Yard Work
Love our new house! It's so great being able to just sit outside in the yard with the dogs, being able to play whenever we want, and even be able to practice tiny bits of agility with my few jumps and new set of weave poles!
Our project to fence in the area is almost complete as well! Since we have a corner house and our yard is all on the side of the house it was difficult coming up with a plan that would be cheap and yet still allow the dogs to actually hang out with us. I really wanted the fenced in area to include our porch and patio area but it needed to look not too weird since it's very visible to people passing by. Solution was the cheapest deck panels we could find. Still not cheap once all the post parts were purchased :(
The rest of our fenced section is made up mainly of 14 gauge glavanized wire and then a few old kennel panels that were free from work. Doesn't look the greatest but it will work for it's intended job. And the much greater distance was only 1/3rd the cost of the deck panels! Rough size is 70x35
Biggest downside to purchasing an unoccupied house is all the yard work that needs to be done. Leaves and sticks are everywhere! The amount of gopher holes are also crazy! Took me forever to try and spread the huge dirt mounds. The only good thing is that after a few days it looks as though only a small handful of new mounds have popped up. Much less gophers than all the old holes made it look like!
Ticks on the other hand are a different story. Due to the prairie area in back the dogs are bringing in lots of ticks. So far they seem to be winning too as I've only found 2 dead ones and many well fed and happy ones. Frontline is defeated. I'm hoping that at minimum our new fence will help to cut down on them as it limits how often the dogs are wandering to the taller grasses. Just ordered the new pill to see if that is any more effective.
I have a small rocked potty area that is 12' x 20', attached to the house and fenced off from the larger yard for when I'm away from home (they have access via the dog door). Getting the dogs to actually go to the bathroom there took FOREVER. Nobody wants to relieve themselves so close to the house or something. Getting them to use it for urinating didn't actually take too long, but it was weeks upon weeks before I saw that it was used for pooping.
It's been a couple of years now and they have gotten more comfortable with the idea. Heck, I've seen Kizzy leave the grass and go into the rock to poop. lol Everyone else just uses it on an apparent emergency basis when I'm not home.
When I am home, they have access to the full 100x100 yard and they will always choose to do their business out there in the grass. It really doesn't take that long to do the poo-pick-up routine (I walk up/down the yard in rows.) I try to pick it up daily, if not every other day.
I didn't feel it was worth the struggle to make them use the potty yard full time. This spring I left it locked for 24 hours during a horrible bit of mud prior to a photo shoot for the little dogs and you would have thought the world was coming to an end. Thank goodness it all froze right before we left so that I could actually get everyone to go out and relieve themselves...
Frontline is what I was using when Jackal ended up with Ehrlichia (tick disease). I was pissed! I've been using K9 Advantix for the last five years and haven't had a problem. No relapses so far (knock on wood). We have a TON of ticks since his yard is five acres with tons of trees and lots of undergrowth. I still find them sometimes, but it's usually because I've forgotten to reapply it. There are granules you can spread to help with the ticks, but mowing frequently is the easiest thing. Since you don't have a lot of brush I bet the problem will go away since they are in the tall grass anymore.
Good luck with the potty area. I've had no luck lol. Jackal likes to go to the farthest corner of the five acres to potty hehe.