have a picture of the holes shes been making if anyone wants to see to help them come up with a solution to my problem. Shes a great dog, its walked everyday, runs around with 3 energetic kids and has chew toys…
She has even cut her face up squeezing herself out of a small gap…
** Someone please help me with my baby’s problem**
I never hear of one chewing through a chain link fence, A friend’s Lab chewed through a heavy metal crate. I have heard of other stories about crates. I would be reluctant to say never.
For what it’s worth, serious pit bull rescues seem to rely on chain link to protect the dogs. Villalobos, the world’s largest pit bull rescue, does so; you can see some pics here.
Dog bite force is mostly size-dependent; larger dogs bite harder. Dr. Brady Barr measured bite psi for several breeds in a National Geographic episode, iirc, he found that large dogs managed about 320 psi. Incidentally, pit bulls did not have the highest bite force in his measurements, possibly because they are not especially large dogs (65 pounds is the highest end of the largest of the two “breed standards.”)
Dogs certainly have powerful jaws, they can crack large bones open to get at the marrow inside. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear one could chew through metal, depending on how thick the links are.
My WAG is that a dog with strong enough jaws (and stubborn enough personality) could damage chain link via metal stress. I don’t see them just cutting through metal with their teeth, but rather, grabbing hold of the links and bending them back and forth until the metal weakens and twists.
It’s like this: No a dog cannot chew through a chain link fence. However, a dog - for instance my pitbull, he shoves his face into the side of his kennel and grabs a wire and then puts all his weight back and tugs on it like he’s pulling on a rope. In this manner he destroys his kennel. EXTREMELY frustrating!!!