BUILDING A MODEL KENNEL

When you intend to build anything, you must always begin by doing a list of the items to be incorporated to the project.

    Starting from the ethologic premise we try, insofar as possible, to provide to the dog a life most similar as possible to the natural life that it would have in its habitat. Dog, as a direct descendant from wolf, is a burrow animal, lives in caverns, so, the ideal kennel would be a hole in which one, only it would fit in. As dog is "domesticated" that is to say, obligated to cohabit in domestic environment, it will have to be handle according to our convenience, once we will be the responsible for the maintenance of the cleaning and of the treat of this animal.

1. Minimum necessary area to shelter one dog or a couple.

for big size dogs – (Great Dane)
for medium size dogs – (Boxer)
for small size dogs  – (toy poodle)

2. Necessary rooms:
   covered area (shelter),
   solarium area,
   kitchen and dependencies,
   promenade area.
   
3. The Sun as the most important medicin to health and diseases prevention.
   the relative position for the best sun incidence
   The utilization of solar radiation as environmental sterilizator.
   
4. Furnitures and utensils – bed, hydraulic system with automatic drinker, and sanitarian and cleaning system.
   
5. Thermal protection - against cold and hot weather. Ventilation.
   
6. Handling (cleaning – products and frequency, etc...)
   
7. Administrative set:
   Kennel management office,
   Storeroom,
   
8. Bathing, clipping, grooming and veterinary cares room,
   
9. Maternity,
   
10. . Isolation or quarantine room.
    
11. . Swimming pool.

1. Minimum necessary area to shelter one dog or a couple.
   As we know, dogs don’t need much room to shelter itself. The smaller, that is, the nearest of its size, the happiest it will be. That is why the "dog’s little house" are so successful among canines. However, as we need to come in, the minimum door height should be of 6.60 ft. When I started, I built a kennel with a 0.31 inch door height thinking that to the dog would be the ideal... and was. But after two months of beating my head to come in and to go out, I decided to increase the doors height.

The second problem that appears, was the minimum necessary area to the dogs be a little more comfortable, even on rainy days. So was born the little chart.

For big size dogs – (Great Dane) – a room of 6.60 ft x 6.60 ft or 43.56 square ft.
A Great Dane laid occupies an area that measures 5 ft x 5 ft and will have a space of 0.19 inch to move itself and to turn itself on its bed.



2. Necessary Rooms:
   
   covered area (shelter), it is exactly the area above mentioned, according to the stature of the animal.
   
   solarium area,
   

For big size dogs – (Great Dane) keeping the same width of the solarium and to the dog can try a little run of two or three steps, the must be 20 ft length.

For medium size dogs – (Boxer) must be of 10 ft.

For small size dogs – (Toy Poodle) 6.60 ft.

Kitchen and departments – a kitchen must be provided to eventually we can cook, on idle time, something different to de dog doesn’t lose the taste for the feed that que is accustomed. Dogs palate is similar of ours. Dogs descending from carnivorous but are omnivorous, eat everything, and like to vary the palate like us.
This kitchen must be large enough to have a table where we can put on the vessels spread on and to facilitate the food distribution. The ideal is to have a wheelbarrow to transport all the vessels at once.

Promenade area – an enclosed area, cement, rough, of easy cleaning where the dog can stay in the sun for a relatively long time: 2 hours. This area must be, at least of 164 square ft – 32.80 ft x 16.40 ft for a couple of medium size dogs.

3. The Sun as the most important remedy to the health and prevention of diseases – the position for the best sun incidence – the utilization of solar radiation as environmental sterilization.




 

We know about the sun importance for the health of our loved dogs.
The best period is in the morning, between 7 and 10 o’clock. What a few people know is that the kennel should be in front of the direction from where the sunrise at winter so that, in this time, the sun can penetrate untill the room. Sun has the fantastic power of eliminates eventual bacteria from feces, besides of favors the osteogenesis (ossification) by the induction to the production, by the organism, of the A+D3 vitamins.




4. Furnitures and utensils –
   

The bed should be build by special hard wood, that doens’t be easily damaged with the constant bites from the dog... The wood that is the most adequate to the dogs bed construction is the ipe. I have beds from ipe, that have been used for 18 years... enduring besides of the dogs bites, constant washes using chlorine and jet-wash machine.

The hydraulic system is similar to the condominium one, driving drinkable water to all the boxes with the built-in tubing. It is advisable the instalation of an automatic drinker, very used at the pigsty, so that the dog will have always fresh water.
Anyway, automatic or not, the drinkers should be fixed at one of the corners, close to the dormitory, under the shelter, but outside, so that if it plays with water, doesn’t wet its bedroom, and if it tries to destroy, the drinker will be fixed.

The sanitarian system must be the most practical as possible, to facilitate the cleaning and doesn’t increase the operational costs.

As you can see at the low plant and at the longitudinal view, when you wash the kennel by a pressure hose, all the dejections are "swept" out of the kennel through a breach of 0.02 inch under the pre-moulded in front of the roadway and that are extended along of all the width solarium. The ditch that is under the grill (Low Plan) runs along of all the kennels obeying an inclination of 10% and transports the feces and the urine to the septic hole.

5. Thermal protection against cold and hot weather. Ventilation.

The walls must be built using clay bricks, covered and splashed by a mass of cement-and-sand or tiles, to avoid that the dogs make holes, when scratching the wall. The bricks keep an air cushion between their surface, keeping the ideal temperature. The ceiling must be of flagstone with a roof made with the timberwork and the tiles tied, composing also an air cushion between the tile and the flagstone, avoiding, on this way that neither the heat from the sun, nor the cold from the rain reach the environment where the dog is accommodated.

A kennel sould never be separated from the other by grating. Technically it is an incoherence to permit that two dogs separated by a wall can see each other and implicate one with the other. When free, unfortunately they will fight, besides of the fact that they will bark one to the other in a full time, impeding that they can rest, get their digestion and recuperate themselves emotionally.

At my kennel we have total silence at the most part of the day and the night with more than 70 dogs lodged. They only bark when the lunch or the dinner is served.

6. Handling (cleaning products and frequency, etc...) -

The cleaning of the kennel must be done just by abundant water.

The disinfection is done by chlorine, removing all the animals until the kennel be abundantly washed and the smell has been vanished.
The frequency of this disinfection will depend on the total population of the kennel. A breeding kennel, with just a couple of dogs may proceed this disinfection once a month. When there are more than twenty dogs we suggest to disinfect weekly.

Ticks and fleas – The control of the parasites must be rigorous. Avoid the usage of organiphosphorous (agricultural defensive in disuse). The most correct, however more expensive, is to apply on the dogs products that protect them, temporarily, from ticks and fleas, and to eliminate them, from the walls of the kennel, by boiling water (machines that produce steam at 140º).

7. Administrative set:

The Kennel management office - it is immportant that you make a dog historical control and, mainly, the expenses control. The dog fancier uses to spend unnecessarily money, buyng mainly vitamins and anabolics.

Storeroom, prepare a dry and fresh place to store the sacks of dog food, rice, ground maize or any other nutritious products bound for the dogs consumption.
You also must have a freezer to make a stock of bones for the dogs to gnaw them.

Bath, clipping, grooming and veterinary cares room, your kennel should has a room for the dogs treatment: to brush them everyday, bathing, and eventually to clip an animal that needs it. A place where your veterinarian can examine your dogs.

Our kennel (photo) has a Bath & Clipping room and an ambulatory so that the responsible veterinarian can work on quite comfort.



Maternity, if you intend to breed, you should think about an isolated environment, of easy cleaning usable to maternity. As maternity I’m talking about a place, exempt of external influences, where the female will give birth to its puppies and will take care of them until the wean. The pregnant or the suckling needs the safety and inviolability sensation from their nest.

Isolation or quarantine room with an exclusive access through the veterinarian cares room. When one of yours be sick, you will need to preserve the others animals, so you will need a safety place to keep it under watch during the treatment.

8. Piscina.
       It is a very important optional. Most of dogs that not lives together the water, swimming, jumping in etc, when reach the adolescence, feel fear of this and would cause their death as a consequence of lake of experience, in case of it unaware fall in a pool, for example. And besides, swimming is one of the most complete exercise to any race, because it exercises all muscles.
   The round pool, is the ideal pool because you can make a continuous exercise. Swimming on circles one time at a direction and other time at another direction the dog exercises one of its flank for each time, besides of exercises the lateral abdomen musculature.