Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Puppy Palace!

Ok, it's been too long since our last posting. Life hasn't slowed down yet, so I'm going to suck it up and start making time to blog again.


The Puppy Palace - Ahhh, a beautiful place of gathering. A place to sleep, a place to play, a place to cuddle, or a place to just be with the little dudes. It took a while to build, but it was worth the effort. We had plenty of leftover styrofoam insulation from the shop construction (or shop destruction, whichever), so we have a warm place for all to be in the winter. The palace floor is 8'x8' and the ceiling is about 5'5" to about 5' (it has a gentle slope to shed the snow and rain). It's easy to stand up in. It has both a dog door and a man door. The puppies took to it right away. And, they also started to eat it right away. Got to love wood construction and dogs. As you'll see in the photos, we found a way to prevent this.



The palace started off as just a shelter from the sun and rain. Since we already had 4 posts cemented into the ground and a roof overhead, we decided that this would be the location of the palace.



We had some help from our friend Stacey - Thanks again for your help!



We ran a wire for a light and the camera into the palace. The extension cord wired to the light constantly broke the breaker, so we had James (the electrician) wire in the light with proper heavy duty wiring - no more blown breakers! Thanks James :)

Did I mention the palace was insulated?



The little dudes helped us throughout the construction - they were great little helpers! (and they didn't get in the way very often!)

The last wall to finish!

The inside light.

As with all good wood construction in the dog yard, it is vulnerable to chewing.


We found a solution to the chewing - thin metal around the most vulnerable chewing areas.


The final doors.



The puppies took to the palace right away.



They all take turns lying at the door to monitor what's going on in the yard.


Happy pooches - need I say more?


There's plenty of room for all of us.

We wouldn't be out sitting in the snow at -30 doing this.

Tired Lucky.


Dopey Cash.

Good thing we have the Palace - it's getting cold out here!

2 comments:

Heather, aka: Mum said...

FINALLY a new post!!

OMG Heather!! I'm in love with your Doggie Palace!! Dave was just tell us all about it :) I'd bet the light will provide heat in there too for when YOU hang out with your 4 legged children!!

Sean is in trouble now that I've got a good look at this!!

dogsled_stacie said...

Yeah, it looks awesome! Love the palace. And the metal trim, wow. You guys have all the ideas. That Dale sure is a smart guy. lol