Our dogs are housed in a large kennel building. We have house dogs that sleep in bed with us, but obviously our kennel is large enough we cannot do this with all our dogs! Each dog has its own indoor living area (large bed & eating area) and outdoor run and exercise area with a magnetic dog door built into the wall. Their inside quarters consist of a 4' x 6' sleeping area that is carpeted. They have a 2'x4' eating area. With heating and air conditioning the inside temperature is a constant 72 degrees. The run attached to their room is either 4' X 40' or 8' X 40'.
Classical music is played in the background. Other than an occasional trip to the vet clinic, our dogs never leave our premises. We prefer to have our vets make "house calls" to eliminate the possible chance of disease transmission. Of course, that is not always possible, so when we visit our clinic we are careful to avoid exposure to strange dogs. Outside dogs are not allowed to visit our kennel for this same reason. Actually, we no longer accept visitors at all other than staff, veterinarians and inspectors. This helps us to maintain a disease-free kennel. We closed our kennel to outside visitors several year ago after two exposure incidents. A visiting family unknowingly passed a skin mite to one of the parents and it spread through much of the kennel and only after two years were we able to be completely clean again. We also experienced a client's visiting dog who exposed a litter of puppies to kennel cough. This episode was quite eye opening and made us agree with the advice our vets gave us years earlier to close the kennel to visitors.
Our kennel is inspected and approved by state inspectors and AKC inspectors. We have surprise inspections multiple times a year. Our inspectors always look forward to their visit as they consider us "one of the best". We are sincerely dedicated to the physical and emotional health of our dogs. Every year we upgrade or improve aspects of our kennel to make it better from one year to the next. A successful business focused on the health and welfare of animals needs this attitude to uphold solid ethics and values.
Below are some photos of our kennel. New photos will be added this year including a new page covering the first 8 weeks in the life of a puppy. Check back soon!
This is the area where puppies are born, and cared for until they reach 8 week of age.
This is one of the adult indoor living areas. A 4'x6' bedroom area with a 2'x4' feeding area that also has the magnetic door to their outside run which is of course long enough to run as much as they want! These two boys are five months old and will join our program after they are much older if their confirmation meets our requirements.
This is the front of our kennel and some of the adults in their outside runs.