Thank you!
our property is 2.5 acres, about 3/4 acre flat top where the house is and hill sloping down. the entire area is fenced, the 3/4 acre around the house has an additional fence separating it from the slop, cannot exclude critter access from the "hill" too many gates, and crawl areas under them and the fence...
the fence around the house area has snake fencing (1/2" hardware cloth 12-18" deep), chicken wire to 5 feet above ground, and an extension to 8ft all around.
Tried it, but she cheats, pretends that she has to go pee... and she also barks from inside the house at the critters.
our older dog recently developed epilepsy, fairly bad, and cannot be controlled by drugs (tried multiple drugs/combinations over the last two years). the indoor barking wakes her up, and when she does not get a good night's sleep, she is much more susceptible to seizures.
little monster is super obedient (except when it comes to hunting critters...) and has been trained from day one, though not as much as our older and previous dogs due to having to deal with the epilepsy...
it is amazing to see my wife work and train the dogs (on a daily basis). from the basic sit, stay, hang on, come, etc, to more sophisticated tricks, scent hunting, pulling, etc.
however, the dogs do know that I am a pushover and do take advantage of me (lots of stories, including all of them pretending to starve, and leading me to their bowls and food container... so I gave them a second dinner...). but not my wife...
but the little monster has a much stronger hunting drive than her aunt (our older dog), and my wife says not to issue a command when you cannot enforce the command (or know that the dog will not obey). so calling her to come in the middle of the night while she is hunting is not a good solution... though it is the only thing we currently do, with lavish praise and treats when she comes home. but little monster seems to take advantage and goes out and barks just to get treats when she comes in... wife is now working on teaching her the difference between "be quiet" and "come home"
she was crate trained when young, all our dogs were when they were puppies, but as they grew older, wife abandoned the crates other than on trips, in the truck and hotels.
have two, however, my wife stopped using them, in general, my wife does not like collars when the dogs are at home. she grew up on a ranch and witnessed several animals strangle/hang themselves on their collars. anyway the bark collars did not work as well as teaching her the "be quiet" command
thanks again so much for all the info.
-avi