In the interest of planning ahead, I've been researching building an outdoor kennel for some time now - 6' chainlink with a UV cloth top, probably 12'x25'. I understand that small size pea gravel can be a problem for some dogs (who like to eat it) and was planning then on using 2" gravel as a base over the natural sand we have in the already fenced back yard. 12" pavers set vertically in the sand to discourage any attempts to dig under the fence and access to an enclosure inside the adjacent work shed with a box fan.

In reading through the prior threads that have been brought up on the issue, I see that some folks prefer not to leave their dogs outside, period, when they are not home, and prefer to crate them in those circumstances. Can the risk of animal theft be reasonably mitigated by use of multiple locked gates and a fully enclosed kennel? Do you have a outdoor kennel? What has worked for you and what was a really horrible idea? Your thoughts, please.

Way too many things can happen when leaving dogs unattended outside. Dogs from everyday pups to high level working sport & police K9s have been stolen, poisened or worse when left outside without supervion.

If someone wanted to take you dog, regardles of the locks on fencing or kennels...your dog is easy enough prey if you are not home or paying attention. Not to mention the dog can be bitten by a snake, spider etc & suffer a bad response that goes unnoticed until it is too late.

When I leave my house I crate younger dogs that cannot be trusted loose. Dogs that are old enough & well behaved enough are loose in the house. A crated dog can't act as much of a deterrent or protect a home locked up in a crate somewhere in the house. My dogs are one layer of protection in my home.

Yes, there are many folks that leave their dogs outside & have never had any problems...& then there are those that regret ever doing that. An individual choice.

I have a 10 x 20x 6' kennel with washed pea gravel in it. Never had a problem with any pups or adult eating it. My yard is fenced with a 6' stockade with all gates padlocked on the inside. I live in a nice neighborhood & have acres of woods behind my home & i still don't feel comfortable leaving dogs outside unattended. But that's just me. I'm VERY picky about my dogs.

I have a very large dog and a 6 foot privacy fence and I won't leave her out there unsupervised for longer than 5 to 10 minutes max. Maybe it's just me being parnoid, but I don't want to be playing the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" game if something goes wrong.

I would say it depends on your comfort zone and your particular dogs. My border collie at 4 months would climb the chain link fence. At 1 year of age she wouldn't even think to get out of the fence. My blue heeler was 1 in December and dug out once at 9 months and has not since. I now closely supervice/contain the younger dogs until at least 12 months. Pups are always crated at night in the house, they are just too curious and impulsive. We also live way out in the country. If I lived in town and/or had a different kind of dog I would be a lot more concerned.

The breeder of my border collie was also a trainer and most of his dogs were trialed. He had 4 x 4 ft. kennels with solid sides, wire panels for front and back, concrete floor, and solid tops. These kennels were contained within another fenced in area. Joining that area,he had an large exercise pen in which he would turn out several dogs at a time for short periods of time. The dogs also received individual training time. This breeder was located 1/2 mile from a highway, cattle pastures adjacent, and he had many valuable dogs.

I will be curious to see the response to the rock/gravel question. I will also be building seperate kennels this year. I hope to reclaim my yard soon!

I have a kennel, is better than gravel or concrete or mud. Its a raised up wooden platform with a rubber mat over top. The doghouse is on the outside. Its small, 6x12 6 ft chain link. My dad and I built it, its very secure, lots of reinforcements at the bottom. He almost pushed underneath anyway but hasn't since it was repaired.

Its also sloped toward the back so cleaning it is easy, no water puddles up. Gravel gets real nasty, I have seen gravel runs before and hated them...unless you want to wash the gravel somehow, don't do it.

I have a kennel that has chain link fencing that measures 16'x10'x6' with a concrete pad as a floor and a solid roof. It has a dog house on the outside with a hole cut in the chain link for access. I built it in 1992 and it's been home to three GSD's without a problem. The concrete is very easy to clean. The roof and dog house offers protection from the weather all year long.

There is another choice. Is it out of the question to consider allowing him loose in the house or at least part of the house? I don't mean at this point, of course, because I realize he's just a young pup.

My goal with all of my dogs has always been to have a dog that could be trusted loose in the house, and so far I have been completely successful. They are crated when younger, and I work on gradually giving them their freedom, short periods at first, only increasing the duration as they can handle it.

Just wanted to put that out there as a suggestion, but I realize it's an individual choice and would be based on a lot of factors unique to each situation.

In my own home, I am hoping it will be an option - we can keep him confined to the kitchen at the moment (yay for leftover baby gates) but when he gets older we will need to assess his tolerances as he will be living with 2 cats indoors. I cannot and would not let him stay outside during the day while we are at work in 100+ degree heat with 90% humidity, and that's pretty common weather here in the summer. Even in the shade, I'd be worried about heat exhaustion. Setting up a cat room in the office is an option, of course.

That's a bit rambling, my brain's firing on 3 cylinders right now. I'm just trying to think ahead.

I really appreciate everyone's input there have been some dogs stolen around here recently (most recently a GSD pup that I saw posted about on CL just last week, a coworker's husky female some time back) so I'm pretty leery about leaving my pretty puppy dog out for someone else to have the opportunity to snatch.