If I were you, I'd invest in the fence. Tons of people do have country dogs who stick close to home with no fence. But then it just takes that one accident and the dogs are gone forever. You'll always hear people say its okay because the dogs stick by home, but most likely those same people have had many accidents in the past with their dogs, and when they don't change antyhing, many accidents are waiting in the future. There's no way to guarantee that a dog will stay on the property. Even if they lay there 99% of the time, there might be that ONE thing that comes along that will cause them to run off and get injured, stolen, or killed.