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Where
the Dogs Live |
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The easy answer to the
question of "where do the dogs live?" is in the house with me.
My husband's answer is "in the dog house, which used to be our
house..." The longer answer can be seen in the pictures on this page.
My dogs own two rooms in my house and have the use of the rest... .
They also have two large runs out the
front door where they go to play. Every corner of
my living room as a dog bed and the floor is generally strewn with
toys and pig ears, in various stages of eaten. I am very proud
of the combination we have created in giving the kids a loving home
while making it easy to clean up after them and giving them plenty
of room to romp and play inside and out. Enjoy these pictures, I have
enjoyed creating them. |
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Puppy and
Whelping Room
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I am very
excited to finally have a special room for whelping and my young
puppies. I have
made a huge effort to make this a quiet room where my moms and I can
relax through the process. I have packed a lot into the space we
have, but I believe that I have come up with the right amount of
flexibility for whatever combination of puppies and whelping I may
encounter. The quilt that you see on the wall in the
background was a wonderful gift from Trish. |
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Here you can see my puppy pen and two whelping
pens. The puppy pen is small (4'x4') right now as there are
three 8 wk puppies there and they spend much of their day in the
front room with me. Primarily this pen is used for sleeping
and resting time.
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I started using this hard plastic pen and
so far I love it (the picture on the left shows it). It is far
easier to keep clean and my puppies are less inclined to learn to
climb it. This is also where my puppies begin their litter box
training.
In another couple of weeks, after they have had their puppy shots
they will move into the "Big Dog" room for large night time kennels
of their own. |
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I love these whelping pens as they easily fold allowing me to expand
the puppy pen.
I can also use them as double layers on the rare occasion that I
need the extra space.
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My sewing
machines also live in this room allowing me plenty of entertainment making
belly bands, bitches britches, swings or hidey houses on those long
nights waiting for babies. |
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Adult Room
This is the
kennel room where the walls are protected with linoleum
attached to them like wainscoting for easy cleanup. I have
also laid linoleum right over the top of the carpet as I didn't want
to permanently remove the carpet at this stage, just protect it. This is where
my kids sleep and where
they stay when I am away for a few hours. Otherwise, they are outside or just
hanging around the living room and under my desk next to my feet.
There 6 kennels under the
counter top, with shelving above. The kennels under the
counter have wheels allowing them to be pulled out for easy and
complete cleaning.
You can see I found a great use for all of those ribbons... they are
stapled to the walls, making a wonderful bright boarder. This is the view from the corner by the dryer. Here you can see 9
stacked kennels, most of these are used by the teenagers who are
not completely kennel trained yet. These have a small litter
pan in the back side of them for continued litter training.
Once they are able to go through the night successfully and
consistently I remove the litter box. I have converted the
closet by removing the doors and adding shelves. In the
converted closet space I also have a
small refrigerator, and yes... a television... for
the dogs you know...
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The boys space was a challenge for me
to figure out. Since they are breeding boys I have always been
frustrated by having them pee through the kennel wires. In
this space I have gone with a bakers shelf and size 100 plastic
kennels. I have attached the kennels to the shelf with wire ties as
the boys
kept bouncing themselves onto the floor.... This gives them
the larger kennel size they need and it keeps the marking down as
they "generally" don't unless they can get it outside of the
walls. They each have their own consistent bed which helps
with that as well. I have also found some small triangle
litter boxes (used for ferrets) that I use in these kennels for
those kids that need a little bit longer time with the litter box
training.
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Having the washer and dryer in
the dog room was a great move. Most of my laundry is dog
laundry and it keeps me from carrying that through the whole house
to the washer. My own laundry stinks less and is definitely
less in volume, so I prefer to pack that into the dog room. I also gained some great storage space
overhead and my wonderful hubby found a great deal on the drawers
underneath for all the cleaning supplies. |
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Dog Runs out the
Front Door
I like to take advantage of the good
weather when we have it. So unless it is too hot, too cold or
raining you will generally find the kids outside most of the day.
Playing King of the wood stack.
I have these wonderful old oak stump pieces stacked for a
climbing area in the puppy run. This is great for the muscle
development in the legs and they have a great time climbing on and
under them.
Spring and Summer are a
great blast. In the summer I add swimming pools for splashing
and playing. Kids of all ages get a real kick out of that.
I have also added a shaded section for those sunny days and there
are two large umbrellas that open over the step areas making it
shady when they come to the top of the steps see what I am doing at
the computer inside the glass door.
Enjoying an afternoon swim
We are also
well prepared for winter. We only get about two weeks of snow
like this.
The kids just love to play in it. On those snowy days
they spend most of the day in the living room with me in front of
the fire while enjoying a pigs ear or ducks feet. The doggy
door is always open and there are plenty of litter pans around for
emergencies...
Happiness is... a romp in the
snow
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Where we give our
baths
This was
actually the result of a midnight nightmare... This is simply a
piece of wire shelving connected with hinges to the shower wall.
The chains are support when the shelf is down and allow the shelf to
be put up so that I have not lost the use of my guest shower.
The plastic hanging off of the front has two purposes. It is
first a drip barrier so that when I have a wet dog on the shelf I am
not spraying water all over the floor. After we are done with
the water I simply flip the mat over the rack and have a more solid
surface to do the blow drying. I have also added a shelf at
the foot of the tub for all those miscellaneous shampooing supplies.
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Office and Living Room
This is my "office"
area. During the day with the dogs in the runs and the puppies
on the deck you will generally find me at the computer working with my
WEB and graphical design business,
DesignsWithChristy; adding to my public Pom database,
DreaminBoutPeds;
maintaining my co-op web space,
ToyDogSites; doing a bit of eBay selling; and
keeping the books
for my husbands business.
I am now
working from home full time and am enjoying being here with my furkids.
Then there is the added benefit of
working for myself rather than someone else. I can't figure
out how I ever got anything done when I was working away from
home... I am finding it difficult to keep up now that I am home.
The office area is
actually in the living room. I just love that I can look out
the door and have such a wonderful view across the dog runs and toward
the creek.
When we bought this property it was because this
was the place we always looked for when camping. THIS is our
vacation home and we live here all the time. I really am
enjoying having my office in the main part of the house where I can enjoy the
fire on a cold day and be closer to the dogs who are just outside
the door or under my feet. This lets me keep a close eye on what might be
going on while still getting my work accomplished.
Puppy playtime in the living room happens a couple of times a day.
My favorite is the evenings after everyone else has gone to bed.
This is when my babies begin their first explorations, at about 4
weeks, under the watchful eyes of their mommas - and me -
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I hope that
you have enjoyed this peek into my home and the lives of my furkids.
I will always welcome a visit and just love to have my puppies
socialized by others. With my husbands business we often get
the children and other ride-alongs that are eager to play just a bit with
the dogs, which really helps along the socializing work. Feel
free to come on out for a visit, my house is open to all and the
puppies always welcome a romp with someone new.
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