A group of Durham residents is getting good at putting up fences. They've been volunteering to help make life a little easier for dogs and their owners.

Take "Cash," for example; he's spent most of his life chained up in the yard -- but not for much longer.

"The people want to do better for their dogs, and they maybe don't know how to, or don't have the means to," said Amanda Arrington, director of The Coalition to Unchain Dogs. "And we want to provide that service for them."

Arrington and an army of helpers put up fences so that Cash can have a little more room to roam.

She said, plain and simple, chains are bad.

"The dog is open to attack by other people, by other dogs, they can have collars embedded in their necks," said Arrington. "They don't get the proper amount of exercise and socialization."

Her group has helped more than 100 dogs swap out chains for fences free of charge.

"When you send a check somewhere, you don't really know where your money is going," said volunteer Halle Amick. "Here, you put the labor in and at the end of the day you get that result and it's just incredible."

"The very first fence it was just me and my husband, and we had $300 and the first fence took us three weeks to do it with just the two of us," said Arrington.

That was just over a year ago. The program has grown a little since.

"Exponentially," said Amick. "It has grown in leaps and bounds."

Now, the list of volunteers includes almost 175 names, and they can do projects in just one day.

As the number of volunteers has grown, so has their enthusiasm and dedication; the group working on Cash's yard didn't even slow down when it started raining.

"They are doing a super job," said Annie Malone.

She should know: she's had help from the coalition already, and sees a big difference with her dogs.

"They is very happy. So they make me happy," said Malone.

And with fences popping up all over the neighborhood, a lot of other people are happy, too.

For more information, log on to the Coalition's website at: www.unchaindogs.net.