Here's the Poop (29)

The Poop
It's warm enough out that we're ready to put the dogs out in the dog fence. This instead of hooking them out by the back deck. They like to romp and play and I like them to get some fresh air rather than roughhousing inside."Take it out side!" Anyway,today I went out to the dog area to clean it up (we regularly do pick up after them but with the snow/ice melt we haven't been out their in a month or so) and discovered a whole lot of Winter poop. I guess two dogs poop more than one so I only have myself to blame. I couldn't believe how much was out there. With the inclusion of the back area, I collected a whole grocery sack full. Why don't they clean up after themselves. When we first got Max and took him to training we were told that using Canidae dog food would decrease his out put because he would utilize more of the food. Well I will tell you that I would hate to see what the dogs would "out put" if we used some other less protein based food.
The Dog Fence Dilemma
We have been talking about what type of ground cover to put down in the dog area as well. When we put up the dog fence we chose the area for its convenience as well as the location. The sun doesn't shine too much in the area and so grass doesn't grow well there so we thought that the dogs couldn't do much damage. They haven't, but it is all mud now that Winter is gone, and hasn't dried out yet. We have been thinking about our options. These are our criteria: Cost~ if we have to replace the ground cover each year, it needs to be inexpensive, Cleanable~ we need to be able to keep it clean of dog poop, and Containable~ sometimes mulch can get scattered everywhere, even out of the dog area. Gravel(pea gravel), mulch or bark, or rubber matting. There are pros and cons for each option. The most important issue is that I don't want the dogs to track in when they come in. That's why we don't put them out there when its muddy. Gravel is a good option, but I'm concerned that it would get moved around so much that we would have to replace it each year. I haven't checked price yet either but I'm thinking that it is probably expensive. depending on the type of mulch,it might also have the same issues, the mulch would need to be heavy enough that it wouldn't get tracked in. Which leaves rubber matting. We checked out a company that manufactures matting for garage floors and it is expensive. The cost is about $2 per square foot so it would make the cost somewhere around $1400. I think we are looking else where. Anyone have a better idea? We sure could use some suggestions.
Tiny Dog Time
I was so busy today that the only time I got to spend with Beeker today was when I took some videos back to the Library. It was just a ride along, which he loved but didn't sufficiently satisfy his need to run it out. When we got home and I started to clean the dog area, I let him run around and around and around the lot. He came back after about 10 minutes. Happy and layed down out side the fence to wait for me to finish. What a great dog!