kennel "floor", what's best???

[Lava Linda]

Hello All,
I have an 8' x 16' chain link kennel out back for my two dogs. They stay there during the day in reasonable weather, and sometimes spend the night in there.
When I installed it, there was lawn underneath, which quickly turned to dusty dirt. I had the brilliant idea of adding landscape bark in the tiniest size. It looked wonderful, and the dogs seemed to like it. After a few weeks, however, I realized it was irritating their feet. I think they were getting tiny splinters. Soooo....out with the bark. (Actually the bark's still in there, I just haven't been putting the dogs in the kennel for the last two months, and their feet have returned to normal.)
Does anyone know what the best substitute would be? Something they won't mind lying on, that's easy to scoop each day? Pea gravel? Doesn't seem very comfortable, but I keep a big pillow in there and there's an igloo doghouse.
Any suggestions would be appreciated! At this point it's pretty chilly so they're mostly indoors, but I want to be ready for spring.
Money is tight so I'm not up for another experiment! :(
-Linda

 

[Linda]

We use cedar shavings ("Pet bedding") in our outdoor kennel. We buy it at the feed store for about $8 a bale. A bale lasts us several months.

It's pretty fine shavings (nothing to give splinters). It seems the best solution.
Good luck.

 

[Cindy and Lacie.]

Lacies kennel has a sand floor. I love it. Very easy to remove the piles from .

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Cindy Corl
Lacie female, brindle, natural ears,7-17-99

 

[crabby69]

Cindy's idea for sand is something I hadn't thought of, sounds like a good idea. When we built Clio's kennel we went and got a pick-up load of pea gravel. It actually isn't that hard on the feet. We also have an old comforter out there and since Clio is apparently claustrophobic and won't go into a dog house, we attached and nylon tarp across the top to give her protection from unexpected rain and too much sun. The pea gravel is small enough that it still sifts through the pooper scooper. We got the scooper at Wal*Mart for about $6. It's like a set of tongs and has a solid scoop on one side and a rake on the other. Would work equally well in sand like Cindy uses. The nice thing about the pea gravel, where I live, the whole truck load was FREE! Can't guarantee you'll get that kind of deal where you are but I got it at the local sand and gravel supply. Give them a call.

Oh, I almost forgot, Clio was somewhat of a digger and we were concerned that she would try to dig her way out of the kennel so we bought chicken wire and tent staked it to the ground under the gravel. You'll want to use about four or five inches of gravel (or sand) on top of it though. I was worried that Clio might get her toenails caught in it if the gravel wasn't deep enough. We also found that we had to lean 2x8s up against the outsides along the bottom of the kennel because when mom comes home Clio starts her helicopter thing and the gravel goes flying! The boards help contain it in the kennel. You'll want to rake it smooth occasionally and spray it down with water to keep it clean but this set up has worked very well for us. It doesn't stick to her feet even if it is wet.

The chicken wire has never been uncovered and she has never even tried to dig out! All that trouble for nothing!

Good luck! Shop around and you too will find a perfect solution. The hard part is done, the kennel is already up!

Leta
Mother to Clio, flashy fawn, natural eared female with sox.

 

[Linda]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Cindy and Lacie:
Lacies kennel has a sand floor. I love it. Very easy to remove the piles from .
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cindy ~ you failed to mention that you live on a beach!! You didn't have to bring in the sand. :p

 

[Cindy and Lacie.]

Yeah, but Linda, sand is sooooooo inexpensive! I even convinced my friend to buy sand for her kennel. You can buy bags of it at any home depo or call a local cement company. I looked at doing different things with ours, but the sand is sooooooo easy.

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Cindy Corl
Lacie female, brindle, natural ears,7-17-99

 

[Alisha Mobley]

Sand is a good idea but I would have a hard time keeping my kids and the neighbor kids out of it. We have a 12' x 24' kennel and we were going to have concrete poured for the flooring. We still plan to do it but since it is much colder out the dogs are never out there any more. My husband wants to put a roof over it like the kind you see in the parks that they call covered picnic areas. That way when we sell our house the new owner can have a picnic area if they don't have dogs.

Alisha - Indiana

 

[Lava Linda]

Doesn't sand get tracked into the house easily?

 

[Cindy and Lacie.]

Well yeah sand does come in the house, but it is much easier to sweep up instead of mud and I keep a towel by the kennel door and wipe Lacies feet clean when she comes in.

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Cindy Corl
Lacie female, brindle, natural ears,7-17-99

 

[crabby69]

We thought the fact that the pea gravel doesn't stick to Clio's feet, even when it's wet, would be an advantage over sand. Also, the sand and gravel company wanted $18 dollars for the same size load of sand. The gravel was free.

Leta
Mother to Clio, flashy fawn, natural eared female with sox.