# To Breeders/Trainers with 4+ dogs at home: Show me your setup



## Cunningham GSDs (Sep 21, 2011)

To breeders/trainers/pack owners:
Show me your set up. What I am wanting to know are how you house, rotate, exercise, hang out with your pack. Do you keep them all together? Are they seperated in kennels with runs? Do you rotate them in to spend time in house with the family or is it a free for all? Some dogs get along fine, and some don't; I want to know how you deal with having a pack. When you built your kennels.....what didn't you know that you wish you would've. What would you change to your current set up. What works and what doesn't. :bump:


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## DJEtzel (Feb 11, 2010)

I have 4 dogs right now, I've had up to seven. I don't have any kennel system and don't want one. I have a spare bedroom and crates. Right now my foster has a contagious eye infection, so they're being crated and rotated. He has a crate in the kitchen, Frag has a bedroom, Sir has a bedroom, and Recon has a crate.


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## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

I currently live with 7 dogs. Two intact females, 1 spayed female and 4 intact males.

Yes, I am crazy. 

Luckily the majority of my dogs are the Cresteds so their crates are small. Each night someone (or two) gets to sleep with us. The others are either crated (the boys) or can sleep in our family room (gated from the rest of the house). Mauser, the GSD, has his XL crate for when he doesn't sleep with us.

I crate at night for several reasons. Mainly - our cats. The crazy cats like to run and play at night. If the dogs were loose they would join in and WE wouldn't get any sleep!  Also, the boys sometimes mark (when we aren't watching). If they aren't with us or in their crates they wear belly bands. I don't want them to have to wear them all the time so they get crated at night.

Except when the girls are in season everyone is together. They all get along - they HAVE to. I don't have the setup or the time (or patience) to deal with dogs that do not get along. That is another reason why I love the Crested breed - they are awesome pack dogs. Rarely do you have problems with multiple dogs living together.

During feeding time everyone has their own spot in the kitchen. They all know where their spot is and they know the rule - do NOT approach another dogs bowl until they step away from it. The only time they eat in crates is when they get whole chicken backs. Two of my Crested boys will try to inhale their food if they even THINK another dog is going to come near. In their crates there's no risk of that so they tend to eat slower.

When a girl is in season she is kept in a large crate on our second floor. The boys crates are normally in the basement (moved them upstairs during the wicked cold spell we had). That is the only time we rotate. Boys get to come out and hang in the first floor for awhile, then they go back to crates and the girl gets to come downstairs and hang for awhile.

We plan to add an attached garage to our house this summer and we're going to add a kennel area. Here's what I want it to have:


Covered WEATHERPROOF area for pottying (for nasty weather days)
Large runs to hold multiple dogs (well, large in the sense of several Cresteds)
Dog doors in the runs so they can go out to potty whenever they are in the runs
Room for bathing with a raised tub (my back HATES bending over the bathtub)
Something I'd REALLY like is that the dogs have the ability to go from the house to the kennel runs and outside by themselves - but that might not be doable with our layout.


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## Cunningham GSDs (Sep 21, 2011)

Thanks DJEtzel. I don't have kennels yet either but I am going from 4 to 5 and am concerned with pack structure issues. So, do they get free reign in the house and then back in their bedrooms/crates at bedtime, or do they rotate out seperately? How long is comfortable for them to be crated.....overnight, some during the day? Tell me more.  I am trying to decide logistics as we grow. Thank you so much for sharing with me!:hug:


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## Cunningham GSDs (Sep 21, 2011)

Lauri and the Gang,
I so appreciate your answers!!!! Always in depth and that is what I'm looking for. THank you!!! My dogs are together and get along (at least so far). I have 3 females and 1 male all intact and possibly adding another female. I have read from lots of folks that girls will fight, this has not been my experience, Yet. But it's always in the back of my mind. Adding another girl to the pack could complicate....won't know till we introduce. 

My dogs are our family, so even though we have several, I have feelings about putting them in kennels......this is why I want to know other's experience on reconciling family dogs with pack structure and what the logistics of that looks like. 

As we grow and next year I could potentially have more than one pregnant Mama at a time so I need to build more infastructure but trying to decide what that set up should be. I have 6 acres and the dogs have about an acre fenced. I also have a seperate fenced in area with a completely covered and enclosed "Stable" for puppies to be raised in once they are too big to be in the house in the whelping box. I have used this area to rotate girls who are in heat to as well.

Thank you for your input....I really appreciate it. I hope someone who does use a kennel type system chimes in.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

I have 4 dogs all females. Two spayed, two not. They are all related. I rotate between crates with everyone getting house time, play time, work time and sleeping on the bed time. Vala and Elena can be together and that is it. 

Deja gets the mornings in the house, the first run of the day. She is also training so we have that too. She sleeps with me Sunday and Wed nights (except when she is in heat). She has a crate in the dining room for the day and in my bedroom at night. 

Vala and Elena hang with me in the late afternoon and evening. They get the second run. Elena is in training so gets a lot of individual time too. Elena is crated in the bedroom. Vala also gets some training, some play and individual time. She has a crate in the bedroom at night and one in the dining room during the day. They sleep with me Monday, Thursday and Saturday nights (except when Elena is in heat). 

Alexis is crated in my bedroom. She is probably my biggest problem dog when it comes to the other girls. She is dysplastic and getting pretty bad so she gets light exercise, some short play, hangs with me in the afternoons and sleeps with me Tuesday and Friday nights.

I do have a kennel and a dog yard, but rarely use them anymore. Donovan used to hang out there in the mornings. Once in awhile I will put Vala and Elena out there to play for a couple of hours instead of taking them running.


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## Cunningham GSDs (Sep 21, 2011)

Thank you Ihczth,
That is the nuts and bolts of it. I just need to get over this hang up about crating. My oldest girl is the only one who simply will not tolerate it. All of my others have spent some overnights in their crates and don't seem to mind it at all. I just have been in the habit of letting them run the acre all together while I am at work. But as they get older, and the two younger girls reach full maturity, this just may not be feasable anymore.

I like how you described the rotation....I think I could make something like that work. We are growing slowly but the difference between 2 dogs and 5 dogs is kind of enormous! lol.


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## qbchottu (Jul 10, 2011)

I crate and rotate. I don't like multiple dogs running like maniacs through the house. They rough house and play together outside. Inside is for quiet time and relaxing. 

My girls don't get along so they are crated/kenneled and rotated. I have a large basement where I keep the crates side by side - they like to talk to each other so I keep them in the same room. I use wire crates or vari kennels depending on the type of dog. Some like the open wire or kennel - some like the seclusion of the closed plastic hard shell. During heat cycles, the one in heat will stay in a different room because the boy goes nuts otherwise and it bugs the others. 

I crate/kennel everyone when I leave. There is one rescue mix that has barks nonstop when I am gone - she gets a bark collar. I am gone 12-14hrs for training out of state on weekends - kennel is better in those cases.

The puppy sleeps in my room in a crate - I could leave her with the others, but I just like hanging out with my puppy so she will stay with me for now!


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## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

At the moment, I only have 2 retired titled dogs...one is nearly 12 and no longer goes in a kennel or crate as I am home almost all the time - all due to injuries from a car wreck....

I have a couple of outside runs, and a big run in the basement with crates...

I have one female who cannot be with other females, but can be with males...so she had kennel time outside, in basement and evenings in the house ....the other dogs - 2 to 4 rotated through crate, kennel and loose time....depending on who I had and who got along....Basha got along with any female pup of hers or Csabres....my male only with females....and not puppies as they annoyed him....Basha actually is living with an adult intact Csabre daughter, Knova, and has been since the accidnet...they get along fine...they have a doggy door and a fenced in yard and are only crated overnight...

If I ever do find another house, I want a one level with big garage where I can put 2 to 4 small kennel runs so that I can rotate dogs in the house and the runs. If I had enough room, I would do dog doors and connected runs outside. I would also have a big exercise yard or two outside with shelter and some portion roofed...like a picnic shelter with fencing around it...

but - have been looking for 3 years and still cannot find anything I can afford that would work....

Lee


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## Cunningham GSDs (Sep 21, 2011)

good stuff. Thank you CBCHOTTU. I think my male would be out of his mind if he had to sleep next to one of his pretty girls when she was in heat! lol. 
Did you build your kennels or buy them? Could you share dimensions/design specifics? 
Thanks again for your input. I really appreciate it.:hug:


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## qbchottu (Jul 10, 2011)

Got 10x5x6 DocBob kennels from Tractor Supply. I would like longer runs so they have longer distances to move and they can work on gait as they run together. But for now they are ok since the dogs don't live in the kennels. Kennels are inside the garage so they only go in there when the weather is ok or when I am gone for long hours and I don't want my at-home dogs to sit in crates for 12+hrs. 

I haven't had the need to get outdoor kennels up so I have not looked into durable and long lasting kennels. Most of the store bought ones will rust out and need replacing in a couple years time if you have 4 seasons and active dogs. I should probably just move my kennels into the basement and they can live in there, but I don't want to encourage urinating inside. Plus I am reaching my limit of having dog stuff EVERYWHERE so for now, kennels will stay outside 

If I *do* build outside setups, I will build an insulated barn and put runs in there. Tempted to do inside/outside runs, but those encourage laziness so I have not looked into those as much.


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## DJEtzel (Feb 11, 2010)

Cunningham GSDs said:


> Thanks DJEtzel. I don't have kennels yet either but I am going from 4 to 5 and am concerned with pack structure issues. So, do they get free reign in the house and then back in their bedrooms/crates at bedtime, or do they rotate out seperately? How long is comfortable for them to be crated.....overnight, some during the day? Tell me more.  I am trying to decide logistics as we grow. Thank you so much for sharing with me!:hug:


Everyone gets along fine, but I frequently crate/rotate to keep the house calm. It's a small house (800 sq ft?) so four dogs gets crazy. I will crate two or confine two and leave two out for an hour or two, then put them outside to play for 10 minutes and crate them and switch, two dogs get to be loose at night in the house so the two that are crated get more time free during the day, as the dogs who are loose at night have loose rooms to stay in while they're confined. We do large pack walks and play in the yard together as well.


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## Cunningham GSDs (Sep 21, 2011)

I am loving all of this input....Thanks so much guys. Okay, so I am wrapping my brain around rotation, rotation rotation. :bump:

I think we will probably buy or build some runs for outside (checked out the ones cbchottu mentioned at TS website--not too bad price). I have a huge barn that is basically unused at this point but it's a good two acres between our home and the barn so I have hesitated to build any puppy housing or anything down there even though it's nice and dry. The stable that we built for the pups this last winter is right next to the house and totally enclosed. I just don't want anybody that far away, but perhaps the barn might be a good place for some runs as long as nobody stays down there more than a couple hours at a time. A few hours running on the acres, a few hours maybe in a run in the barn, a few hours in the house and everybody takes turns sleeping with mom and dad.....Girls in heat or with a litter, either in the pup stable or down in the barn with lots of visits from family so they don't get lonely and crated inside at night if not with pups. I am beginning to get a vision of this now and how to rotate who with who. Thank you so much to all of you. :happyboogie:


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