Back
to Health Page
The Kennel
Clean, Safe and Comfortable Kennels
While my hounds do not have a nice
soft recliner, big screen TV and conditioned air, they do have more than
just a roof over their head. They have a run with adequate space
to walk around and do their business. They have well insulated houses
equipped with door flaps to keep the draft out in winter and bugs out in
summer. Each house has a timer controlled heat light for the coldest
parts of the winter and the out side run has an over head timer controlled
fan for the very hot days of summer. These kennels are up off the ground
but do have a concrete cap over the floor boards. These kennels are
located under large oaks that provide shade, but the kennels are completely
covered with tin roofing.
I just described the latest addition
to a place that has become known as Paw Paw’s Kennels. My wife calls
it shanty town. This kennel is the only one that I have spent much
money or time to build.
Most of the others were constructed
of what ever was laying around at the time another pen was needed.
These older pens are not as well built or easy on the eye but do have many
of what I consider to be the essentials needed to house my hunting buddies.
Have you ever been to a pet shop
and saw all those puppy mill pups with the small cages and big price tags.
Now I know that is temporary and they are on their way to bigger and better
things, but I have also had the opportunity to see some kennels with too
many dogs and not enough space.
GROUND PENS:
Dogs are not like cats, they do not need a corner or a box to do their
business in, but they would like to be some distance from where they eat.
If a hound is going to be kept in a ground pen, they should have a large
enough area that they can eat, drink, piddle and exercise. You would
hope that they will eat on one end of that pen and make deposits on the
other. With lots of space per dog you may only have to go in and
clean up a bit once a week. That will give you a project for every
Saturday morning.
How much is enough?
Ask your hound and they would say I want more. While you may never
be able to provide all they want, you should come up with what they need.
Just to toss out some numbers, I would like to always provide each dog
kept on the ground with about 900 sq feet of space. That would be
a 30 X 30 ft pen. If you were keeping the family pet “Fi-doe”
in the back yard, you would allow him at least that much space. This
means that two dogs would need a 30 X 60 ft pen, and three hounds would
require a 30 X 90 ft pen. You could keep a pack of nine in an enclosure
that is 90 X 90 ft. Or like so many who have little space and lots
of dogs, cram nine hounds into a small 10 X10 ft enclosure. Here
they can stand in their filth while they eat, lay in it when they sleep
and smell like it when you help them into your truck for a hunt.
Now I know you would never do that to man’s best friend. Anyone who
would has already stopped reading this article and closed out this site
to go surfing the web for something more to their liking. They have
left the room, so I can talk about them… While ground pens are one
option, I prefer to kennel my hounds in smaller areas off the ground.
Off Ground Enclosures:
While more confining, I consider off ground enclosures to be a better way
to provide for the health and safety of my hounds. These kennels
allow me to keep a close eye on each hound and know if they are in need.
Above ground kennels require daily cleaning at feeding time. When
possible I like to keep each hound in his or her own run with their own
house. This way I can monitor how much each hound eats and make note
if anything appears unusual about the deposits they make. (loose
stool , blood in stool or no bowel movements etc..)
The subject is adequate space
so let me try and stay on subject. Even though these kennels
are much smaller, they too must provide each hound enough space to walk
around, eat, sleep do his business and lay around. Daily washing
of these runs will ensure a clean place to do all of these things.
Like before, I have a number to present on what I consider to be a good
bench mark to follow when assigning space to our hunting buddies.
Each dog should have an outside run with at least 30 sq ft in which to
hang out. Now that is not much. It could be a 5 X 6 ft area
or maybe a 3 x 10 ft area. I like the wider, almost square
area. It provides more space for a gate, water buckets and feed pans
up front. I think a pen that is 5 feet wide and 6 feet deep is easer
to wash clean. None of this small space should be taken up by a house.
Houses to be covered later should be hung outside the run. When houses
are placed inside the run they take up valuable space, are an obstacle
to clean around and may offer an escape route for a climbing hound.
My ideal plan calls for only
one hound per run, however that is never always the case. Reaching
for that goal helps me to obtain another goal of not keeping more than
10 or 12 hounds on the place at a time. When more than one hound
is confined to a small kennel then the clean up schedule may have to double
up. It is a scientific fact that two dogs can produce twice as much
poop as one dog can. You may find yourself getting up early to visit
your hounds before work, or staying up late for extra duty.
I try to allow these kennel
kept hounds as much time as possible in the large training yard.
This fenced training area is 200 X 100 feet. Here they can run and
exercise and leave a few land mines laying around for some bird watcher
to step in. (Warning, Do Not Wear Shoes with Deep Tread Soles in
the Dog Yard.) I would explain, but if you do not heed this warning,
no explanation will be necessary….
I have one last declaration
to make about adequate space for our hounds. This is a firm belief
that I try to live by. Old dogs should have the best room in the
kennel. If they have been retired from your active pack, they should
enjoy their senior years in a space of their own. They should never
have to compete for food or for that special place in the sun. Give
them the respect they have earned and all the comfort you can provide.
If you have ever had to spend
one night in the dog house you may have wished that you are someone would
have been more considerate when they built such a place.
Now I know your needs are some what different from that of your four legged
friend, but maybe not. You want a place to lie down and stretch out.
You would like to sit from time to time. You would want to be warm
in winter and cool in summer and have your home as pest free as possible.
I know we would all like to have the place wired for satellite TV and Internet
hookup, but that is not practical.
A house could be as simple as
throwing a plastic drum down in the dog yard or tacking four boards together
and calling it a dog house. It is true that these simple shelters
are better than no shelter at all, but (and there is always a But) that
is not the best you can do.
I have built a few of those
four board house in my time and some of the houses that are still part
of my kennel do not meet what I consider to be the “Minimal Acceptable
Standards for Canine Quarters” For those of you that have never lived
in military housing, four quarters is a quadraplex , not a dollar.
What are these Standards?
1.
House must be elevated off the ground.
2. House must provide
adequate space.
3. House must be insulated.
4. Doors must be off center
and equipped with flaps.
5. House construction
should allow access for cleaning and to care for hounds as needed.
Standards are something
we can strive to meet and maybe even exceed.
Setting standards and establishing
goals helps us to never become lazy.
Elevated Houses:
An elevated house gets your hound up out of the dirt and provides a better
opportunity for you to keep your dogs clean, dry and pest free. If
the house is located in a ground pen, it can still be a foot or so off
the ground. The house could be placed on blocks of better yet, perched
on top of post planted in the ground. The use of post for legs will
limit the ground contact and reduce rot and decay of your structure.
This small amount of distance from the ground could help your pup to remain
dry during times of heavy rain and high water. A house that is up
off the ground is much easier to keep free of ants, roaches and other insects.
You can spray the legs and under the house to keep insects under control.
All of this is a non-issue if you have your hounds in an Off Ground Enclosure.
The house is mounted to the outside of the run and some distance from the
ground.
Space:
We have all heard the saying, “Every dog will have his day.” I’m
not sure just what that means but think I am correct to say that “Every
dog needs his space.” Care should be taken to insure the house is
not too small and not to large. A dog needs to be able to turn around
and lay down inside the house. If the house will normally be used
by two or more hounds then this must also be considered. While you
do not want the house to be too small you do not want it as big as box
car either. In winter the heat from the dogs keep the house warm
and cozy for them. If the area (cubic feet) inside the house is too
great, then they will not be able to generate enough body heat to keep
the house warm. This is very important for the health and wellbeing
of your hounds, young and old, but even more of a concern if you ever plan
to use one of your houses as a whelping box.
Insulated
Houses: A well insulated house will help to
keep the heat out in the summer and in during the cold days of winter.
Insulate the floor, roof and all four walls.
Doors:
The door of the house must be off center or a partition will be needed
inside the house so that when your hounds are inside they are not in a
draft. A cold wind in winter time can and will create the same chill
factor that keeps you indoors and near the fire place. This off center
door should be equipped with a door flap. This flap will help to
keep the wind out in the winter and the yellow flies or other flying insects
out in the summer. I noticed the other day that if there was not
a steady number of deer or yellow flies entering the house where my little
mama dog and her pups were at, then she was able to get rid of them.
She would snap at the flies and catch them in her mouth. I
did eat some chocolate ants once, but never tried any live yellow flies.
Point is if one or two get in as she goes in or out she can deal with it.
If there were no door flap then the flies would enter while she tried to
sleep and sting her and the pups.
Access:
A house with a hinged lid is ideal when you need to get into the house
to take care of pups, assist your hound or clean the house. I even
have one hinged wall on my house. Take out two bolts and then hose
it out.
Some dogs, like some people need
and or deserve more than just the basic necessities. Some have earned,
as the say down in the bayou country, a little lagniappe. (A little extra).
Are these hounds spoiled? Maybe they are. Are they healthy?
Yes they are. Are they well taken care of? You bet. Are
they happy? Whole lot of tail wagging going on. Are they ready
to perform as some of the finest rabbit runners around? You had better
believe it.
For years my hounds lived with
no complaint in substandard kennels without a roof over their pen, no heat
lights in their house and no fan to fight off the summer temperatures.
I can remember when we did not have AC, color TV and indoor plumbing.
That’s not right. We have always had indoor plumbing.
Just because I got along without
you before I met you don’t mean I can get along without you now.
Wake up and smell the dog pen. We are living in the 21st Century.
Fans and heat-lights have been around for a very long time. It is
time to share them with our four legged friends.
I like concrete floors for my kennels.
But I also like my kennels up off the ground. How can I have both?
One day while driving down Hwy 90 in Biloxi Mississippi, I observed a construction
crew pouring concrete way up on the eighth or ninth floor of a new Casino
Hotel. It dawned on me, if they can pour concrete some 90 to a 100
feet up in the air, then I can do the same at about 2 feet up. My
last kennel has a deck board floor with a concrete cap. This kennel
is just over 3 years old, has survived several tropical storms and a close
call with a hurricane and it is holding up well.
The concrete is easy to clean.
A little bleach and water and you are good to go. It keeps the hounds
nails short and their feet in good condition. I know some dog owners
who choose to keep their hounds on wire. I would put them back on
the ground before I would resort to wire floors.
I do have some pens that have
conveyor belt rubber floors. This seems to work well. The belt
is put down on top of deck boards. I have some kennels that are more
than 13 years old and the belt floors have shown no wear.
Back
to Health Page