Flooring and Fencing - Page 1

Okay, I am 99% certain I will be moving before the year is over. I haven't quite decided on a house yet, and have some questions for those of you with more experience with owning more than one dog.

How durable is the new laminate flooring? Does it stand up well to dog traffic? In your opinion, what would be the perfect flooring for an area where the dogs spend most of their time, and have their indoor kennels?

I want to make a sort of paddock in the back yard. These lots are about 1/2 acre in size, so I don't want the dogs to have the full run of the property unless under direct supervision, to prevent digging, etc., and so I can clean up poop before someone steps in it. I want this area to be big enough that they can stretch their legs. I would also like to have part of it with a 'patio' where the dogs can lounge in the shade. It will have an awning or shade cloth, and some sort of ground covering that is easily cleaned. I may also erect outdoor kennels or dog houses there.  If somene can give me some suggestions on how to design this area, I'd appreciate it.  Unfortunately, the town I'm moving to has a three dog limit, so this area won't need to be all that big.

What kind of surface covering should I use for the 'patio' area? I know plain cement is porous, and will hold urine smells. What alternatives are there? Would it be okay to leave the rest of the area as grass, or will the grass turn into bare dirt too quickly? I want the area to be large enough that they can get far enough away from their loafing area to poop and pee.

I also may be getting a room-mate who has a small dog (chihuahua/Shitz-tsu cross.) (Yes, I know I probably butchered the spelling!) What sort of fencing system do you people who have multiple dogs use, so it's easy to segregate dogs that don't play well together? I'm obviously not going to trust my two alone with this little guy. He's just a pup still, only 4 months, and quite cute. He has the short coat and erect ears of the Chi, and the stocky build of the Shitz-tsu. He doesn't seem to be a barker. (THANK GOD!! That's the main reason I hate 'yap dogs'! My childhood best friend had a neighbour with a chi that barked no-stop, with that earsplitting YIPYIPYIP YIP that makes you want to strangle the dog.)

Questions, questions...hope someone can help out here!

Here are a few pictures of what I set up. 

When I bought my house, I only had Sasha and for some silly reason didn't think I would actually get another dog.  I built the dog side of the yard, using fencing panels from Home Depot, I built the kennel cover myself and had my roofer build a roof for it, the tiles match my house tiles, so it looks quite nice.  It was only after I built everything that I reailzed the front of the kennel faces direct East, and Sasha did not have shade during the mid-morning to afternoon, so I hund up the bamboo shade, it works well.

I used pea gravel for the ground cover and had two french drains installed for easy cleaning and such.  Originally this whole side yard was to be for Sasha, and I have the extra gate there incase I had visting dogs.  The side yard runs along the side of the house up to the garage, where there is a dog door going into the garage with another kennl inside.  This way if it were raining, she can go in the garage. 

When I built this I did not realize it was going to be so easy to teach her that she is not allowed to potty in the grass, so this was supposed to be the dog potty area as well.  I got lazy and did not want to have to walk across the yard to open the gate up, so then I just tought her she has to potty in the bark only.  As you can see my grass is nice and green, and there are no dead pee spots! 

When I brought Jager home I had to buy another kennel for him, you can see he has a Priefert kennel, 5x10 and I put pavers down ontop of the pea gravel in there, I wasn't sure if he was a digger or not.  This works out well.  Both kennels have myster systems set up on a timer for the hot summer days, (we get lots of 110 + days) incase I can't coem home to put them inside.

Both dogs only potty in the bark, and mostly along the East side of my house, which makes clean up really easy, and people can walk in the grass and not have to worry about stepping in poop!  Sasha was 2 years old when I tought her to potty in the bark, and Jager was 6 months old, so it is not somethign that has to be tought when they are puppies!!

If I had to do this again, I would have had three runs in the dog area with one full roof, I am not worried about leaving Sasha alone in her kennel for long periods of time, she is not a climber, but I would never put Jager in that kennel area, he has to stay in his kennel with a fully enlcosed roof,  I would have the roof run the entire length of the fence where you can see the kennels.  But I never thought I would have two dogs, crazy me!!!

Good luck!

OOh the other thing about flooring, my last house we had pergo flooring and it was really slippery for Sasha.  I have tile flooring now and they are slippery as well, but not as bad as the pergo. 

Kari, could you please edit your post so the pictures are one below the other, and not stretching the page? It makes it VERY hard to read!

Thanks!

I am not familiar with pergo flooring. What is it?

That look better?  When I posted them they showed one below each other, I guess you have to actually enter a space after each one!

And Pergo is a type of laminate flooring, also used as a slang name for any faux wood flooring.

Yes, MUCH better! Thank you!

Okay, gotcha on the flooring!  I just call it 'laminate'. I think it looks really nice.

How do others feel about pea gravel and pavers? I've been thinking if your dog were to poop and pee on them, it would be hard to keep really clean, as the gravel is porus, and with the pavers, waste is going to get into the cracks between the stones.  I know Kari doesn't have that problem, because the dogs poop on the bark.

From the looks of it, the bark area is outside the kennel area, right? In the area of the yard that you use yourself?

We have laminate flooring ,it has been down for 4 years now,we have had litters of pups that have been toilet trained and weaned on it,also adult GSDs and loads of people traffic,and it still looks good. 

We have laminate flooring ,it has been down for 4 years now,we have had litters of pups that have been toilet trained and weaned on it,also adult GSDs and loads of people traffic,and it still looks good.