AboutLani O'Brian Expertise I can answer basic questions such as:
"Why does my dog act like this when dropping off?"
"What should I look for in a boarding kennel?"
"What questions should I ask the kennel at which I'm going to board?"
"What are tips for boarding, to make it easier on my dog and myself?"
I can tell you what your pet is about to face when boarding. Some do's and don'ts during boarding. I also can answer questions about cat boarding and some small animal boarding.
Experience I've worked with pets since I was in highschool. I worked at a boarding kennel and I dog sat for a number of clients. Nine years ago I opened my own boarding kennel.
Education/Credentials 2 years of biology college courses. Business major.
Expert: Lani O'Brian Date: 6/22/2007 Subject: Best material for an outdoor dog run
Question Good Morning
I was wondering if you could give me some advise on what I could use as an absorbent for and area in my backyard where my two dogs go to the bathroom. (6 year old Retriever/14 week old Lab.) There is an area that has been used since I moved in a year or so ago that currently has small rocks (colored ones) in it, this makes it very difficult to remove the feces without also removing stones. I was planning on removing all of the rocks in that area so that I could replace with a more convenient (for myself) and comfortable (my dogs). It was mentioned to me that sand (sand box kind) would be adequate but after thinking about the weather in Canada, I figured the sand would wash away in rain because it is an open area. I am lost for suggestions and hope that you have a solution.
Regards
S. Granger
Answer I faced this same problem when I was building my kennel. We are located in Wisconsin, so I know what you mean about the weather issue. We had battled with keeping grass growing but it just didn't work. We tried the rock (also known as pea gravel) and we found that most dogs didn't like to walk on it, and we even had some dogs that ate some of the stones. I would not suggest sand. Especially with your younger dog, if he is playful he may kick up sand and cause eye, nose or mouth irritation. They may also track a good amount of sand in with them.
I'm not sure what size area you have for your dogs, but what we did in our large 60 x 60 foot playyard was we put in a indoor/outdoor carpeting. (not astro-turf, but actual short looped carpeting). We had an area with the peagravel and we leveled the gravel the best we could and then laid the carpeting over it. We did the same in another yard where we had grass and we dug out the grass and laid the carpeting on the bare dirt. We used heavy duty glue to keep the large sections together, and staked it in the middle as well. We have had the carpeting in for two years and it's been working great. It is softer in the area where we had the dirt than the gravel. If you are planning to remove the stone you may be able to fill in the area with sand or dirt (depending on which you think would drain better), or maybe you wouldn't need to fill in the area. But it seemed to work very well. One very nice thing is we are able to disinfect it (unlike grass). We spray a pet safe disinfectant on it and then use a pressure washer to get the hair off. You don't need to use a pet safe product as long as you rinse it very well before your dogs go in it again. It also works very well because it is easy to find all the feces, even easier than in the gravel.
There are some problems I want you to know about that we had (maybe you can learn from our mistakes).
- Hair sticks to it. This may or may not be a problem for you. It doesn't bother us, and the birds in the area love to pick up the hair.
-We snow-blow to clear it out the the winter (one year we had a lot of snow and we had a dog that almost was able to jump our 8 foot fence). The snow blower may dig into the carpeting. We switched to a 'snow-thrower' one of the small ones that have the paddles instead of the heavier blades.
One key is to look at the back of the carpeting. Make sure there is no rubber backing and that the carpet seems that it would drain easily. We went with a dark green color to make it look more like grass, and it doesn't show where they dogs have peed. Now and then on a hot summer day with no wind there is a urine smell at times. We've found that just rinsing the carpeting with water cuts the odor.
We've found the carpeting to work well. It drains into the ground well and the dogs don't seem to get confused by it. We haven't had anyone complain that their dogs are having accidents in the home after being boarded.
If you have any other questions I'd be happy to help! Thanks, Lani.
