Maybe get an electric fence meant for dogs? I'm not sure what they are actually called. It's for containing a dog, not zapping one. A neighbor down the road installed one a few years back, it was a buried line around the edge of the yard.

Invisible Fence. They worked like a charm for us.

Thanks for your replies 😀 The hogwire fence is nice but it’s become so prevalent in this area that I was really hoping for something different. I do love the split rail fence appearance as well. I’m just wondering if anyone has used a different style in the front of their house than in other areas. Thanks all 😀

I think you need to answer the question about the dog or not ?To me this is a split rail fence so where are you putting the wire and for what purpose.

I know I have seen places where the front fencing and the side/back fencing are different. It might be something like a picket fence across the front, and the rest being split rail.

It looks OK since you can't really see the side fencing from the front.

Of course you can do a different fence in the front than from the sides. It would be nice if it complemented the side fences. Here's an idea for the front yard that might complement that wire fence to be used on the sides/back:

This is what the wire is like on the fence. It typically goes behind the wood. So if I had this in the front part of my house and yard the wire would be showing a lot. The goal with the wire is to keep my little dog inside and to not escape. It sounds like it’s not a real design faux pas to have differing fenced front and back so choosing one is next. 😀

This one the wire is in back but it depends on your orientation to the fence.

We had a fence like the last two pictures at our old house. It worked fine for our adult dogs, but a determined and energetic puppy might have been able to get under the wire part. Now we have the underground fence and it also works great.

My dog is pretty well behaved and I wouldn’t leave her out there for long periods of time unattended but I am slightly concerned about the digging just the same. I’m going to ask the fence company if they can maybe bury a part of the wire under the soil.

I just fenced off a small section with split rail and wire like you are getting. There is one section that can be seen down the drive and a few people have noticed and complimented me on it. But I agree, that is might be too muck for the front of the house. I like the alternative fencing that Mrs. S recommended.

Another idea would be to plant eversgreen bushes on the outside perimeter that hide the wire section.

Thanks all. I am definitely planting some evergreen shrubs along the fence that will help hide the wire. The wire is going up to the bottom rail only. My dog is pretty small and won’t be able to get above it so I think it will be fine. Fingers crossed.