It seems like this has been the wettest winter in several years. We have had a long period of rain interspersed with just a few cloudy but dry days here and there and a couple rare sunshine days too. All of this rain makes Belle’s dog pen very muddy. To make matters worse, the grass around the gate to the pen died before winter due to some sloppy weed-eating around the edges of the pen and there isn’t much of anything to keep the soil turning to mud.
After Belle’s recent surgery, I’ve been keeping her indoors almost all of the time, only taking her out briefly for bathroom breaks. Even still, her belly and legs get muddy and I have to towel her off when she gets back inside.
Yesterday I went out of town, so I had to leave Belle outside for the majority of the day. Although it wasn’t raining, her pen was VERY muddy. It’s important to keep my dog clean until the stitches come out, so I did what I could to make her pen more palatable.
Pine straw covering muddy spots
I had several bags of pine straw that I collected for mulch but hadn’t put on my flower beds yet. I distributed this in the muddiest spots inside and outside the pen. I cleaned out any wet debris from her dog house. Her dog house is on a palette, raised off of the ground to keep it drier and to allow it to try out faster.
She also has another wood palette in the corner of her pen that gives her a place to lay that is off of the ground. This is really useful when the ground is as wet and muddy as it is right now. It also provides a little more warmth than cold ground in winter.
My neighbor, Ms. Virginia, who owns a Jack Russell and another mixed breed dog, bought a bale of hay for her backyard this week. It helps her dogs stay out of the mud a bit better.
Although these aren’t the best options – a concrete floor in a pen would probably work best, they are temporary solutions to the wet ground in your backyard and help prevent your dog from getting too muddy during rainy seasons.
I’m having that same problem now. I ll try the pine straw or just straw. I have a peek a poo. And he’s always wet under belly and his paws.
Glenn, I use mostly hay these days – it seems to last a bit longer than the pine and doesn’t cause the allergy problems for my dogs (and I no longer live around so many pine trees). Hay is easy to get at our local co-op and I just put it over any muddy spots in their pen. I pick up and throw out any hay that gets moldy and replace it with fresh. Whenever it rains a lot, I put fresh hay out. I see the dogs laying on it, so they definitely enjoy a dry spot.
I used to have this problem too. My dog’s belly was the worst part and he doesn’t like wearing coats that cover alot because he can’t walk in them. I was just doing some searching and came across this post, thought I should share that I found him something called a “belly bib”. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and it works like a charm!! Definitely saves me the mess of straw all over my lawn too.