Never heard of using the chips to control fleas but with 3 dogs I am going to give it a try. During the summer no matter what I put on them they always bring fleas in the house and I get so ate up. Dh even sprays the yard but to no avail.

I read a while back that you can use pine cones to keep dogs out of areas you don't want them in. Dogs are not suppose to like to lay on them or like to dig in them. I am sure you could get them for free if you knew someone that had pine trees.

Be careful of what you put down. Some dogs eat mulch and pine chips and wind up with a bowel obstruction. The only way to solve an obstruction is surgery.

Ours (all 4 of them) only go in the back yard. We keep the front yard looking nice, and let the fur babies have the 2 acres in the back. I guess with it being so spread out, there's not too much of a problem. They find a new spot every day to "explore." I put black pepper in their favorite holes. They've decided all holes don't smell good and make them sneeze, so they don't dig any more.

Think I might look into those pine chips as well! The fenced back yard is only used by the dogs so it's quite the mud hole as well. And we have a VERY large pine tree so we have shade and acid issues re grass. Read no grass. Our 2 yo male lab just romps in the gardens and 'prunes' my lilac and rose bushes for me. The price we pay for the unconditional love we get from them.

This is good to know. I am going to put this on my list. I use to use straw in our dog pen ..

So glad to hear you have Bassets to make you happy!! Our Basset makes us laugh every day. As soon as we feel we have the space in our pack, we're going to get another because Doug needs a playmate.
I take our dogs out on leashes and other than that, they stay in the house as we don't have a fence. By keeping them in, we cut down on holes and canine turf cutting but if mine were to be out of doors, I'd adopt the pine bark suggestion one of the other quilters gave. Enjoy your Basset 500!

Don't use the rubber mulch. It can be toxic to dogs. We never could stop our greyhounds from digging.

I have 5 dogs that use a small fence area I call the dog yard. I use cedar mulch, it keeps the smell down for quite a while and the dogs don't bring in any mud whatsoever and no dead or yellow grass spots. I usually rake off the top in the spring and all a new layer and every other year scrape it all away and put down a good deep layer. I have two flower beds to off set the mass of mulch and a couple of trees, vertical planters etc. to dress it up because you see it from our living/dining room windows and french doors. I love it, it can be work because any mulch decomposes but I like it. I would be concerned with the rubber mulch, I think it would get really hot in direct sun and may hurt dog pads and may smell like rubber tires in the heat and humidity. I have thought about some of the latest generation astro turf because it is softer and looks more natural than it use to, but it's only been thoughts. My husband may think I am nuttier than usual, so I have kept the thought to myself!

We tried straw the first year of the dog yard and one of my girls ended up at the vet with an eye infection. After that I knew I couldn't use the straw so I checked into mulches and chips. The pine chips are by far the most cost effective at 4.98 a bale from Tractor Supply. I don't know what they would run at other places. The cedar chips are more expensive and come in a huge bag but we only use them in the flea season. If anyone decides to go with a mulch DO NOT USE COCOA MULCH! It is toxic to dogs.

My crew has a doggie door they can use all day. Once the pine chips went down the muddy paws disappeared. For a few days after the fresh chips are down we find a couple chips on the throw rug inside the dog door but I'd rather that than mud any day!