Ok guys, I have a twist on this...does this pea gravel discourage the dogs from digging in any way? My mal is determined to dig to China. I put a three foot concrete frame that the kennel sits on, but I wanted to leave the kennel dirt for cooling purposes in the summer.

His dog house, however, sits on a concrete pad, but its just the size of the house. (I live in a semi-arid region) I thought watered down dirt would be cooler for him in the summer.

So my question is...is there any other material other than solid concrete to stop a digger?

No, I never noticed any wearing of my dog's teeth while they were in the gravel runs. I noticed wearing on the teeth of a dog that liked to eat the chain link. Fixed that with plexi-glass walls in the kennel.

Easy fix if you do see tooth problems, don't feed the dog in the run.


In fact I'm noticing more issues now that I have concrete than with the gravel. Raw spots on the dog's elbows, rough patches of hair, things like that. I didn't have any of those issues with the gravel. I've put down mats in the kennels, but the dog that happens to get the raw spots also is the dog that loves to tear the mats to pieces.

re digging out

When we did the kennels at our old house, we dug down about 8 inches, then put in a couple inch layer of old newspaper (to slow the first layer of gravel sinking before the ground under it compacted). Then we layed grayblock with the hole-side up to cover the whole run, and put the gravel on top of that.

Real nice drainage and no digging out.

I had one grey who had to stay off the pea gravel. Major cr4p eater, and got into eating gravel, too. At least with little pea gravel they can pass it (most of the time).

We sprayed with Duall once a week for odor, and didn't have much if any problem with it. I think the grayblock may have hung on to odor more than just straight up pea gravel would.

We had to put a few tons of new gravel in every couple years due to it sinking, but we were on clay so it wasn't so bad.

I currently have a concrete pad, but it sounds like pea gravel might be the best way to go.

What do you think of interlocking brick for a kennel run? Friends of mine are pulling up their interlocking brick this coming summer and are willing to give it to me for free.

The area that I'm thinking of using is right against the house. It slopes downwards away from the house and there is no problem with water accumulation. Also, it is on the North side of the house so it is nice and shady for the hot summer months. My Malinois is a digger so I though that the interlocking brick would work nicely. The Border Collie/Husky mix is a jumper and I can't afford to put in new fencing around my whole back yard so I need to make a kennel run. I only have two dogs and am a meticulous pooper scooper so I don't think that there will be any issues with a dirty run. I can always clean it with the hose as well.

Thoughts?? Is there anything negative about this that I need to consider? They would only be out there when I'm home as I live in the suburbs and my neighbours would not tolerate barking during the day.

Thanks in advance.

Natalie Heath

This is how I did my kennel - Dug down 14 inches (12X12) put 7 inches of sand down, then I put on top of the sand a 12X12 piece of fencing which was fastened to the 4X4 (2 high) wooden frame, then 6 inches of pea gravel on top of the sand / fencing (there is no way a dog can dig out). Then I put down patio blocks on top of everything. Put my kennel (the fence part) on the 4X4 frame and bolted it down. Then I put cement board on the inside panel so the dogs could not see each other and rage all day long. I also added a dog house to each side. I then bought a canvas enclosure complete with a pitched roof. The canvas enclosure is nice because all 4 sides can be raised and lowered depending on the time of year and weather. Short of an actual building for shelter I’m really pleased with it.

Re: digging

I have a 10x10 kennel with railroad ties as a base that are sunken in and then loads of pea gravel. The dogs certaintly do not try to dig out but they do DIG! I was dogsitting my brother's dogs and I put them in the kennel, his french mastiff dug a 3foot hole in the middle that was about 2 feet deep, and all the gravel was flung outside the kennel against the shed, how wonderful. So no gravel seems to not stop them from general digging.

Why not pour a concrete kennel and put her in that?

Notice that's what I suggested very early in the thread, Mike: pour a concrete pad and be done with it.

For the price of the railroad ties and pea gravel, plus the two plus hours that type of flooring will take them to put in, you can get a concrete pad poured.

Follow the KISS principle, folks......

For the time being I have moved the kennel onto a concrete slab on our patio....she immediately went into the kennel when told to this morning. For now I think the problem is fixed, and down the road when it dries out I'll have to decide something for the long term.