Grave depth

[Forgetful Coyote]

Had to put my dog down. She had mammary cancer or however it's spelled, and night before last the back half of her body gave out and went paralyzed, and she was hollerin out raising cane like she was hurting awful bad.. so, had to be done. Gone bury her out back up the hill, how deep does the grave need to be? It's gone be on top of a plateau type hill..

 

[MtnCreek]

Deep enough nothing tries to dig her up. Keep in mind it will settle over time, so leave it mounded a little.

Sorry about your dog.

 

[Veer_G]

Damn, I'm sorry to hear that.

Make sure it's well back away from the slope and go down at least four feet, if not six. You'll need to dig it so that you can lay her in on her side, so go extra wide.

Again, man, my condolences. My little girl is sitting here in front of me and I'm not looking forward to losing her.

 

[Maggot]

Condolances for your loss.

 

[oneshot86]

that sucks
like said above, deep, at least 4
i have had shit dug up before

 

[Rthur]

Sorry about your dog.
All the way to the bottom.

R

 

[308pirate]

You have my condolences. I've only had to bury a cat and dug his grave about 3 ft deep. That was deep enough for the red foxes I know live in the hedgerow less than 1/4 mile from my house.

 

[oneshot86]

deeper or youre going to see fluffy again

 

[MtnCreek]

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the soil. Yote's from below the fall line, so I would assume deeper there in those sandy-silty soils. I think he's in the Atlanta area now and he said on a hill, so that will be clay or clay & rock. You'd be hard pressed to dig a 3'+ hole in that without a digging bar. 1 ft soil moisture is over 40% right now, so that will help.

 

[oneshot86]

i keep forgetting that everyone doesnt have this sandy loomey, easy digging dirt we have here...
your millage may vary...
is the ground frozen yet

 

[jrassy]

From the title I was hoping Jane Fonda died, I was gonna say dig until you hear Chinese. Sorry about your dog.

 

[Alphatreedog]

Sorry for your loss Brother .

 

[jg6.5]

So sorry about your dog...it's never easy losing a good one.

The few that we've buried were about 4' deep, and we mixed the backfill with lime (i.e. portland cement or quickcrete). Not enough to make it setup like concrete, but rumor is that the lime is off-putting to any critters that might want to dig her back up.

 

[tnichols]

Sorry about your dog. As stated above, go deep. Another trick I have always used here is cover her with some barn lime. It keeps critters from getting a whiff of her. I keep a couple bags on hand

 

[Nik H]

Sorry to hear and my condolences

I've buried 2 and 2 cats in my back yard...Dug 6 feet down and used the lime technique that tnichols said previously. No odor no issues

 

[Forgetful Coyote]

MtnCreek - right.. I'm from/grew up 20-25mi south of Dublin, below the fall line... but live up in Gwinnett(for now-sure ready to head home tho).. just wanna make sure she ain't gone get dug up like yall said, or have the dirt erode away over time and expose the remains.
Does the ground need to be completely flat? Like I said, there is a flat top up on the top of the quasi plateau type hill, and the actual hillside/slope is covered in these low profile bushes type vegetation that I reckon was put there for the specific purpose of preventing any/most erosion; figure hopefully I'll be good on that front consequently. I'd like to go all the way up on the totally flat top, but it'd be in the neighbors yard then. So where I'm gone end up most likely putting her will be a bit back from the hillside slope, but it ain't a total flat spot...it does have a tiny bit of a decline..
There's been some yotes(no it wasn't yours truly ) spotted in the area, couple miles out, supposedly FWIW. God help em if I spot em getting any graverobbing ideas.

ETA: Thanks for the heads up bout the lime!

 

[thejeep]

i typically find a special place in the middle of the woods with good scenery and leave em out to feed the other animals. thats how i hope to go also

 

[MtnCreek]

As long as it sheetflows, it will be fine. Don't put it where there's a concentrated flow of runoff. I buried a horse on about a 4.5:1 slope a few years ago.

 

[kill_zone67]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Forgetful Coyote]

Thanks for the condolences yall.. all dogs go to heaven so I'll see her up there sooner or later. Fuckin hate she's gone but she was hollerin like she was hurting so bad that putting a stop to it seemed a lot better option than dragging it out. I didn' even know she could make some of the noises she was doing, it was god awful, still cringe just thinking about it. Hate that she even had to go through such agony.

 

[Foul Mike]

There comes a time and a place where all pet owners have to do this. It is gut wrenching but you can't have them suffer so do what you need to do.
It is too bad we can't treat people this way also.
I have had to bury a few and mix in pieces of barb wire in the fill as well as a little sackrete and all are holding well.
I dig as deep as I can but sometimes the ground is frozen and that makes it tough. Do the best you can.
I do believe that pets go to Heaven as they are good. I hope to see all of mine there, however, I think I will go to the Hot Spot as I have done some really bad shit during my life and can't see any way that the Great Spirit can forgive what I have done. Just my feelings as I get Old. FM

 

[Veer_G]

There comes a time and a place where all pet owners have to do this. It is gut wrenching but you can't have them suffer so do what you need to do.
It is too bad we can't treat people this way also.
I have had to bury a few and mix in pieces of barb wire in the fill as well as a little sackrete and all are holding well.
I dig as deep as I can but sometimes the ground is frozen and that makes it tough. Do the best you can.
I do believe that pets go to Heaven as they are good. I hope to see all of mine there, however, I think I will go to the Hot Spot as I have done some really bad shit during my life and can't see any way that the Great Spirit can forgive what I have done. Just my feelings as I get Old. FM

Karma may be a bitch, but if you bring her flowers and candy on your way out, it might just soften her heart a little bit, Santa.

 

[Forgetful Coyote]

There comes a time and a place where all pet owners have to do this. It is gut wrenching but you can't have them suffer so do what you need to do.
It is too bad we can't treat people this way also.
I have had to bury a few and mix in pieces of barb wire in the fill as well as a little sackrete and all are holding well.
I dig as deep as I can but sometimes the ground is frozen and that makes it tough. Do the best you can.
I do believe that pets go to Heaven as they are good. I hope to see all of mine there, however, I think I will go to the Hot Spot as I have done some really bad shit during my life and can't see any way that the Great Spirit can forgive what I have done. Just my feelings as I get Old. FM

No doubt. You'd be hard pressed to find a human that's as unconditionally loyal as most dogs...

 

[Foul Mike]

I hope you are right Veer. I try but have some bad baggage. FM

 

[MtnCreek]

I hope you are right Veer. I try but have some bad baggage. FM

All you have to do is ask for it and mean it. If only the perfect got admitted, we wouldn't be celebrating a birthday in a few days.

 

[DuneBoer]

Lost my little buddy to the same thing last may. Damn breast cancer. She was just 6. The way I look at it this way, If I can kill something I loved so dearly, just think what I can do to something or someone I hate.

My little buddy got a sky burial on a platform I made from juniper and pine. I made it the year before for my old Airedale. They were buddies so she joined him a year later on the platform. Its in the middle of nowhere on my private. Nothing has gotten to them other than the occasional raven or magpie. Now they are bone and suntanned hide. I have seen coyote and bear tracks by them but no takers. They are about 10 feet off the ground. Im sure the coyotes feel bad Ju Ju when they are near. Angus the Airedale was a coyote killin' machine.

Sorry for your loss brother. I like my dogs more than I like most people.

 

[sjoliat]

Very sorry about losing your pal. The first dog I had to put down I lost to stomach cancer. 10 days from the first sign to gone. When I buried him, and another since, I dug shallow graves, less than 2 ft. When covering the grave, half a foot or so below the surface I covered the entire opening with hardware cloth. Never had anything disturb the bodies, and this was in prime coyote territory. I suspect bears would truly test this method though..

 

[EddieNFL]

From the title I was hoping Jane Fonda died, I was gonna say dig until you hear Chinese. Sorry about your dog.

I say put her head on a pike and send it on a tour of all US military installations.

Sorry about your dog.

 

[ArmyJerry]

sorry about losing your dog, sad

 

[Forgetful Coyote]

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the soil. Yote's from below the fall line, so I would assume deeper there in those sandy-silty soils. I think he's in the Atlanta area now and he said on a hill, so that will be clay or clay & rock. You'd be hard pressed to dig a 3'+ hole in that without a digging bar. 1 ft soil moisture is over 40% right now, so that will help.

You were right btw sir.. I got to about 2 ft and change and wasnt making any progress past that with a shovel. Had to go grab a pickaxe from the store and that turned out to be just what I needed.

I mixed in a big bag of lime with the soil as well.. thanks again for the headds up yall.
Enjoy every second yall have with your dogs, god gave em such big hearts he couldnt very well give em an abundance of years on earth so make the most of them..

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Sorry about your buddy...

In memory,

Sirhr

 

[Sniperwannabee]

I thought you might have killed someone

 

[Sniperwannabee]

You were right btw sir.. I got to about 2 ft and change and wasnt making any progress past that with a shovel. Had to go grab a pickaxe from the store and that turned out to be just what I needed.

I mixed in a big bag of lime with the soil as well.. thanks again for the headds up yall.
Enjoy every second yall have with your dogs, god gave em such big hearts he couldnt very well give em an abundance of years on earth so make the most of them..

i lost my lab on Christmas Eve 3 yrs ago and he was the best dog ever. I will never understand why dog only live 10-15 yrs which very short compared to other animals

 

[sandwarrior]

Coyote,

Very sorry to hear about your dog. They make life "life" for me. Dig a deep grave and find a big flat stone (aka wolfstone) if you can so nothing can dig her up.