Our Nursery is something that a lot of thought has went into and we are continually looking for ways to improve it.
That being said I decided after having a few litters born in my room and raising them in my home for the first few weeks before moving them to the nursery I loved that much more than cot living in the nursery. I have since built a barn apartment and live there. Now the puppies are born right next to my bed and grow up in a home environment.
We only use the nursery for our Mamas who when they are in season. We may also keep our males in the nursery when our girls are in season. Keeping them in the Nursery guarantees they will be kept separate unless we want a breeding to occur as there are block walls separating them.
Our goal is to have the best way of doing something so our dogs are happy and healthy. We must always be willing to change things and discover what we can do different to make something better. Our nursery is heated/cooled and all surfaces can be easily disinfected. The floors and walls are coated in marine paint so no germs can soak in and they wipe clean super easy. We have inside areas and large outside runs. Each stall in the nursery has block walls separating for privacy. Our nursery is built in our barn and just right across the hall from my apartment. We are in the processing of adding a grooming room on as well as eventually closing in the whole barn and making it all house space for me.
We also have individual pens for each dog for feed time. They are only put in the pens 30 minutes a day 15 in the morning and 15 in the afternoon to eat so we can maintain healthy body weights on them because free feeding just doesn’t work to maintain healthy body weight and when we have visitors to keep them safe from running in front of cars.
At 5 weeks we introduce the puppies to the outside to start potty training and they enjoy the pastures and small pond out behind the barn. They meet chickens and sometimes a mini horse. We are very proud of our facilities!
**Please note I really need to update these pictures as we have done so much more work on the barn/nursery.
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- The Barn from the front
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- My Apartment/Puppy Room
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- The puppy area. We use adjustable panels so we can change the area as puppies grow.
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- Pip is a bed hog!
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- The inside of the nursery
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- The grooming room almost done
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- The back run area in the process of being redone
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- The feeding kennel isle
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- Jasmine wanted to pose in the isle
