Electric fence has worked well for me(make sure it is a charger that has alternating charge/no charge for animal protection. Even low voltage chargers with constant charge can kill kittens and other small animals because they bite the wire and can't let go.) We placed the charger in a small ice cooler originally. Now it has a nice little brick housing. We just run an extension cord to the little housing since there is no plug-in close.
You can have the wire go out over the water at one end so that the animals can drink. That is what I did. I used short pieces of rebar for posts with the plastic insulators spray painted brown for the wire hangers. You only need one wire, but I use two. The first on mine is about 6"- 8" off the ground and the 2nd is about 6" above that. The persistent raccoon only had to hit it twice, but that was the end of him destroying my pond. He did continue to taunt the dogs though. Most of my dogs have only sniffed it once. Some are a little slower
but understand after a 2nd zap.
Don't know if this is what you were thinking, but it has helped with my pond critter problems. Paver housing before the end pieces and fencer were installed.
Pond with pear blossoms.
