# How do you house your dogs?



## Ben Colbert (Mar 9, 2010)

Just wondering how everyone houses their dogs. Do you guys crate them during the day? Have you built outdoor kennels? 

I'm moving to a place with a fenced in backyard and want to put up a couple of kennel runs but am having a bit of sticker shock.

Just wanted to see how everyone else does it.


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

Three dogs, a Dutchie and a Mal training for schutzhund , and labx who's just a pet, all loose in the house during the day while I work. They're no use as guard dogs locked in a crate or kennel.


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## Tammy St. Louis (Feb 17, 2010)

I have 8 dogs, they are loose in the house with me when i am home, when i am not most are in crates, 2 are loose in the house


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

Ben Colbert said:


> Just wondering how everyone houses their dogs. Do you guys crate them during the day? Have you built outdoor kennels?
> 
> I'm moving to a place with a fenced in backyard and want to put up a couple of kennel runs but am having a bit of sticker shock.
> 
> Just wanted to see how everyone else does it.


what is sticker shock to you?


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## Ben Colbert (Mar 9, 2010)

Seems I'm looking in the area of $1500 for two decent 10'x6'x6'ish runs with dog houses and platform.


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## Ashley Campbell (Jun 21, 2009)

Ben, seriously, try Craigslist for the runs if you're not in a huge hurry. You'd be surprised at how cheap people are off-loading anything they can - dog houses and such are cheaper. 

I have a small kennel outdoors that I never use, and crates indoors. I rarely crate my adult dog, she gets the run of the house whether I am here or not since she can behave and not destroy the place.


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## Alison Grubb (Nov 18, 2009)

Two dogs, both are crated when I am not home. They each get time out of the crate when I am home, but are never together. I'm looking at putting up some outdoor kennels in the coming months as well.


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## Lee H Sternberg (Jan 27, 2008)

Loose in the house from the time they were about 9 months old. It takes some patient, creative training to get them descent house manner when you aren't there and they are bored. At least it did with my Dutchies. My GSD's and Rotts were much easier. Of course they are much more "wired" than the other 2 breeds.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

chain link? welded wire panels? ALL-weather dual chambered houses? concrete?

with concrete that is a GOOD price...

I know you are a "blue" blooded liberal, so I have to ask...have ANY mechanical abilities? pipe cutting? welding? concrete? saws?


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## Ben Colbert (Mar 9, 2010)

Ha! Nope. I don't mind learning on the fly though. I was thinking chain link as this is a rental so I can't do anything permanent.


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## Dave Colborn (Mar 25, 2009)

I keep my dog with me at work or home. He stays in my car in a crate at work, and in inclement weather for him, he comes in to a crate in the office. I leave him loose occasionally in the interior of my car. Only one problem with that so far, and I had to throw a seat cover away. I have no expectations of him biting anyone in the car right now, that is just where he hangs out. At home, he stays loose, and if I have training with other dogs biting he goes back into the crate in the car. I poured an 11 x 11 pad in the back and have 2 5 x 10 runs which I use occasionally, but since his house manners are good I usually don't bother with him in there. 

I don't know if it will work for you, but my girlfriends kennels are set on wood decking. They are over rock, maybe pea gravel, I don't know how deep. Pick up the big stuff and the rest washes down through the cracks. Amazingly doesn't smell like a kennel at all. Pretty slick. If I had to do the pad out back again, I would do wood instead. Easier on the dogs feet, and if you have to pick the whole thing up and move it, it shouldn't pose much of a problem if you screw it together. She has had a couple dogs be destructive, you'd just have to try your dog and see, I guess.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

Ben Colbert said:


> Ha! Nope. I don't mind learning on the fly though. I was thinking chain link as this is a rental so I can't do anything permanent.


Chainlink with concrete posts is semi-permanent, but cheaper than panels, if buying new.....non-concrete substrate is ok for the most part...although i would bury some chainlink laying down to avoid dogs digging out, if not using concrete..

you can buy paneled kennels for 200-300 new. and can build your own doghouses for under 100 a piece..

I second the craigslist...I have a friend that never paid over 50$ for any kennel...he didnt do craigslist but is a bargain hunter...

he has 8 kennels 
1 5x10
6 6X12
and 1 6X24.

he has all concrete and dogloos...the dogloos he got for 50 bucks or under as well..

if doing chainlink or chainlink panels, I would pre-wire the panels to the frames with baling wire, to avoid escapes....


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## Harry Keely (Aug 26, 2009)

I keep them either in the house loose, or in 700 series crates in the house or the ones in the garage, or I have 300 feet of 6 foot stockade privacy fence or keep them in the 6x12 runs that are within the stockade fencing. It just depends on whos visiting or not and whos loose in the house and what weather is like. Its funny my wife ask where the dogs are and I tell her shes got two feet go look to see where they are, drives her nutts.


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

In glass jars on bed side table, Bonsai Kitty ain't got nothin on me.


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## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

Ben Colbert said:


> Seems I'm looking in the area of $1500 for two decent 10'x6'x6'ish runs with dog houses and platform.


Trust me, it beats redoing your landscaping and replacing countless water hoses. I have even seen dogs that will chew the friggin siding off of houses, dig up your sprinkler system... I could go on.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Two GSDs kenneled along side the garage with a dog door in the side of the garage and two dog houses inside within an enclosure but most of the day they are loose in the yard with a 6ft privacy fence surrounding it.


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

Tractor supply, Dr Bob AKC kennels. 10x5x6 299.99.


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## eric squires (Oct 16, 2008)

Go to Tractor Supply and get 5 X 10 professional kennels, they are welded and much better then chainlink but reasonable at $350 each and u can buy a top cover for them


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## eric squires (Oct 16, 2008)

We also use concrete paver tiles 16 x16" as a floor, they work great, drain well and r easy to clean, so long as u use bigger pavers the dogs can't dig them up if you put a decent gravel base down first


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

eric squires said:


> Go to Tractor Supply and get 5 X 10 professional kennels, they are welded and much better then chainlink but reasonable at $350 each and u can buy a top cover for them


These are decent kennels for the money.


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## Adam Rawlings (Feb 27, 2009)

I priced out doing pavers in the bottom of my kennels it was going to be $350 for each 10x10 kennel and have 4. I'll wait till spring and pour concrete for a third of the cost. I also bought the tractor supply welded kennels, the pricing is good and they seem to be well built. The only problem I can see in the future is my 95lbs Shepherd busting the welds on the mesh when he's saying hi to visitors. The mesh is already pushed out on one pannel, so in the spring I may take one back and have an additional bar welded in vertically in the center to beef it up.


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

I hate when dogs do that. I cure it with electricity : )


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## Ryan Venables (Sep 15, 2010)

My f/m is loose when we're not home... although she was crated until she was 8 months old... I kept a leash on her in the house until that time also.

It would be interesting to see what she would do should anybody attempt to get in here now that she's a little older, a little protection trained, and generally not happy when people go anywhere near the front door.

When we had our male, they were both crated... I didn't trust him, so for "fairness" (which I realize now was only punishing the girl) I had them both crated.

When we get our next pup (hopefully in the spring... just waiting on breeding pairing conformation... I really want that Arras FR3 dog!) he will be crated for the first year, or until I can "trust him"


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

Mine are on dirt well dg (decomposed granite..sand) as we live on a riverbed. Kennels or play areas for our dogs range from the seniors having run of the ranch to a couple 50' x 50' and one that is 20' x 150' across the front. Puppies are never housed on concrete. We use crates for travel and confine them when working the dogs. I use the concrete 12' x 12' and 6' x 12' kennels (set of 15 under a big pole barn) for when I get in new dogs, bitches in season, boarding dogs. For the most part our personal dogs have larger areas outdoors with good footing to live on and run on. I have 7 dogs so they are never in the house all at once. I usually have the 2 oldest (13 and 10 years) in the house at night and sometimes during the day. None of the dogs roam free in my house, but know to stay in the 'dog room' which is the back entry where their dog beds are. The younger ones are rotated and all know the house, but none have free range of my house on a regular basis. Cat hair is enough to deal with throughout the house so I limit the dogs 'place' to the back entry. It's a very open floor plan and a small house on 5 1/2 acres. They have their space outside and I have my space inside for the most part. Oh, outside in the runs and play areas there are igloos and dog houses and crates w/o doors, which they rarely use as we are in SoCal where the winters are not very extreme. I pick those up on craigslist. About $50 is the most I ever pay too for the igloos and large crates.


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## Daryl Ehret (Apr 4, 2006)

A few I keep crated in the house, and a couple outside in 10x5x6 Preffert welded wire kennels.

Ozzy has been known to break out, even with a rooftop on them, he's jumped up and separated the welded wire panel rooftop by hanging from it. Then jumping back up and over, squeezing through the opening he's made. He's also lifted the 10 foot panels to actually dismantle the whole thing too, but I have never seen him break a weld, even though some appear a little bent up. Preffert makes good quality kennels, IMO.


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## Tracey Hughes (Jul 13, 2007)

I house most of mine in kennel runs, with a couple in the house at a time. I prefer 9 gauge steel as they have held up the best in the 10 years I have had my runs up.

I have had terrible luck with the welded ones from TSC. Two dogs injured themselves when they got their feet impaled from slamming onto them and breaking the welded bars. And they have completely rusted through in places from the males urine. I won’t buy those again.

I have spent about 1200 per kennel( from Simpson Fencing up here in Canada) run for the heavy duty ones with snow fencing and for me it is worth the extra cash.


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## Sara Waters (Oct 23, 2010)

I leave 3 adult females in the house. To contain my 3 younsters I used pool fencing and weldmesh from my sheep yards to enclose part of a big paved patio and verandah. My dogs are lightweight - Border collies etc but they can clear a 6 ft fence with no problems so I have enclosed the patio from floor to roof or they would be out in a flash.

In the house the youngsters are in their crates, the adult females roam free.


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## Tamara Champagne (Jan 20, 2009)

I have my three dogs outside in the summer in kennels that we just put up this year. They were supposed to sleep out there at night, but somehow they ended up coming in the house and going to their crates. :-?

In the winter now, they are in the house in crates as even though I have the ability to heat the indoor runs, I worry that somehow the Dobermans are going to get stuck outside and freeze to death...I just don't want to take the chance with them. 

Here are a couple pics of the kennels outside....

I got lucky and found all the chainlink panels for both inside and out for around $600.00, the gravel was already there when I bought the house (there was a hot tub there) and the shed was pre-existing. We just insulated it and put in power, and also bought some supplies for the roof we put on the outdoor portion of the kennels. All in all, I think the total was around $1200. Concrete will likely replace the gravel in the next year or two as it sucks to keep clean.


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## Anne Jones (Mar 27, 2006)

My 2 GSDs live in the house with me. They are out in the house together. My male is crated if I am away from the house for more then a couple of hours & at night. They also spend alot of time out together in my 6' stockade fenced yard. I also have a 10 x 20 kennel in the yard that I mostly use with pups.


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## Jerry Cudahy (Feb 18, 2010)

Ben Colbert said:


> Seems I'm looking in the area of $1500 for two decent 10'x6'x6'ish runs with dog houses and platform.


Sounds to me to be about the right money.

Do not cheap out on the chain link. Solid frame and do not buy a pre boxed set from Pets Mart. U will be sorry bigtime. Think of the dogs when they grab the chain link.

Weak link will become an opening and the whole point is mute.

Also give adding a top to the runs. Dogs can climb straight up a chain link run. The top can also be a shade source.

Do not place the runs on soil, stone etc. They eat and dig the dirt and or pebble stone.

Pour a concrete pad and be sure to smooth it out.

Add a very slight grade to the pad so that washing out becomes a lot easier to dry out the run.

Give thought as to how the run off is removed from the outside of the runs.

Remember this also.

Males WILL piss between runs onto the next dog


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## Brian McConnell (Feb 6, 2010)

look into the construction fences they can be bolted together and a door can be made out of wire stapled to 2-4 . I bought some 10'by6' construction fences for $100.00 per panel.
Made doors and was away to the races.
I also have 9 indoor -indoor runs in my barn/kennel made these by welding wire to 3/4 " pipe and fabricated my own doors.
one G.S.D inthe house for security and the kennel dogs bark when anyone comes down drive, works out well.
Brian


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## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

The perimeters of the dog yards are 3" field fence topped with two strands of barbed wire with and electric fence 6" off the ground and 6" from the fence. The inside fence lines are field fence with no barbed wire and two strands of electic fence, two feet out, on both sides to keep the males from grabbing each other through the fence. Each yard has a lock down pen made of 4-- 16' X 5' horse panels with a two foot door cut into each. If memory serves, the panels are $30 to $40 bucks each. Dog houses are in all the lockdown pens which are always open...unless I need to lock the dogs down to spray or have a stud sevice in where I need to keep somebodies female safe and isolated or need to move a male through another males yard.


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## Martine Loots (Dec 28, 2009)

I have a big problem with dogs being crated for a long time. I want them to be able to move and run, have a good life.
If I'd have to keep them crated, I'd never keep dogs.
My dogs all have large indoor/outdoor kennels and they go for a walk 3 times a day.


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## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

Debbie I really like the bar kind you have. When I settle into my permanent home, I want to get that kind. Are those actuall kennel panels or fencing material you made into kennls? I think those are good for climbers and escape artist dogs. I like my Tractor Supply welded wire so far but I have easy dogs and live where they wont rust in a hurry.


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## Adam Rawlings (Feb 27, 2009)

Debbie,

I like the a-frame roof you have over the kennels, was it expensive?


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## Kara Fitzpatrick (Dec 2, 2009)

The lab is confined to one room. 
Elsa is crated or shell destroy the house. 
Last Christmas Eve I didn't close her crate door well enough, she got out and destroyed and ate my nativity scene and various Christmas tree ornaments.


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## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

A little maintenance on the kennels that are rusting would add years of life to them. When you see rust, wire brush the area and spray it with rustoleum. where the paint is peeled. Wouldn't hurt to spray the area off good with something that will neutralise the urine first. A little light maintenance will go a long way.


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

Michelle Kehoe said:


> Debbie I really like the bar kind you have. When I settle into my permanent home, I want to get that kind. Are those actuall kennel panels or fencing material you made into kennls? I think those are good for climbers and escape artist dogs. I like my Tractor Supply welded wire so far but I have easy dogs and live where they wont rust in a hurry.


The black wrought iron that runs along the front of my property is fencing panels. My husband got a great deal on those panels..perk of being a heavy construction superintendent as the subs do favors like that. They are heavy duty and 6' tall and 6' long I want to say we only paid around $2k for 150+ feet (25 panels)...so about $80/panel. 

The kennel panels we contracted out and I can't remember what they cost, but steel keeps going up. We originally put the 10 in and about 5 years ago put in the smaller 5 and I believe the smaller ones cost about the same as the larger ones did 10 years prior. I want to say because of the deal we got on the side panels that each 12' x 12' may of cost $2k, but to replace now with all galvanized as aluminum is out of sight for price, we'd pay around $5K a kennel. That's not factoring in the big concrete slab or pole barn..just for the kennels.

They are 2 meters x 2 meters..so over 6' x 6' each panel making 10 kennels at 12' x 12' approx and 5 at 6' x 12'. These front and back bar panels are galvanized. The solid side panels are aluminum and I got a great deal on those used as well as the platforms in the kennels. The platforms were original 1/2 the size and were designed to attach to a wall and then swing down on two legs when in use at night. We combined 2 and made big free standing platforms. 

I really like the bars for kennel material except that a dog can grab someone/some animal through them. But, yes, much harder for the dogs to escape from and better for their teeth.

One nice thing is those kennels are actually temporary as they are bolted into the concrete with large red-heads and a hammer drill (I think I've got the names right). So we can disassemble them if we ever decided to leave SoCal :wink: It would be very hard for me to leave my kennels behind.


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

Adam Rawlings said:


> Debbie,
> 
> I like the a-frame roof you have over the kennels, was it expensive?



I bought that metal pole barn from FCP (local SoCal barn manufacturer) about 15 years ago. Steel has gone up so much since then. Here is their web page: http://www.fcpbuildings.com/

Maybe $10K... They come out and build it on site very quickly..maybe 3 days and it's up and it can withstand high winds. 

You can get an idea of how long it is from the pix as you can see the roof beyond our field. 150' long by about 20' wide.


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## Don Turnipseed (Oct 8, 2006)

Debbie, that is only 20' wide? What, on each side of the peak? lol


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

Don Turnipseed said:


> Debbie, that is only 20' wide? What, on each side of the peak? lol



I said "about" I didn't step it off and don't ask me to right now as it's cold here and VERY windy. ](*,) It's big and there's a lot of space on the front and back sides of the kennels for walking..kennels are 12' wide. Don't start with technicalities like PEAK! ](*,) I liked the one in the pix, Ron designed the layout and made the pad, and some union guys came over moonlighting and did the concrete work and voila! Kennel of my Dreams! :lol::lol:


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

Don Turnipseed said:


> Debbie, that is only 20' wide? What, on each side of the peak? lol


Hey, did I get the part about red-heads being for concrete and the hammer drill right? :-o


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

Debbie Skinner said:


> Hey, did I get the part about red-heads being for concrete and the hammer drill right? :-o


Is there a solid building in there, or just the overhangs?
are they inside/outside? or purely outside?

thanks


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

Joby Becker said:


> Is there a solid building in there, or just the overhangs?
> are they inside/outside? or purely outside?
> 
> thanks


No, no solid building. There's the pole barn that covers the entire concrete slab and the kennels are underneath it.


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

Debbie Skinner said:


> No, no solid building. There's the pole barn that covers the entire concrete slab and the kennels are underneath it.


Better pix of kennel is on WDF Community Photos: 1st pix: http://www.workingdogforum.com/gallery/browseimages.php?do=browseimages&c=14&page=5

Also, pixs of our puppy play area there.


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## Tracey Hughes (Jul 13, 2007)

Don Turnipseed said:


> A little maintenance on the kennels that are rusting would add years of life to them. When you see rust, wire brush the area and spray it with rustoleum. where the paint is peeled. Wouldn't hurt to spray the area off good with something that will neutralise the urine first. A little light maintenance will go a long way.


You are right I didn’t think of it at the time but live and learn


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## Faisal Khan (Apr 16, 2009)

700 crate.


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## Courtney Guthrie (Oct 30, 2007)

Judge goes to work with me, Red gets left loose in the house and Hobie is outside in a kennel. On the days I leave Judge home, he is left gated in an area of the house and Red is in the other area.


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## Denise Gatlin (Dec 28, 2009)

Debbie Skinner said:


> No, no solid building. There's the pole barn that covers the entire concrete slab and the kennels are underneath it.


Deb, what material are the kennel dividers made from? Is that metal, cant tell?


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