kennel half complete, need advice

[huntergreen]

Originally Posted by x11

did you see the slab area in the vid?, i thought i would give the dogs a break from the cement and have that other area more natural under their feet???

i want ideas for what the dogs would like in their housing??

well here are my thoughts, grass will get worn and disappear very quickly leaving dust an then mud on days it rains. dirt imho, is less sanitary than cement. pea gravel can cause issues already discussed. a little bit larger gravel is hard on a dogs feet.i have 1 1/2 inch to 2inch round gravel wash in my pen, but they are only in there to go out. decking may work as long as you hose it off everyday and reseal with thompson's water seal or some such product often. not sure how the "plastic wood" would hold up. as for the rubber stuff, i thought that was the greatest idea in the world when my kids were younger and put around the fancy wooden swing set with play house ect. was great until the middle of summer when the hot sun made it soft and turned kids cloths black as well as there skin. threw out the cloths and took more than a week to get the black off their skin. wife was not happy with me. that was 19 years ago may the rubber stuff has improved. guess that is why i would stick with cement. also every boarding kennel that i am famniliar with is cement inside and out. also helps with keeping the dogs from digging underneath the fence. dealing with the heat you can get h20 misters that will keep dogs and cement comfortable. think disney world. they use far less water than one would think.

[x11]

cheers - good thoughts

[ozzymama]

Originally Posted by x11

what about mulch bark? when it gets too wet just shovel it out and put new stuff in?? the rubber idea freaks me out - i am thinking blockage waiting to happen??

Well, you could get a blockage with wood too.

Like I said, there is a lot of debate on the rubberized mulch, I see it used quite a bit compressed into rings around trees, it's good because too many people put too much mulch around trees. However I know there have been tons of debate about using it at playgrounds, I just haven't researched the debates LOL.

I like the idea of the nuggets, just wood breaks down so much, in addition to the shoveling out wet or dirty mulch, mulch has to be constantly reapplied annually - at least that is my experience, now maybe the nuggets would hold up and not decompose as much.

Pea gravel is nice because it is smooth, as long as the dog is not a rock eater.

Another option is the fake grass they have. It's leaps and bounds beyond the green crap our grandparents tacked down everywhere LOL. A neighbor down the street has his entire front lawn done in it and you cannot tell it is fake, unless you know. Unfortunately when there are droughts, or you see it peeking through the snow in February, you look more critically in the summer and say, oh yes, that is fake. It just looks like a well manicured lawn otherwise.

[ozzymama]

SYNLawn of Canada Artificial Grass Never Looked More Natural

That's the link to the company the neighbor works for and who did his lawn. I realize it is a Canadian company - leave it to us LOL, but I am sure there are similar in the states. It's probably costly, but over time anything would be.

[ozzymama]

To answer the other questions, mesh would be OK, there's different guages, I mean there is mesh you cannot tell from chain link. For a covering, I would almost be tempted to go with something natural. I'm not suggesting this for dogs, but my parents have a large grape arbour and I think it was 2 years the vines were established well enough that even with the way they hack them back each fall, they grow back in like crazy.

It's obvious you are quite handy, so a more natural looking wooden screen or even something like a pagoda, then a good hardy vine that would grow and protect the area. Dogs are smart, they will get out of the sun - most of them. They have these things called privacy corners, typically they are a covered, screened bench, so I don't think the dogs need a bench, you're creating a run, not a Zen garden you could possibly modify something like that.

Sorry for so many answers, I've been looking into this for a while and have committed to memory some of the ideas I have come across.

You could also look at a retractable awning, and here I go with my synthetic crap again LOL, there was a product a few years ago for high chain link to give the illusion of a hedge, anyways it was supposed to look like jojoba growing through it.

[x11]

thanks for ideas altho with all the options i am no closer than when i started the thread :-(

the fake grass i heard is a real winner - there is sumthin on a deep philosophical level about using synthetics for a dog run that just doesn't work for me.

thanks all for thoughts.

[ozzymama]

Originally Posted by x11

thanks for ideas altho with all the options i am no closer than when i started the thread :-(

the fake grass i heard is a real winner - there is sumthin on a deep philosophical level about using synthetics for a dog run that just doesn't work for me.

thanks all for thoughts.

I am the same way, using unnatural to achieve natural...

I wonder and I say this to watch what you do and eventually do my own if it just a darn old trial and error. Let me know how it works, I want way less trial or error and more - hey that worked LOL!

[x11]

haha yeah that worked for me to, so i will do the trials and make all the errors while you...

you know what i am going to settle for grass (the live stuff) for now monitor the the dust/mud-bowl. i want my dogs to bury a bone if they feel like...they're dogs.

i will go for a synthetic shade roof thingy at least untill some plants have time to get up. you can choose how much UV you want to get thru as well so the grass can still grow under it in shade. sides most likely mesh heavier guage and small mesh as i have horrible thoughts of a dog jumping putting a foot thru the mesh and then landing while foot is still stuck in mesh, this happens dogs hang there untill someone gets them out - messy.

[Rerun]

We have an 18' x 30' kennel in our yard. It had concrete already poured when we moved in, used to be a b-ball court for the old owners. Well, we fenced it in and went off the back of the slab 6 feet so there was a potty area. So out of that 18' x 30', 18' x 6' is natural ground.

We obviously didn't even attempt to keep the grass, it was a goner so quickly your head would spin. I originally put down sand which was a HUGE mistake - it smelled terrible very quickly. Next we used mulch. We've tried a few different kinds, I personally prefer cedar. Not the cute bags of cedar that people use for small critters, but the actual cedar you buy at the hardware store. Cypress is nice and "soft" but degrades very quickly. The generic "hardwood mulch" bags that are cheapest will work in a pinch but they are just hard chunks of wood, and scatter easily. The cedar smells nice for a little while at least, isn't too hard or too soft and does a better job at staying where it's put. We keep a pretty good layer 3/4 of the year, then in the fall I put straw out there a good deep layer and it stays through spring. It keeps them out of mud and is dryer and warmer than mulch IME.

I haven't tried pea gravel, and probably won't unless I want to put up a low (foot or two) barrier around where the gravel will be. I do NOT want gravel scattered all over outside the kennel, nor do I want gravel all over the concrete. The mulch is easy enough to sweep back into the mulch area, I don't want to be sweeping gravel. The mulch that ends up outside the kennel is easy enough to rake up and what doesn't rake degrades. We have a grass yard, and I don't want gravel everywhere. It'll scatter if you don't have a good barrier. When a squirrel or rabbit runs through the yard and the dogs in the kennel try to go after it, they get to the end of the 30' run and put the brakes on, ready to hit the end and fly back the other way. When they skid to a stop and then take off the other way, whatever is under foot goes flying out the wire at the end of the kennel.

[gagsd]

I like this set up. Decking (and living area) in the front. The dogs will be jumping and dancing at the gate. So why put the "clean" area and houses/bed/whatever in the back of the run?
This set-up I believe uses shavings in the rear of the runs.