I always read the posts about hawks & puppies, but never worried about them. This spring hawks have moved in and I see them circling over my property daily. I have a 6 x 12 screen I bought several years ago, but it will only cover half of my puppy run. I found screens online, but none appear to be nearly as nice as the one I have. It is heavy duty, with sturdy side seams, reinforced corners, and grommets along all edges. Suggestions would be very much appreciated.

We have Hawks also. I have found that as long as you cover half, I would cover the middle they can't swoop in for puppies. They would have to fly straight in and lift the pups out straight up. We have never had an issue the way I do it.

JMO

I am thinking about this too. Not sure the leaves will be out on the trees by the time this litter I have is ready to go out in the kennel.

My pups only go out in the kennel when I am home and it is covered by trees, total shade and no view from above. But thats always been late summer.

Now I will be ready to put pups out Mid May and have looked into the tailgate tarps people use at football games.

My kennel is 10' w x 24'long and I can get 2 12 x 12 tailgate tarps/tents. They run around $100 each. Do a google search as I did.

That is what I will use if the leaves are not out enough for cover.

The thought of a hawk taking one of my pups freaks me out........

Although I did have a hunting friend tell me that a hawk could not pick up a 4 1/2 to 5 week old Lab pup weight wise.

I don't want to chance it.

I have a 15x40 foot puppy pen. It is covered with bird netting, the same thing that game farms use to protect their birds from birds of prey. They can be found on line and are very inexpensive. I think I spent about $50.00 for mine.

This is what I was going to suggest. The netting is light, cheap, and works very well. I worked at a bird sanctuary for 30 years, and we used this netting to confine birds of prey. Eagles, hawks and owls could not get through it. The only critter that broke though it was a Whitetailed deer that was being chased by dogs. That was a mess! Mostly because the deer got into an enclosure (fenced by the bird netting), and had problems busting out!

Personally, I would cover the whole pen...minimally 3/4 of it. A young hawk may well take a risky chance at a half covered pen, and may not make it out....but a dead pup is a dead pup. My outdoor pup run is 12x20, and has a carport over it. No way anything could get in or out of it.

I would try 1 of 2 items. Maybe a tarp, made of thicker plastic grade..pool cover type for the area that isn't covered with screening. There should be enough ventilation for the pups when outdoors with what you already have. Check Craig's list maybe for a used, smaller pool tarp that can be cut..

Also, we just purchased screens for 2 doors. First is for a large French door that secures with Velcro top, bottom and sides using whicher ones are needed. It can be unhooked at the bottom to let the dogs out on our patio from the great room and also into the fenced backyard. I have a smaller size on the kitchen bay-canto-levered door/window. So there are muliple and various heights X widths. Another door store offered custom orders for any size.

Home Depot and Lowe's carry them in different sizes and its very durable, mobile and thick, more so then regular screening..

I would buy the bigger cattle panels and lay over the top..they are like 4x4 inch squares and are like 4x 16 or 20 ft. and put them over the pen....or there is a really light weight wire...welded wire that is really inexpensive that you could put over it. But actually anything even like netting would detour hawks or owls.

Do I have to tell my Hawk story again ? [Ch.Shalane Fly By Knight , call name Hawk , there is a reason for that ]

I string fishing line over the puppy pen. I cross cross it and then tie heavy yarn or pieces of rag to it here and there. The hawks don't come near.

We have had a Hawk attack. When we rebuilt this year I had to knock myself up the side of the head for not ever thinking of this. We had a litter moving in and had to do something fast!

I took some cheap bird netting for the fruit trees and stretched it across and just tacked it here and there with plastic ties for a quick fix. It is still up and keeping the little birds out too. It was the easiest and best thing we have ever used.