Making a Dog Run?

ShaShaBear

Myself and my partner just moved into a very large house with an even larger garden which, unfortunately, is not completely fenced in.
Shadow suffers from pretty bad separation anxiety, and always poops in the house when we leave him alone. He never did this in the family home as he had an enclosed garden that he had full access to from 8 in the morning until 10 at night (we pretty much let him outside whenever he wanted to go).
We can't do that where we have moved to as, even though his recall is very good, the driveway leads onto a main road (the area of which is one of the most dangerous in the North East) and Shadow loves chasing cats and rabbits. We were looking at galvanised dog runs (he needs large because if he has enough space he can jump a 6-foot fence) and the price near killed me. At the moment we are walking him around the garden on the lead and he will poop, but not enough to empty himself before we might have to leave him (which, funnily, is never for more than 30 minutes).
He was never crate trained and is 8 years old, so I am reluctant to start trying to train him in that regard. We are beginning to work on his separation anxiety (but Shadow isn't stupid - if you don't lock the front door, you're still watching him, and if you do lock the door and don't start the car, you're still watching him :rolleyes: )

We were wondering if anyone had any advice on making a secure and high dog run on a concrete surface, as if he is off his lead, he poops instantly, and may not feel the need to soil inside the house.

Sigma Force

I guess you could make a large timber frame with heavy duty chainlink wire but if you make a large run with no roof he might be able to scale it. Might be cheaper and easier in the long run to go with the galvanised panels, you can get them second hand so worth checking out ad websites. You can get a smaller one and add on over time, that's what we did. If you were building a dog run on grass you could try farm relief services.

If he is so anxious you might be better off with something stronger than a chainlink.

RubyGirl

This is ours, it's works as a play area for the kid's aswell. Only thing is one of my little devil's chewed thru the fence so I cant trust her in there.

ShaShaBear

RubyGirl wrote: »

This is ours, it's works as a play area for the kid's aswell. Only thing is one of my little devil's chewed thru the fence so I cant trust her in there.

It looks fab, was it very costly? Shadow is a little minx and cant be trusted either but even in my mums enclosed garden hes not left unattended. Mind you all I have to do is touch my house keys and he drops everything to make sure Im not leaving without him :P

LisaO

RubyGirl wrote: »

This is ours, it's works as a play area for the kid's aswell. Only thing is one of my little devil's chewed thru the fence so I cant trust her in there.

Kids, Huh! What would you do with them??:rolleyes:

Sigma Force

lol Lisa

That looks pretty cool RubyGirl, it might work for the OP but if the dog is a Houdini they might chew on the wood or be able to scale it but for a 'normal' dog it's ideal.

RubyGirl

I have the front and sides done aswell, so including labour it cost €1,000 but well worth it.

ShaShaBear

RubyGirl wrote: »

I have the front and sides done aswell, so including labour it cost €1,000 but well worth it.

Given us some great ideas. It only needs to be big enough for Shadow to do his business, as we walk him regularly and hes an inside doggie so hell only be in it to go to the loo! Im sure we could make something like that on a smaller scale!

eirator

What we've had for a long time now are 6 builders site fencing pannels set up to make an oblong run with concrete blocks put around the base to fill in the gap at the bottom where the dogs might dig out.

You need to hunt around for the fencing panels as there are different qualities our run is about 5 years old and was second hand when we got most of it and its still almost as good as new, but some of the cheaper pannels you can get are not as strong as they look. Also available second hand.

These are the type of panels
and we have blocks laid on the base to make it secure but it was previously used without the bases pushed into a lawn.

Some people won't like it but its very versitile and covers a big area quickly with few tools and little effort. As an entrace just miss out one joint between the panels and move one as a door, chain or tie it closed.

Depending on your house and garden you could perhaps use just 3 panels to make and 10ft x 10ft run outside the back door if you could anchor two of the panels one either side of the door (roughly 10ft apart but whatever suits) as a stop gap and make it bigger later if it worked out.

ShaShaBear

eirator wrote: »

What we've had for a long time now are 6 builders site fencing pannels set up to make an oblong run with concrete blocks put around the base to fill in the gap at the bottom where the dogs might dig out.

You need to hunt around for the fencing panels as there are different qualities our run is about 5 years old and was second hand when we got most of it and its still almost as good as new, but some of the cheaper pannels you can get are not as strong as they look. Also available second hand.

These are the type of panels
and we have blocks laid on the base to make it secure but it was previously used without the bases pushed into a lawn.

Some people won't like it but its very versitile and covers a big area quickly with few tools and little effort. As an entrace just miss out one joint between the panels and move one as a door, chain or tie it closed.

Depending on your house and garden you could perhaps use just 3 panels to make and 10ft x 10ft run outside the back door if you could anchor two of the panels one either side of the door (roughly 10ft apart but whatever suits) as a stop gap and make it bigger later if it worked out.

Yhos was another option we were looking into but we havnt been able to locate any of these fences as of yet. Well, weve found quite a few, but I am not of the inclination to borrow them :P

gregers85

I have used the building site fencing for mine too!! its at least 6-7 yrs old and as good as new! I recently bought 4 more to extend in size and got 4 second hand panels in great condition for 90euro from a building supplier!!

eirator

ShaShaBear wrote: »

Yhos was another option we were looking into but we havnt been able to locate any of these fences as of yet. Well, weve found quite a few, but I am not of the inclination to borrow them :P

No more building boom so even the bigger Builders Merchants don't keep them in stock anymore, but ask and they can get them in for you. If you buy them new just try and get an idea of quality first, the ones I could get for 40euro each recently were nothing like as heavy weight or good quality as the old ones we have. iirc the bases are quite expensive and extra but I picked them up separately second hand.

gregers85

This is the type i got with the support bar down the middle! they are good and strong

eirator

gregers85 wrote: »

This is the type i got with the support bar down the middle! they are good and strong

One idea I had with the light ones was that if I really had to I could use them as a roof if we had a dog that decided it was a climber or jumper. Or over an area with outside kennels in as I've seen a few dogs use the kennel roof as an escape root out of the run.

Maggie 2

We used galvanised poles, about 10 foot long. It was a bit difficult driving them into the ground. We dug a hole about one foot deep, drove the poles in until about 7 to 8 foot was overground, mixed cement and filled the holes. We then used 4 foot chain link on the bottom and 3 foot sheep wire on the top. (it was cheaper than using all 6 foot chainlink). The poles were about 6 foot apart. This was 15 years ago, so I've no idea of cost now, but they did the job!