BigGameHoundsmen.com

I was wondering what most of you use for your dogs bedding. I am very new to this and am in the process of putting together a kennel for my pup. I was going to put some sort of wood shavings or chips in her house. Is one better than the other as far as shavings or chips or type(cedar,pine,etc.) Thanks

We try to stick with grass hay or straw.

i used cedar shavings, it smells good, i wouldnt want to lay on chips, its pretty cheap. but whatever you want to use will probably work fine, just make sure the chips or shaving arent walnut, especially black walnut, its poisonous to dogs, even if they lay on the shavings, so make sure theyre cedar or whatever.

I use grass or straw hay.

We always tend to stay with the straw

Grass hay is good bedding but needs to be changed oftern. It has a tendancy to break down and coupled with the dirt or sand the dogs bring in on their feet it can pack a lot of dust. This can be irritating for some dogs and also can cause coughing or eye irritation so I use it but I change it often. Some dogs do better on fine shavings and white pine is the best overall that I have found. Cedar is great for flea and tick control but straight cedar is pretty strong smelling and if you stick your head in there when it is pretty hot you will find it is pretty tough on the smeller.I think if a person uses the pine as a base and throws some handfulls of the cedar in there to mix it would be very good.

Seems some dogs can lay on almost anything and never have a problem. Plotts, black and tans and blue dogs seldom encounter skin problems, but white skinned or mottled skin or pink skinned dogs are more prone to irritations.

I agree with Mike, pine based bedding with a mix of cedar works best for me.

Thanks guys.

We use grass hay will use straw in a pinch. But with straw it is hollow and allows fleas and other critters to live in the straw longer.
If nothing else use some cedar shavings under the grass/straw to keep out the fleas.

A word of caution on grass hay. I forgot which kind it was but that kind that crawles or moves with every movement got into several of my dogs lungs a few years ago and killed one dog and almost killed another. NO more grass for me .

From my experience, hay or straw works good but we have had problems with it. It seems that the dogs will get it in there mouth/throat and then develop a big puss sack from it. Some dogs heads will swell up and look like the elephant man. I got chewed our from our vet everytime I brought a dog in. It was happening about twice a year, so we switched to wood chips usually pine or cedar. We haven't had an issue since, but I don't think it works as well straw/hay did.

I think the main thing with dogs is get them out of the wind and preferably in an insulated house. If you can keep a cover on their house too that helps.

I can't get my damn dogs to stay in their house. I have houses with pine and cedar shaving in it, and all they do is drag the stuff out and lay on it. I even stacked straw around their houses when the weather got cold, and they ust tear it up and lay outside.

One word of warning on hay. If it has been grown in wet or moist areas that has the weed "fox tail" and that is cut with the the hay it can be lethal. I had a friend that lost a good dog to that. The fox tail has fine needles that can get into the dogs skin and they just keep getting deeper into the dog and can end up in the lungs. That is what killed my friends dog. Freaky yes, but possible.