Yeah my pond with the goldfish was a few years back total disaster. I dug it out about 100 G so it was inground, which I feel like was what made it easy for the racoons. Also my blind dog relentlessly kept falling into it, climbing over the small fence around it and rocks surrounding it. So two full days of digging to set up, 3 days of head and heart ache, and two hours to fill in.
This year its a 40 G plastic trough, planning on some water lily, stem plants and floating plants. I'll put some cinder blocks on the bottom to give the fish additional hiding places. The new neighbors Shepard mix had a recent altercation with the raccoon, and he is a big dog so hopefully no issues this year.