Big House Dogs + Mud + Snow Anyone else?

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Marty

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OK I'm at my wits end. There is no way I can keep my dogs from going out a few times during the day to pee and poop and also one time late at night before bed as well. Devin is the older dog who mostly sleeps but Amy has to go out to romp and run and burn off her excess engery. So in they come soaking wet and full of mud and STINK to high heavens a hundred times a day and I'm worn out with this. I can't keep bathing them and rinsing them constantly. I try to grab them as they come in before they run dripping slop all over the house and rub them off with towels. I've now got five towels all over my kitchen floor, I never stop mopping, and a clean stack of more towels waiting for the next round. I do keep tee shirts on them but I am changing them constantly as they soak right through. Thank heavens for tile floors and leather furniture!

Anyone else have this? Any ideas at all?

Tired in Tennessee
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I 2 am tired of the froze then melt syndrome. I also have moving blankets on my kitchen floor or old blankets that I keep swapping out & washing. I did pea gravel my fenced in area 4 my dogs. I can tell this helped tremendously.
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I also place throw rugs on the porch before U come through the door.
 
I'm also in this boat, as the owner of a 30" (at the withers) Old English Sheepdog. The thought of pea gravel in my backyard is appealing, but it would be so expensive to do the whole yard. I hope someone has tips so I don't have to re-landscape! lol
 
I hear ya ! I have one Great Dane, a Scottie and a Havanese in the house and all three insist on going out every half hour it seems
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We have a sunroom with a wood stove that heats the house, it works great for drying wet, muddy dogs when they come in. I put a barrier across the door to keep them in the sunroom until everyone is dry. Works great for me, all the dirt is contained to one area. I use the fold up doggie play pens sometimes too, they work great and come in a variety of sizes. Maybe setting up one of those in an area for them to dry before allowing them free access to the rest of the home would work better ?
 
My backyard is not bad. What I hate is at feeding time Brandy (my GP mix) comes out in the horses area with me. The only place it is real bad in right in front of the stalls. Talk about STINK! She has all that fur that all of that stinky poopie soured stuff sticks to. I don't know what to do about her feet, legs and bellie. Then when she gets back in the house she jumps on the sofa, and yes, it is fabric.
 
Lucky ME has a Doggy Door, BUT I have the door upstairs and the doggy door closed off cause of it being cold, so like Mad for Mini's mine think they should be going out every half hour as well. ESPECIALLY the LAB...... Oh it's fun to romp around in all that snow and mud, then he drags my little doxie into it. My Shar Pei daintly goes out into EXCEPT if she sees a horse then ALL that is forgotten and then she's full bore to the fence, YAP, YAP, YAP....... My other little doxie who's only 6lbs she still gets buried in the snow so she doesn't venture to far so she hasn't hit the mud yet. PLUS, she HATES to go outside just like my Shar Pei, they're both sissy's. Don't like to get their feet wet. I had to SHOVEL a path for everyone to go too the BATHROOM cause EVERYONE refused to go when the snow hit, they stood at the door and refused to go out. Now the yard part I shoveled is ALL MUD. YUCK!!!!! TJ
 
gee, all we have is a little bit of snow and ice all over the place...and to think I was really hating the ice, since I am constantly shoveling sand on it to keep my dogs from slipping, and that dont even seem to be helping. I dont want to use salt with the dogs. We have 4 house "kids" our black lab and our 3 standard poodles, 2 of which (the 11 month old pups) now stand 27 1/2" at the shoulders..and growing yet. I sure hope someone posts some good ideas, because in spring after this snow/ice melts I will have a heck of a messy back yard, and will need all the help I can get to keep this house looking clean after they come in from playing, and hopefully not tearing up the lawn too bad. The best thing we ever did...was ripped out all the carpet and put in laminiate "wood" floors, and my furniture is leather....I go for easy clean up, and both really are.
 
That is one reason why our big dogs are always outside dogs! German Shepherds that run around the barn yard, lay on the manure pile and eat horse poop smell BAD even in dry weather--and we sure don't need that stink in our house. In wet weather it would be even worse. So no, they stay outside.
 
We have a doggie area on our back & front porch with the pellet bedding did not take them long to use it...

Teach them first on the leash where to go... it does help in the winter....

Hope this helps some of you... easier than cleaning up in the spring all that poop all

over the place...

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That is one reason why our big dogs are always outside dogs! German Shepherds that run around the barn yard, lay on the manure pile and eat horse poop smell BAD even in dry weather--and we sure don't need that stink in our house. In wet weather it would be even worse. So no, they stay outside.

I'm with you. Seeing what my dogs eat (horse poo, dog poo, dead animals) and roll in (dead birds/mice etc., manure), I can't imagine having a big dog in the house. They love the snow and cold. They're nice and bundled up in the barn with straw at night and we go for nice long walks during the day. Cats are the only animals allowed in the house. We're both somewhat neat-freaks (Kevin much more so), so he'd probably be dead from stress if we had big dogs in the house
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I can't imagine NOT having my dogs in the house and sleeping in my bed, but my family will assure you that I'm a bit strange that way.

I agree with laminate or impervious flooring and durable furniture. Throws and furniture covers are also great. Either way, my dogs are more important to me than any furniture or flooring.

My dream house would have a large entry/mudroom, complete with a dog-sized washtub. Heavy duty washing machine and dryer would go there, plus lots of room for coats and muddy boots. Between horses, chickens and gardening, we're as muddy as our dogs, so it's easier to plan for it than to fight it.

As a child I had a little Peek-A-Poo who thought she was a big, tough country dog and was constantly muddy or stinky. She got more than her share of baths, but she was so smart that she taught herself to dry herself off on a towel whenever she came inside. She'd drop on the towel and rub and roll until she was dry, if not clean.

When we bought our first house, it had brand-new cream color carpeting, which we knew we'd be pulling immediately in favor of the underlying hardwood floor. Before we moved in, we stopped by for something. We had our dog, Hillary, with us. The seller looked down in horror at her, and actually said "You won't want to keep that dog with this nice carpeting." HA!
 
I came up with a new game plan, or semi-new

1. Instead of tee shirts for turn out time, its now sweat shirts since they are thicker and don't leak as much as the tee shirts do. That is helping keep the mud from splashing up under the tummies a lot better.

2. I've had to limit the free for all barn romping until it dries up. Sorry puppies, you can't go up and play in the fields for a while. They will have to do their running and pooping in the back yard where there is plenty of grass and no real mud to speak of. I have to watch them like a hawk that they don't take off up to the pastures.

3. Learn to tell them "no" when they ask to go outside every five seconds just to tree the cats. I can usually tell the difference when they honestly have to use the bathroom and when its just to chase cats. When Amy sees a cat out the window, she suddenly pretends its only to potty but I'm on to that old trick.

4. Rug runners in the mud room by the back door.

5. I put the doggy gate back up so they are contained in the kitchen until they are cleaned up enough to go back and have the run of the house.

6. All this has already made the world of difference
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