Managing The Stink, Dogs

Awareness of the outside world. Science Matters, Academy of Animal Behavior: Research Bites. Hat tip to Amy, Dog Consultant Extraordinaire

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A while back, I talked about the dogs using the area outside the front door as their al fresco potty. Outside is good. The smell, not so much. [Finding The Stinky Silver Lining in Dog Ownership]

As Amy said on the subject, ‘dilution is the solution’. We use it a lot. Water dish contents get emptied to roll down the ramp. Since Jasmine likes her water changed often, it adds up. We also dump the water from the dehumidifier. You can imagine how much water gets pulled out of the air in a southern summer. Ergo, much rinsing. [Finding, comment], [Water Management, Dog Version]

One of the other things we do is dump gravel on the most used area. What? Everyone doesn’t have a large pile of gravel sitting in their backyard?

But seriously folks, several years ago we got a truckload of gravel for some barn repairs. There were leftovers. Having gravel on hand has been so useful over the years that when this runs out, we’ll get more.

So I go get a bucket’s worth & dump it at the base of the ramp. Voilà, drainage.

The downside is that over time, the layers of gravel had built up into hump. That wasn’t so bad. The problem was that the nasally-offending liquid was running off the side of the hump to pool near the ramp, rather than running away down the hill.

Dig up hump. Level the area. Spread new gravel, as flatly as possible. Pile fresh gravel off to the side as a mini-levee.

Success. Liquid now goes where it is supposed to.

Urinary engineer. That’s a new one.

Dog posts [archive]

Onwards!
Katherine