Building an exterior cage,pen?

I need to build a pen where we can leave the dogs for an hour or two to do their thing and have some run around room. It obviously needs to be secure. I was thinking of a 6 foot high chain link fence 10 x 30. it will house 2 dogs and i will run a divider splitting it in 2 10x15 areas.

is 10x15 big enough? Otherwise they will be in the house in the basement or in their cages down there?

Should I leave the grass or should i put down a concrete pad?

I need to get this done ASAP and I need to submit plans to the HOA before I build.

 

The cheapest and quickest way to do this is chainlink 6ft with a top. No concrete. I prefer chains but in this case it's probably not gonna happen. Yes I think 10 X 15 is enough with regular exercise.

 

10 x 15 should be fine. I would line the edges on the inside w/ cinder blocks (don't want any digging out) & line the floor w/ a couple of inches of pea gravel. If you put down concrete where is the wash water going to drain off? Unless you create a drainage area, you will may end up w/ a marshy, smelly trench around your kennel. As for grass, they will eventually kill that & you will have a 10 x 30 dirt patch. Pea gravel lets the urine drain into the dirt & make the stool easy to pick up.

JMHO.

 

Good points ABK. I did forget a few things.

 

In a pen, at the bottom we buty the fence at least 6", and from there going back towards the middle, we lay about 15" of fence, attach it to the bottom of the fence itself, and bury it. If the dog decides to be a digger, it will hit the fence laying flat, and cannot get out. I have never had one figure out that if it digs back 15" then it can go underneath. I have had some fence wear out at the bottom, and lay concrete blocks to be a temporary fix, only to have them moved by the dog. The pens I have now,(besides the puppy pen), I have a chain set up inside. So the pen really just keeps things away from the dog, rather than contain them. A 10' Chain will give the dog almost the same room as 4 !0' X 10' kennels. Also, when you go to get the fence it self, get the heaviest guage you can get. I was actually told that the twisted wire fence is stronger than chain link. Check that out. I do know that the regular chain link is paper to some dogs. Another thing is if you can find hog panels with the 2" X 4" pattern to it, that would be wonderfull! Aint no dog chewing out of that. It comes in 16' X 52" sections for about 16 bucks each. If you put them double stacked, with the posts on the outside of them, you would have one strong pen. If your dogs are climbers, put a top on them. If they come inside, run 2X4's and put tin on and then the dogs wouldn't get muddy to come back in. I do like concrete bottoms. If you do this, make it about 6" off the ground, with a slant to one end. On that end, have a drop off into a trough. You can either form that up, or use some 4" pvc cut in half, and have that slanting to one end of it, then have a bucket w/small holes in the bottom for the water to drain, and it will catch the solid waste, and you can go dump it, and put it back. Either that of you can have the concrete curve to the middle, add a drain there, and run it into the sewage system. Ones I have built like this, we always have a plug there, so that it doesnt get stopped up w/unwanted debris. Also, running an electric fence on the top and bottom of the pen will help to prevent climbing and digging. Get the stronges cow stopper that they make. Do not get the ones for dogs, get the ones for horses and cattle.

 

Do you need concrete to put up the chain link poles? Also, do you put the cinder block on the outside or the inside?

(Sorry to hijack your thread, but I am looking into doing something similar!)

 

bastard hijacking my thread

J/K

The more info we dig up on this, the better for both of us. I would probably put the blocks n the inside. If you put them on the outside, the dogs could dig under the fence, then push the blocks out of the way. My male used to dig under our wooden fence. But he only did it under the gate. SO we put some 16x16 stepping stones a few inches down then covered with grass. a few times through the grass, he learned that wasnt an option. but he never tried under any other part of the fence, just under the gate.

 

I got a question, why not just do 2 chain setup's. It would give the dogs the most room for doing their thing for the cheapest price, plus a proper chain setup is the most secure thing for these dogs. I understand that loose dogs can still get to ur dogs, but i think that is only a minor issue, and maybe people in ur area will start to contain their dogs properly once their dogs turn up missing

 

I wouldn't advise a chain set-up. GAowner lives in a subdivision type area & the hot water he was in was b/c a neighbor's dog came into his yard, got bit & the neighbor called AC on GAowner.

I would just put up the kennels - or better yet put up kennels inside a fenced backyard - & leave it at that.

 

I agree with you. Chain setups don't work for everyone. I do love the chain setup but my situation right now I am not able to put all my dogs on chains.

 

I put the blocks on the out side. Now I've been very fortunate in that all of the ones in the kennels are'nt diggers. The ones on chains are a different story. I have one kennel that is concreted posts, the rest just sit flat on the ground. I was real lucky on my setup when I moved. I prepped the ground by cutting with shears all the thorn bushes, cut down a few small trees, and used a hard rake on the spot before putting them up. I also had a huge mound of dirt handy to bury the kennels all the way around. It's worked out very good. You just gotta reinforce every now and then just like with all setups.

 

In a word. Yes. You should set all posts on a chain link setup in concrete. If the fencing is put up properly, it will be pulled taught, and if the posts are just set in dirt, unless you drove them through rock, they will eventually give. So to avoid the rest of the work going bad, set the posts in concrete, and set the corner posts alittle better than the running posts. When you set them, you should use a string(chauls line works well) on the ground, set up like batter boards. That way the posts will be in a straight line. When setting the posts in concrete, it is important to have some industrial bisquin to wrap the bottom of the post. Set the post, pour the concrete and finish it in such a way that it has a high spot where the post is, and runs off of the concrete. Make sure the post is plumb. After concrete sets, take a box cutter and cut all bisquin off that is showing. Water is the #1 enemy of concrete, and anything that you can do to keep water off of it, will increase it's life. I know some who bisquin the hole and pour over it.

 

I live in Ga we don't have diggers though. We have a jumper. She can clear 6ft from a stand still with no problems. We ran horse fence 2x4 weave 5 ft tall and then cut a roll of 4 ft fence in half. Then we secured it about every 6 ft on the inside of the posts. All our wire is on the inside of the posts. So it is loose looking at the top. Sort of bends in a little. This way, if she can hook a foot a 7ft high, it just drops her back in the yard on her ass. We did have one dog who went to a spliced spot in the fence and chewed and pushed his way through just to get to us on the driveway. That was smart on his part. Had to reinforce that part pretty fast.

 

If you run one of them hot shot stampeed stopper electric fences, a wire on top, and on bottom, they'll hit it once, and then avoid doing that ever again!!

 

I think the best solution is the get some cheap-o 4' high or even 6' high chain link fencing just to keep other animals out and then have a proper chain set-up inside that area. Make sure the chain setup doesn't reach the fence, shoot u can even make a round chain link kennel that is about 1 to 2 feet wider than the chain setup. I think cost-wise this would be ur best bet because u will use less fencing and have little to worry about when u set up the proper chain spot inside that pen.

 

I was thinking the same thing. That is how my pens are. I have 4 in the back, and other than the puppy pens, they are outfitted with a chain setup. Cheaper, less head ache and worry!

 

When i have enough property, time, and money to start my yard this is exactly the type of pens i would set up if i was worried that something would happen to the dogs on a regular chain set-up. GAowner I would highly suggest using the setup i described above