Housing your pet or hunting beagle can be quite a project and it can be considerably costly. I have seen some very nice indoor heated kennels with outside runs, and on the other hand I've seen ol' snoopy chained out back to a plastic barrel. Then you have the debate of concrete runs or rabbit cage style and which one is best for the dogs? There is a lot to think about when choosing the type that best fits the dog's needs and you also need to consider southern climate opposed to northern raised dogs. Here in central Michigan we have both extreme cold temps and quite hot stretches of weather through the summer months of July, Aug. and into Sept… Because of such a vast temperature range, I thought long and hard as to what I should do to kennel my beagles and I will share with you thoughts that I have made along the way. I first thought of putting up a building to house my dogs inside with outside runs made of concrete. This would be the ultimate kennel system provided I only kept females or maybe one male in with the girls but I don't. I like a close mix of male to female ratio, so an inside run would get quite ammonia smelling in just days because the boys just can't resist spurting scent all over. If one marks, the others will, even if you yell at them for doing it they will mark or remark their spots as soon as you're not watching. It is at its worst when we have a bitch in heat, so I decided to go with outside houses on concrete. My doghouses are insulated and built with over hanging porches. They also feature a hinged roof so I can check on the females with pups. When I put the roofs on my doghouses I used light colored rolled roofing so the roof wouldn't gather and hold so much heat in the summer. Also about the roof, I tacked chicken wire on the top of all my houses because the dogs love to chew the new roofs off. The wire stopped that problem; I haven't had to replace a roof because of dogs chewing since.
When I decided to make concrete runs I went with 12' by 24', I'm glad I did. It might seem too large of runs to some people but my dogs have room enough to entertain themselves. Even the old dogs enjoy the extra room. I put the dogs house close to the gate side of the runs and most of the time the dogs squat to do their business on the far side away from feed dishes and housing, making it easy to clean every night. This last winter I shoveled the snow out of my dog runs 21 times. The reason I do this is so my dogs bedding won't get wet from them going in and out of their dog houses and also its easier to see and shovel up the poop. I'm going to put a roof over the entire kennel hopefully one day soon, because 24'x 60' is a lot of snow to remove by hand. I keep my dogs' runs clean. You only have one chance to make a first impression. We have a lot of people stopping by the house to see if they can buy a dog or to ask about stud dogs and they all seem very impressed on how clean and happy the kennel is. Clean, Healthy and Happy that's the way we want it.
Any questions please give us a call. SNOWMAN'S BEAGLES (616) 225-2498
Keep 'Em Safe and Keep 'Em Running,
“Snowman”
Rick Snow
