In my opinion a housedog or even a cat should be provided with an outside run and house. A place of his own to keep him in the sun and air and protect him from disturbance by children or injury. In this run, your dog is safe from accidents, theft, poisonings or getting out of the yard.

The run should be as large as your property will permit. Twenty by forty feet is a good size for one or two dogs, but if you have more space a longer run is preferable. Length is more important than width.

The best surface that I have found has been straw or chips with sand underneath.

Dirt runs become muddy in the wet season and dusty in the dry season and the dogs waste is hard to pick up.

Something to remember is that dogs usually defecate in the same area and as far away from the food and housing as possible.

Building your run -- First remove the grass on the area to be converted into a run. You may want to spray paint the perimeter. Then with a roto-tillier loosen the dirt to a depth of about four inches. Scatter dry cement at the rate of two-thirds of a sack of cement to a square yard of surface and mix in thoroughly with the soil until the mixture has a floury texture. Wear a nose mask to keep the dust out of your nose and safety glasses for your eyes. Adjust your hose to a mist spray and water the surface until the soil-cement mixture will mold under pressure and not crumble. Follow by raking the entire mixture to assure uniform moisture, and level at the same time. Remember to keep a slight slope on all run surfaces so that water can drain off without puddling.

Now you must work quickly, compacting the run with a tamper and then rolling over it with a garden roller. All this must be done within a half-hour or the surface will harden while still uneven. After rolling, the surface should be smooth and even. Mist-spray again, then cover with a coating of damp sawdust or soil for a week, after which the run can be used. Soil-cement is also excellent for paths around or to and from the kennels.

Cleaning your run ----- In removing stools from a run, never rake them together first. This practice tends to spread worm eggs over a greater area. Shovel each stool up separately and deposit it in a container. Your pet store has a rake and shovel pan with a long handle on it that works great! It is lightweight and you don’t have to do much bending. For a container, I use those plastic washing machine soap buckets. Those buckets work well for water buckets and when they get old I use them for stool pick up. I put the plastic bags I get at the grocery store inside the bucket and when the bag is full, I tie two knots in the top and put that bag in another bag and deposit it in the garbage.

Having a lot of dogs, I also use a wheel barrel and roll it right into the kennel. Since I use straw or chips I can dump the contents in the pasture and rake it out as smooth as I can. Then, I throw some dirt over it. It is biodegradable and helps improve my ground. I then hose out the wheel barrel and apply a disinfectant. In the winter, we get a lot of rain and some snow so very little can be done about run sanitation. Because of the cold weather, worm eggs and fleas are not present. You can only do just so much for the sake of appearance and to keep down the odors. I purchase a load of straw and in between raindrops I cover the wettest places up front with fresh, clean straw. This keeps my dogs up out of the mud.

Don’t forget to brace the last post with a horizontal post that leans up the top of the corner post and goes down to the bottom of the post nearest it. I used special brackets to hold this support post in place. Your hardware personnel at your local home store will help you to put that together. I had to do the same thing with the other end. All corner posts need bracing so the posts wouldn’t loosen out. Next, I attached the fence puller to a bar that I sewed in and out through the kennel wire. I set the wire stretcher up on the corner post and then pulled the fence tight by cranking the handle. Make sure the fence doesn't get caught up on anything. When the wire was nice and tight, I clamped all the kennel wire to the posts with a strand of wire I had in the barn. You will need some wire cutters and you will need to twist the single wire tightly around the post and the kennel wire. Make sure the wire is well on the ground, even if it is a little too much on the ground. The kennel wire I used was only four-foot tall. I never encourage my dogs to jump a fence. Shepalutes are not too crazy about jumping fences, but if you have one that does jump, you might consider a heavy hog wire 6-foot tall and use wooden posts set in concrete.

Build the house with sleeping quarters three by five feet and three feet high at the highest point. Incorporate a front porch one and half to two feet deep and the five-foot width of the house. If the house is correctly situated, the porch roof offers shade from the sun and the porch itself is a place for your dog to get out of the rain or snow.

First make the skeleton framework out of two-by threes. Build the two side sections first and allow six inches of extra height on the uprights for floor elevation. Incorporate the porch size in the over-all length of the sidepieces and remember the back slope over the sleeping portion will accommodate the hinged roof.

Next, build the floor frame and cover it with five-eighths inch outdoor plywood. Cover the sides with the same material you use for the floor. If you allow your two by three inch framing to show on the outside of the house, you will have a smooth inner surface to attach your floor platform to. Keep the floor the six inches above ground level provided by your side uprights and brace the floor by nailing six-inch pieces of two-by-threes under the floor and to the inside bottom of the side uprights.

Frame in the door section between the porch and the sleeping quarters. The door should be four to six inches from the floor (to hold in the bedding) and twelve to fifteen inches wide with a height of fifteen or twenty inches. Animals like small caves to go into so don't get the door too wide. They should be able to squeeze in as an adult. My dogs all prefer the smallest holes.

Nail your plywood, or tongue and groove siding, over this framework, of course leaving the opening for the door, and nail the same wood across the back and the porch roof, thus closing the house in all around except for the roof section over the sleeping quarters. Build this section separately, with an overlay of four inches on the two sides and the back. Attach an underneath flange of wood on both sides and rear, in from the edges, so that the flanges will fit snugly along the three outside edges of the house proper to keep out drafts and cold. Hinge this roof section to the back edge of the porch roof and cover the entire roof part with shingles or heavy tarpaper, with a separate ten-inch flap stripped along and covering the hinged edge. Paint the house blue or blue-gray, as flies don’t like that color.

In cold weather, tack a piece of rug over the top edge of the doorway to fall across the opening. An inside partial wall can be provided at one side of the door if you find the door is too large letting the cold in.

Make sure you build this thing in the same place you want to permanently place it, as it is big. I suggest you put this house at the door end of the run so the dogs will do their business at the other end. That way neither of you has to tromp through the waste. Try to set the house with its side to the North and its back to the west. The smaller and lower you can build your house, the warmer it will be in the winter.

Bedding can consist of marsh grass, oat, rye, wheat straw, pine, or cedar shavings. Cedar is said to discourage fleas and lice, plus it smells good. Shake a liberal supply of flea powder in the bedding once a week during flea season.

During the summer months, flies may bite the edges of your dog’s ears. This can cause the formation of scabs as well as drive the dog crazy. A good liquid insecticide should be rubbed on the dog’s ears. Skin disease salve, which contains sulphur and a small amount of Vaseline, may help.

The very best fly catching device I have ever used was The Big Stinky. If you get one make sure you pick up enough of that stinky stuff. Every fly around will get caught in this trap!

When traveling in hot weather never leave your dog in the car alone. Carry his water pail and food dish with you and take care of his needs at all the rest stops. I purchased my vehicle for the dogs and I leave all their stuff in it. I love to show off my dogs at all the rest stops. You may want to begin his change of diet to plan kibbles a few days before the trip. Bring your own water in a rinsed out milk container.

If you must ship your dog, make sure the crate is large. I purchased the largest sized vari kennel. Put your name, address, and phone number on the crate in permanent ink. Do not feed your dog at least four hours before the flight and exercise him just before you say your good-bys. I put straw in the crate with chips of cedar at the bottom. The airlines ship animals all the time, so they will take care of him. Make sure the folks on the other end know the flight arrival time. Before your dog goes on this trip, make sure he has all his necessary tags and shots. You might want to make a copy of that and tape it to the crate. Do not put a lot of stuff in his crate with him. One item to chew on or something of yours might help him.