Kennel gates with puppy/snow barrier... - Page 2

SS, no, my dogs would (mostly) sooner die than poop or pee in a kennel. The exception are the 2 former kennel dogs acquired as adults. If they were in there all day, they would, but I have only cleaned that kennel 2 times since we built it, and that was because of mud not pee or poop. The end run has a gravel yard attached to it for the puppies to learn housebreaking and the adults are only in there for short periods at a time, like a crate would be used.  Mostly, it lets my son play in the yard without being harassed by dogs. Keeps them safe from tantrums over stolen baseballs 

Northwoods, I put limestone under mine, thinking it would be great to leave for a weekend and get a petsitter to feed but nooo...they won't go to the bathroom in them. Oh well. There goes my bright idea.

Ang at Liberatore has a big deck with kennels on it. I don't know how big but she's the one who gave me the deck spacing numbers and told me to use untreated pine (thanks, Ang!). Mine is small (22x16) and dividable into 2 or 4 runs for the exterior part. Since they don't "live" out there, even if we did get a massive snow enough to block the gates, no big deal. It's not like it's in use every day so it's not really extra work for me. I would certainly have it bigger and totally covered with major overhangs if it was in use 24/7. 

Thanks for the info, Jenni! There's a GSD breeder who also boards dogs fairly close to me, and he has a similar setup, except the outside part of the kennel is on concrete. The boarding dogs are let out into this area to do their business. He has it bedded with shavings. At this time of year, I envy him his setup. However, you've just made me rethink it! How many of his boarders would refuse to poop/pee in the outside area, then probably have accidents in their indoor kennel during the night as a result? Maybe my open outdoor runs aren't so bad after all! At least the snow serves as a blotter for the pee, and you can remove some of it if the smell gets too bad!  But dogs peeing on bare concrete covered in shavings, then everything freezing, and not being able to hose it down because the temp is below freezing for days on end? Hmm... Probably doesn't smell too sweet!

(Thinking spring...thinking spring...)

Going down to -24 C tonight...

Thanks for the info, Jenni! There's a GSD breeder who also boards dogs fairly close to me, and he has a similar setup, except the outside part of the kennel is on concrete. The boarding dogs are let out into this area to do their business. He has it bedded with shavings. At this time of year, I envy him his setup. However, you've just made me rethink it! How many of his boarders would refuse to poop/pee in the outside area, then probably have accidents in their indoor kennel during the night as a result? Maybe my open outdoor runs aren't so bad after all! At least the snow serves as a blotter for the pee, and you can remove some of it if the smell gets too bad!  But dogs peeing on bare concrete covered in shavings, then everything freezing, and not being able to hose it down because the temp is below freezing for days on end? Hmm... Probably doesn't smell too sweet!

(Thinking spring...thinking spring...)

Going down to -24 C tonight...

This is what his setup looks like. Those gates are the entries to the outdoor portion of his kennels. Each one leads to an individual run, which the dog accesses through a sliding door from its indoor kennel.

accidental post