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Cleaning My Dog Pen

I have a dog pen that I plan on doing away with grass. Every year I have to re-seed the pen and then when it rains it is a muddy mess. I plan to cover the bare dirt, as it is now, with a weed block and put brown river rock (rather smallish) over the weed block. My question is as my dogs, I have two Poms and a Yorkie, use the rock to do their business, how do I keep the rock clean and not smell. Can I put lime down (don't panic if this is a bad idea I am only asking)? Or maybe even baking soda? I know that I can go out and pick up the "do" to keep the pen clean but is there something else I need to to to keep any smell down. The pen is right off the Florida room of my house and windows in this room open out to the dog pen. I also plan to hose this down from time to time during the hot dry months. Any suggestions would be of great help! TIA

JONNIE from Owensboro, KY

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RE: Cleaning My Dog Pen

A variety of surfaces is best for the dog's feet, and most any surface will wash off. If you hose it, any of the suggestions here will work. However, if they were mine, I'd use landscapers mix mulch and keep adding small amounts of mulch over the worst places until it is all used up. The wood content will help with the smell. Then, one day you can spread it over the yard and in your tire ruts, etc. It's good for a lot of areas. Make certain that you buy the finer texture, rather than the large chunks. Cypress mulch is good for odors. Any pet area requires responsible care, so I'm sure you realize that having pets is a job one cannot overlook. God bless you. : )

Post by lyndagayle62

RE: Cleaning My Dog Pen

Hi - we did just this for our two dogs, but they are inside pets and only use it to potty. I'm not sure if your dogs will be there 24/7... Anyway. We do not use anything for the smell. Somedays it is bad, some days it's not. Most of the time it's not, but I do try to pick up poo several times a week.

We were mainly concerned about the urine smell, and again, on a few hot rainy days it has been a little smelly, but 95% of the time it's fine. The rocks do get hot, but the dogs don't seem to be bothered by it. It's also great because of the small snows we get - the snow melts quicker on the rocks than in the grass, and my two precious pups think they are way to good to go out in the snow ;-)

For the most part we've been happy with our decision. Good luck.

Post by jfbuchan

RE: Cleaning My Dog Pen

Why not just pour a concrete pad. Its easy to hose off , no problem with mud.

Post by duckie43

RE: Cleaning My Dog Pen

Rather than river rock, you might do best putting in pavers or cement. That way you could wash it down good when it gets smelly or to cool it in the warm weather. Just make sure there is somewhere that is cooler so they won't burn their little feet.

Post by ThriftyFun

RE: Cleaning My Dog Pen

April Fool's, right?

Walk the dogs, because their nature is to keep the pen clean. Besides, their feces are so small--like an adult human thumb--it should not be any bother to clean up.

Isn't weed block a serious poison? Read the label.

In the hot months, how about a small child's swimming pool, unless it's OK to wear a fur coat in the summer there.

Do you wash your dogs every couple of weeks or more often? If not, this also could cause an odor.

You make it sound like you don't really take care of these little dogs.

O.

Post by the Oracle

RE: Cleaning My Dog Pen

we lined our outdoor pen with 2" concrete bricks over pea pebble, but first we put in a french drain underneath it so that we could rinse the urine off the pen weekly. all i do is pick up the poo with a dust pan and spatula, place it in a plastic-bag-lined 5 gal pail with a lid, and hose off the pen weekly. every week i double bag the poo and place it in my garbage. sometimes i add a low sudsing soap, like those used for carpet steam cleaners , and a long handled stiff broom for a quick sweep to clean up any residue.

Post By debbie in sc (Guest Post)

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