Simple Dog Tie-Out

A few years back when we moved to our new house, we suddenly found ourselves with a dog and no fence. We tried assorted commercial tie-outs, but our dog then really had no intention of wandering, and it came to the point that we almost never bothered to chain her up. Well, that dog died at the ripe old age of 13, as dogs have the unfortunate tendency to do, and so we have spent most of the last 2 years dog sitting. This summer however, we got a new dog, an incredibly hyper boxer-lab puppy, and it soon became clear that the old solutions would not cut it, so using what we had on hand, I quickly came up with a solution. This is my first instructable, so please be nice, but constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Step 1 Gather Supplies

I know it seems obvious, but you need to have what you need,

1.A rock, I used a rather large, flat slab of rock left by the previous owner of my house
2.U-bolt, you could probably use like an eye-bolt or something, but whatever you use, it has to be longer than the rock is thick. Why? so you can fit it through, you idiot.
3.A chain, to attach your dog,cat,gator,pet rock, etc. to the rock. Maybe not an actual chain, you're probably going to end up using a cable-type thing, available at any pet store. Don't cheap out on this, they do break sometimes, even if they are rated for dogs twice the size of your's
4.Decent drill, you could probably get a masonry drill of some kind, but I'm too cheap, and just used some old drill i had lying around.
5.Water, to keep dust down, and stop the heat from killing your drill, i used a watering can, but feel free to improvise, use a hose, water bottle, super soaker, really drooly dog, whatever float your boat.
6. Cable loop thing. (optional if your chain breaks near the end) i need to stop doing stuff without my camera, but i did, so i can't tell you exactly what this thing was called. It came with some little cable clamps, a metal loop thingy, and some kind of carbiner-looking thing. It's for making a loop in the end of a cable and hooking it onto something. there's a more professional way of doing it, but this is what the hardware store guy recommended for me. Just follow the directions on package.

Comments

[scruthut]

I just get a nice heavy bit of chain and a half cinder block. Loop the chain thru the block and bury the block with a little chain coming up and out of the ground. I hook the cable to the end of the chain and done. Easy to change cables and even mow. Also the dog does not get wrapped around it. Small hole to bury block. I haven't seen the dog yet that could pull the block out.

[Derin]

we let them free and they play out on the field,and respond to faraway dogs barking...then they come back and sleep under the sun

[Fondots]

we'd probably do that, but there's not a lot of big open fields around suburban Philadelphia, too many crazy nut-jobs running around driving obnoxiously large SUVs practically asking to run over a poor little doggie. we used to let our old dog out loose, but she was so used to us that the farthest she ever went was the old man next doors house, and only then to get some dog treats. But it's great that you have the space to let your dog run free like that, i always thought it would be nice to move out to the country so our dog could run around, but he's a house dog at heart, he actually rings a bell to go outside, and sleeps in our bed at night.

[Derin]

i have some long cable for holding sump pumps down at a steady deepness,right in the water table

[Sunny124613]

I like your dog and this instructable!!! 5/5 STARS

[InstructorGadget]

Sweet Instructable! I think you did good, you just helped me figure out what I am going to do with our new boxer puppiesboxer puppies. As boftem mentions pictures are important so maybe adding a few more under different conditions / angels? Either way, your post helped me out. Thanks!

[bofthem]

Thanks for publishing. This tutorial looks good, but needs pictures to really shine on the site. What tends to happen is that Instructables without pictures get lost in the crowd and don't see many hits. I've unpublished your project for now but it would be great if you could add in some images and then resubmit your Instructable.