Building the business

[Tink]

We're in the process of building more runs for the dogs. Our place is in the country and we have an acre lot, so have plenty of area to work with thank goodness.

We've bought 16 foot long panels such as you use for horse fences... it's 4' tall and very strong. Each dog will have their own 8' x 16' run. Around the top and bottom we put a single strand of electric fence wire so if the dogs try to go over or under they would get a shock. They touch it once or twice and decide it's not worth it... so they avoid the fence. We'll be putting up 4 runs right next to each other, so 16 x 32 all together, with an entry pen on the front so if any of the dogs would get out through the gate they'd just be in an outer pen rather than running loose. We're going to put 4x8 sheets of lattice around the outside of the runs to make them look better and plant vines on those so there's more privacy and a bit of shade offered.

We've got one large 32 x 32 run besides that we plan to use for dams and their litters, and are planning a viewing area where I can take the available pups away from the other dogs when people come to see or pick them up. I plan to put a couple of wood benches in this area so people who can't sit on the ground for whatever reason can still get down to a level that they can play with pups without having to squat or bend for a long period of time. Since many of my buyers seem to be baby boomers, I've tried to keep that in mind while planning.

I bought the materials today, and they're supposed to be delivered for us tomorrow. My dogs all spend more time in the house than outside, but I need to be able to put them out and separate them at times, so this is my plan.