All of our dogs and puppies are inside our home as members of our family - as in, they take up the majority of our king-sized bed!! All guardian homes have the same expectations.
Our own dogs enjoy daily car rides, walking and playing. They sleep with us and camp with us. We have a double insulated doggy door that leads to a 45x35 foot fenced in back yard dog area complete with security cameras and monitors. We have four dogs onsite that are for breeding and four dogs that are our resident family members. We are a licensed kennel within our county.
Our puppies are born and raised inside and around our home. They start in our hallway bathroom which we call the "birthing suite and Nursery" until they are about 3.5 to 4 weeks old. This is intentional because that room sits above the furnace for our home and we want them to be warm and comfortable. After the first 3.5 to 4 weeks, the puppies are moved to either the "puppy room" which is our renovated front entry or the puppy house in the front yard during warmer months. This front entry has a section that is gated off for their sleeping and eating. The rest of the area is for playing, bathing, and elimination until they learn potty training. The puppy house sits outside our front window and is fenced in so we can watch them closely.
Their days usually consist of wake-up at 7 am and play while we clean their "room" followed by baths and then naps. The rest of the day alternates with play and napping. All day is cleaning up after them and playing with them or taking them outside. They go to bed at about 10 pm and generally sleep all night.
They are trained to use kennels, puppy pads and grass. The only chemicals used for the puppies is a 1:10 bleach water solution for cleaning and some disinfecting wipes.
We invite visitors to come and see our puppies, the parents, the old dogs and view our home frequently so the pups get to know you and so you can be rest assured they are well taken care of.
It is important to us that we try to only have one litter at a time (although we recognize that the girls' cycles' are all their own and sometimes 2 litters at a time is what happens) and we have recently started to follow more recent productive suggestions by allowing two breeding cycles and one heat off so that all puppies are given the love and socialization they need to develop strong human bonds and love while the mothers get time to just be themselves enjoying life!
We do our own grooming and have 2 shelter cats as well. Bobby, the American Bobtail, is the resident "best friend" to all dogs and puppies and helps with all photo shoots. Chanelle is still working on trust issues 3 years later but boy, she has made some leaps and bounds since joining us.
We also have a variety of fowl: ducks, chickens, guineas, turkeys and peafowl.