Yard Expanded!

We have officially been at our house for over a year now and this spring I wanted to expand the dog's fenced in play area.  While the dogs are boundary trained very well and able to hang out with me in our non-fenced portion while we are actively training or playing, I still wanted a larger safe space to just chill in and not have to watch as closely.  

Initially we made the fenced portion about 70ft x 30ft(?), just big enough so they can run a little bit and do some obedience training in.  We still have our agility field on the other side of the garage that was for training or just a bigger space to let the dogs have fun in.  And I had plans that the area behind the fenced yard would be my obedience field.  

The unused obedience field behind the smaller fenced off section.

I was originally worried that if the dogs had access to a larger space all the time than they (ie Vito!) would be less enthused about getting to train in it.  I knew that going through a gate would help Mr. Motivationally Challenged be more excited!  But my concerns were unfounded.  While Vito did become super excited about going through the gate to train, he was still very excited to do just obedience training in the smaller fenced area for meal training time.  And thus due to the way the fence and property was laid out, the grass behind the fence became pretty much unused all last summer.

Gate to fun-ness.

So now we more than doubled the fenced area!  You can easily see the dead grass that marks where the old fence line was.  Still using cheap utility fencing, but installation is fairly easy and way, way cheaper than chain link!

I still have dreams of getting some obedience ring gates so I can better practice ring entrances and go outs, but for now the dogs are loving it.  It is also highly beneficial for visiting dogs to be able to play or train in a secured area.