Q. We just bought our new house, and we plan to buy gravel for our dog yard.  What should we use on the floor of the actual kennel? Do you leave it with a dirt floor or do you add something inside the kennel too? If you do, what has worked best?

A.   I did my puppy pen,which in many ways I love and it is easy. I rocked the whole thing with expensive Yellow Pea Beach Rocks. They are small round smooth rocks as too not hurt the dogs feet. It is also easy to pick up poo, but you do loose rocks every time you pick up a poop so at some point another load over time will probably need to be added. Also easy to clean, hose it down and all drains through and down into the ground.

BUT….I do need help and need to know if anyone here knows, WHY it is doing terrible things to my poodles coats??  When I bathe them, yellow powdery residue comes off them, their coats feel dry and like crap???HELP? ?? Is there salt on these rocks (Beach Rocks)???  I have hosed the pen down tons of times, it doesnt seem to matter.  If I let them play out there in a couple of days they look like total crap again,dry, itchy, filthy??? The heat is not helping.  I am keeping them in now as much as possible and only letting them out there to pee and poo and getting them right back inside. Anybody know anything about these Beach Rocks? What they are doing to my poodle coats?

A.  I’ve had a gravel potty yard for years now.  Did a lot of homework before deciding what to do.  Here’s my comments -

Use pea gravel,  not the rounded pea stones.  The pea gravel, with it’s still sharper points helps teach the pups and helps keep the adults “up” on their toes like they should be.  Also, the sharper gravel hooks on itself, with less sliding around, makes the rocks last longer.

I do not use the paving size stones, but the smaller gravel.  It, too, lasts longer and is easier to keep clean.    Recommend, especially in hot weather, that you bleach it down twice a week (I use an Ortho garden sprayer attached to my hose, filled with Clorox Clean-up, which also has a bit of soap in it.   Makes everything smell much better!!!  And the bleach kills most bacteria in the ground.

Lastly, your rocks probably do not have salt in them, but they do have a LOT of lime, which is what is getting to your puppy’s coats, making it dry and flaky.   Not sure what you can do about it with the puppies, other than explain it to puppy buyers and assure them that the coats will grow out fine, it’s just the lime in the rocks.   When I have one in show coat, I put leg protectors on the back legs, as those are the most affected, and remove them when they come in.  OR, I mist the back legs (about as much as where the bracelets would be if they were cut into pattern), and brush it out.

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