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Above are two pictures of our tie-out yards. The left picture is the female yard that houses 19 dogs. In addition to this yard there are 8 more kennels that house the old, retired females and litters. On the right is the male tie-out yard which houses 24 dogs. Originally, we tried to kennel everyone but quickly realized the disadvantages considerably out-weighed the advantages. I can't explain the reasoning nearly as well as the good Doctor, Douglas Willett, attested to in an article he recently posted, "The Case for Tethering Working Dogs" Kennel setup has become an important part of training. As mentioned in the article, it is obvious the dogs on chains are better conditioned when fall training begins than those that were kenneled all year. Another important area of our kennel is the exercise pen. We have found that rotating the dogs (approximately 10 at a time)is vital exercise and socialization for them. We leave the amount of time spent in the exercise pen to the dogs. Once they stop running and playing we send them back to their house. This can range anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour--usually dependent on how high the tempretures get. |