Hey Amy!

My mom just got doing our dog run ground. She was soooo sick of them tracking in all the dirt (what was once grass too). It would get in our air conditioning vents and clog those up, cover our sofas, etc. What she did was take 12"x12" cement paver bricks and spread them a few inches apart going in an arch. At the end she put a layer of small 3"x5"(about that size) bricks, Then a few feet of sod/grass. She then put little bits of sod (mostly roots) in between the paver bricks. That was the dogs still have an area to go to the bathroom(grass) since they won't go on the paved part, and the mud and dirt doesn't really get tracked in the house and it keeps them clean too.

The pavers cost about 50 cents each...maybe less.....not completely sure...and the grass is fairly inexpensive too so it's easy to replace a few times a year.....just make sure it's watered heavily at first.

Just a suggestion....i will take some pictures of it tomorrow in the daylighjt to show you how it looks. Hope this helps.