Dogs in Their Play Yard

It is very important for dogs to enjoy the outdoors and equally important to create a safe and secure dog play yard for them, and to build a dog house that will protect them from the elements.  As you can see from the photo, we have country property, complete with coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions.  So in building our dogs a play yard, it was a priority to keep the dogs safely inside and the critters outside.

Ball in the water bowl - sometimes life is confusing for dogs

The first step in creating a dog play yard is clearing the space of any brush, weeds, or debris. This particular space was our old garden, since we wanted a bigger dog yard and a more compact garden.  The old dog yard was about 15′ x 30″; this new space is about 40′ x 80′, significantly bigger. There are a few trees at the perimeter for shade.

Installing chain link fence for the dog play yard focused on several factors: strength and durability, cost, and skill level.  My neighbor provided me with free 4″ x 4″s that he gets as delivery platforms at his company, to serve as wood fence posts; for the corners and door frame, I selected 4′ x 6″s from the home improvement store.  What started as a wet-season project was becoming summer, which meant the ground was getting harder by the day; having an on-going barter with a landscaper, installing the fence posts with the utility of a great laborer who dug the 2′ holes while I did the concrete work to hold the posts vertically – his job was way harder than mine, I did say “great laborer!”

Chain link fence gate in wood fence posts

The next step was to install the gate to the dog play yard.  The wood fence posts for the gate were in place.  I determined that a pre-made chain link fence gate would be more secure than a home-made door which I’ve built before, and only cost $45. I had many of the chain link fence parts from the prior gate, so no further cost.

Chain link fence installed on wood fence posts

I chose chain link fence as the material for the dog play yard. Equivalently priced horse fencing would have worked but only comes in 100′ lengths; I had about 320′ of perimeter and since the 6′ height of the chain link fence also came in 50′ lengths that was the logical choice – making a smaller dog play yard didn’t make sense.  This was the biggest expense, but had saved the cash up for this over a period of time.  My great laborer returned a couple weeks later with his great helper and the 3 of us stretched out the chain link fencing, along the wood fence posts, hammered them to the posts with big U nails. The treatment of the top and bottom rails was decided upon once the fencing was installed to see what really was necessary – a middle rail was not needed.  I had gathered most of these 2″ x 6″ and 2″ x 8″ rails from recycled fencing from my country neighbors.  To keep the dogs and critters from digging in or out, I dug in large carry-able rocks under the bottom rail.  It was a cheap experiment, but it has worked for quite awhile now.  While the fence doesn’t keep the wildlife away it certainly has kept them out and although our dogs are diggers, having to dig a foot down and then more to clear the rocks has kept them in their dog play yard.

Dogs Have a Tough Life

As you can see the dogs are small albeit feisty and incredibly energetic terriers.  Mostly they lay around in their 3000 sq.ft. dog play yard until they catch sight of a lizard, squirrel, rabbit, equestrian, a vehicle, or their keepers, at which time they carry on competing for dominance.  They go the most crazy when they see a coyote, the most prolific large critter,  shouting out their alerts telling us they are protecting us from danger.  Sometimes they lay around in the dog yard, sometimes in the dog house, sometimes in the shade, other times in the sun.  It’s a tough life.

The Dog House

Building the dog house is something I did about 20 years ago with another set of dogs.  Same priorities: build something strong and cheap.  It consists of a 4′ x 4′ plywood-covered delivery pallet for the foundation and floor, 2″ x 4″ frame with plywood remnant strips as siding, all re-used materials plus a purchase of hardibacker board for the roof and “veranda,” that no dog should do without!  For all the wet winters and searing summers this dog house has been through, it has held up remarkably; when I moved the dog house from one dog play yard to the other, it got a fresh coat of paint and a new roof, that’s it.  And that’s one way to build a dog house strong and cheap in a dog play yard at our country property.

Joe Fox is an Independent Agent of United First Financial and offer the Money Merge Account to people who want to save interest in the payoff of their total debt.