After reading the replies and getting some estimates, I proceeded to lay an 8" deep road base foundation and put in flagstones for the mutts. They are inside dogs and when they are left in the kennel, they have only pissed inside it twice in 10 months as neighbors are good about letting them out once or twice daily if I am gone.
So getting spooked off the concrete actually resulted in a kennel area that matches my patio area better and will be just as functional. If they lived in it, I'd have gone with a concrete truck on it for sure.
Now to rig up a shade/rain guard for it.
