[Juliemac]

Hope someone can give me a suggestion or 2...... a couple of raccoons walk along the top of the privacy fence at the back of my yard at night and just drive my jack russell absolutely nuts. Is there some 'humane' way I can keep them off my fence? Maybe an odor they hate or something? Please help!

[lifelongMOgal]

Your Jack Russell didn't scare them away?

You could place bird spikes ontop of your fence. Likely the raccoons won't want to walk on those.

Bird Spikes | Polycarbonate & Stainless Steel Strips by Bird-X

If you actually see them in action again you could spray them down with your garden hose with a good nosel from a safe distance.

[Juliemac]

thanks lifelongMOgal. I will try the spikes for sure. No, they just stood up there looking at her while she went bananas trying to climb the fence, lol. We live in the 'burbs here, so maybe they are used to domesticated dogs or something. They actually seemed to be enjoying it! haha. I will have the hose at the ready also

[Fat Freddy]

The problem isn't the coons.
It's the barking dog.
Turn the hose on him until he shuts up.

[phonelady61]

My brother has a raccoon that lives up under his mobile home and it does bother anything and comes and goes as it pleases . He kind of likes the fact that the booger is there since it does not bother anything . I would suggest just call your dog in when the barking starts .

[foxywench]

racoons typically have little to no fear of dogs...as long as the racoon is higher than the dog they realy dont care.
racoons can also KILL small dogs, it has been documented...
theres a reason coonhounds were bred lol.

id personally go wiht bird spikes on the fence, itll be your best bet for keeping them off.
orange oil seems to be the only scent that even remotly acts like a repelant but its not all that effective either.

[california-jewel]

At one of our previous homes, in O.C. CA we had problems with racoons and possums. Oh let me tell ya some of the racoons are fearful of not a thing. I think they actually liked making our dogs go nuts. I did have a hose out, and wet them, you know what they did, they jumped down into our yard, and that is when i had to pull our pom in. He was going nuts, and that dang racoon was showing it's teeth. Man they could be mean, but i think the problem was people in the area feeding them. So they were coming around for food, which is something you do not want to do, unless you want them around at all times. Now i know of a odd case where these people i know have a pet cat. Well this is very unusual, the racoon that came and visited their yard, let the cat eat it's food, what the cat left, the raccoon would then eat. They actually got along. But the raccoon did not tread on the cats property or food, until it was done. Sometimes they are really hard to get rid of. I am pretty sure there is a repleant for racoons that you can buy online, i forgot the name of the store, maybe you can do a search.

[foxywench]

cat food is a HUGE attractant to racoons (and skunk and possum) so if you or any of your neighbors feed their cats outdoors definatly try and put a stop to that!
and make sure trashcans are secure (either keep them indoors untill trash day or bungee cord the lid shut...)

if you remove the attractant (in most cases for coons that means FOOD (cat food, garbage ect)) then they will ventually stop comming round.

[Geneyus]

We had problems with racoons, so we started trapping them in cages using cat food as the lure. We would drive them about 10 miles away and release them. It helped.

[Juliemac]

thank you for all the suggestions! i particularly liked turning the hose on the crazy JRT, FatFreddy I may do that just for fun, too. I just moved here, so not sure who's feeding cats outside, etc... I need to peek over the fence, I guess. Then they will post in a different forum about the new creepy neighbor lady peeking over their fence..... I already yelled 'what the &*%$ is that???' the first time I saw them, so I'm pretty sure they are wondering about me as it is... trapping them sounds way too scary. These are really big raccoons!