The Kennel Project was conceived to give us some relief in the house and give the dogs a chance to be outside without us having to worry about them. As you are probably aware, Saint Bernards shed and slobber quite a bit. When we had one Saint - It was do-able. When we got our second Saint, we were stretching to keep up, so we fenced the side yard - which they quickly turned into a moonscape. After the third one arrived we were falling behind. By the time the fourth arrived, well.... planning began, and we called a contractor. Mike Cilurso Excavating was hired to construct a small patio which was to be eight feet out and the width of the house.

While at a dog show during the spring of 2007, we passed a vendor who's product caught the eye. In large letters the sign said "No MUD - No MUD - No MUD". As we had plenty of mud from the 'moonscape' mentioned earlier, we were immediately interested. The vendor was Nature's Farmacy based out of Georgia. At the time the product was called 'Agri-block'. They are now calling it 'Kennel-Block'. It is a hard plastic grid system, 2" X 2" X 2", molded into blocks that are 20" X 40". Placed on a drainable base these blocks would provide the floor of the kennel run area. Stone would be placed on top. The block system keeps the dogs from moving the stone or from digging holes (or under the fence).

While our contractor was there building the concrete patio we also had him put in the sand base and level it, 32 feet wide and 20 feet out. (This is when we found out how quickly the yard falls off - as the sand is 18" deep in places. Really quite a lot of sand - much more than we had originally thought. After the sand was in place and leveled off the real trick was to keep the kids out of it until we could get the block down on top of it.

Of course a kennel would never be complete without fencing. We struggled with this a bit, contacted a fence contractor for an estimate, priced out parts only with the thought of doing our own fence, and also priced pre-fab pieces. As you can see from the photo we ended up with the pre fabricated sections. They come in 12 foot and six foot lengths. The six foot sections have the option of a gate. We obtained these pieces from Mossis-Sussex Pet Supply. Their display of course was for a single kennel run. We just re-arranged things a bit with the ultimate goal of having five runs in the block.

As you can see by the leaves on the ground fall is in full swing with winter headed our way. The grid blocks go down reasonably well, although sometimes getting the interlocking tabs aligned is a bit tricky. Especially if you get sand between the sections. Of course being a smooth plastic they slide around easily, so as they were laid down, it became necessary to secure them together. Off to the local Home Depot to purchase a bag of plastic tie wraps. Each section of grid is now tie-wrapped to all of the surrounding sections. The result is a stable grid system that will not move on the sand.

Next step - set up the fencing. Before that could be done the fence sections had to be improved. We had learned from experience that a Saint Bernard is not deterred by a tension wire along the bottom of the chain link. After the tension wires broke, we installed pipes, and used aluminum fasteners like the top of the fence. Not good enough - Major pushed his way right through it. We finally came to plastic tie wraps, every two inches along the bottom and up the center support poles. Having learned this with the side pen, tie wraps were installed on the new fencing prior to it being set up. Once it was ready, the sections went up easy enough.

Winter set in and the snow kept us from finishing the project. Spring is now here in 2008, and the stone, a 3/4" washed gravel, was delivered from a local ladscape business - Metro Supply. After getting the stone dumped in the rear yard, we had to use good old manual labor to wheel barrow it into the individual pens. Finally the old doghouse was moved into the new kennel. We still have to build three more. We priced out plastic ones, but they proved to be very expensive, and not really large enough for a full grown Saint Bernard.

Our original plan of building a five section kennel was modified a bit. After getting all the sections up we decided to put the girls into a shared pen. Out came the wrenches and one of the dividing walls was removed, creating a larger pen for the two girls. A-Jay the puppy of course - does not really like being left alone in a pen, and mightily voices his displeasure. For now, at least for short periods, he can share with the girls. If Major is outside he shares with him. Perhaps we'll end up removing another dividing wall?
Stay tuned!

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