Our Akita Dog Room

[EddieWalker]

My wife woke up one day and said that she wanted to get a show quality Akita and start going to dog shows. In hindsight, telling her that was a great idea might have been the dumbest thing I ever said!!!

We now have 7 Akita's, with two that are showing, a few that are retired and a few that hated it and never did anything in the show ring. A big part of showing is grooming. Lots of bathing them and blowing them out. Since they shed like crazy, dog hair is always a problem.

To make life easier, we decided to build a room for grooming them, and where we can put all their kennels. Currently when it's feeding time, they eat in 7 different areas of the house. The only thing worse than a 120 pound Akita fighting over food is a 95 pound female Akita fighting over food!!!!

I started this 3 years ago. I cleaned out my storage area on the side of my shop, built up the dirt, set the forms and installed rebar. Then I hired a crew to spread it. After that, I framed it up, put on the metal roof and installed one of the three garage doors. The other two are still sitting on the floor in the garage with high hopes that I'll get to them real soon.

 

[Eagle1]

My wife woke up one day and said that she wanted to get a show quality Akita and start going to dog shows. In hindsight, telling her that was a great idea might have been the dumbest thing I ever said!!!

We now have 7 Akita's, with two that are showing, a few that are retired and a few that hated it and never did anything in the show ring. A big part of showing is grooming. Lots of bathing them and blowing them out. Since they shed like crazy, dog hair is always a problem.

To make life easier, we decided to build a room for grooming them, and where we can put all their kennels. Currently when it's feeding time, they eat in 7 different areas of the house. The only thing worse than a 120 pound Akita fighting over food is a 95 pound female Akita fighting over food!!!!

I started this 3 years ago. I cleaned out my storage area on the side of my shop, built up the dirt, set the forms and installed rebar. Then I hired a crew to spread it. After that, I framed it up, put on the metal roof and installed one of the three garage doors. The other two are still sitting on the floor in the garage with high hopes that I'll get to them real soon.

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Why is always the smallest female that will not give in and fights to the bitter end? I'm so glad right now all the girls are an even match and scare the one lone male to death. No fighting just raised voices, knock on wood.

 

[EddieWalker]

Once I had the roof on, I started running hot and cold water for the dog washing station and also for a sink in the garage. Then all sorts of electrical lines for the Akita room and my garage. And finally, ducts for the AC in the Akita room. I will never be cold enough for them, but nobody is going to say we aren't trying. They also get a 14,000 BTU window AC Unit to make it colder than the house HVAC system.

Sheetrock on the walls, Pine Tongue and Groove on the ceiling. I went with recessed LED lights for the room, and track lights over the dog was station.

One wall has two rows of shelves that are 17 1/2 feet long. The other wall, which is 10 feet tall, is just for ribbons and artwork. I just finished he shelves, so my wife is doing her thing with filling them up. We should have the kennels in there this weekend, and I'll update with pictures of that when it's done.

 

[Eagle1]

Once I had the roof on, I started running hot and cold water for the dog washing station and also for a sink in the garage. Then all sorts of electrical lines for the Akita room and my garage. And finally, ducts for the AC in the Akita room. I will never be cold enough for them, but nobody is going to say we aren't trying. They also get a 14,000 BTU window AC Unit to make it colder than the house HVAC system.

Sheetrock on the walls, Pine Tongue and Groove on the ceiling. I went with recessed LED lights for the room, and track lights over the dog was station.

One wall has two rows of shelves that are 17 1/2 feet long. The other wall, which is 10 feet tall, is just for ribbons and artwork. I just finished he shelves, so my wife is doing her thing with filling them up. We should have the kennels in there this weekend, and I'll update with pictures of that when it's done.

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Looks awesome.....

 

[dodge man]

That’s a lot of Akitas, beautiful dogs.

 

[EddieWalker]

This should have been done years ago, but we ran into some delays with my brother passing away and having to take care of his farm, then my dad passing away and realizing he didn't have a valid Will. Plus, we have 80 goats, 100 chickens, 3 horses and land to work on for the livestock. It seems like everything has to be done today, and I'm never able to get any of it done. The garage has been in House Wrap the entire time, so my next goal is to get the Hardie siding installed, then more fencing because we have to have more runs for the dogs, and we need more pasture for the goats.

 

[docone]

Sound like when I was building the house.... never enough time to get it all done. Just take it one day at a time Eddie.

 

[thclimer]

Very impressive!

You will never be accused of not caring and not providing the best care for your dogs that you can.

 

[ponytug]

Once I had the roof on, I started running hot and cold water for the dog washing station and also for a sink in the garage. Then all sorts of electrical lines for the Akita room and my garage. And finally, ducts for the AC in the Akita room. I will never be cold enough for them, but nobody is going to say we aren't trying. They also get a 14,000 BTU window AC Unit to make it colder than the house HVAC system.

Sheetrock on the walls, Pine Tongue and Groove on the ceiling. I went with recessed LED lights for the room, and track lights over the dog was station.

One wall has two rows of shelves that are 17 1/2 feet long. The other wall, which is 10 feet tall, is just for ribbons and artwork. I just finished he shelves, so my wife is doing her thing with filling them up. We should have the kennels in there this weekend, and I'll update with pictures of that when it's done.

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I'll bite.

Why the microwave? And why is it on the floor?

Also, are you going to cover the floor? Epoxy? Vinyl...?

You do such great work.

All the best,

Peter

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you.

The microwave was going to be used to warm up dog food, but last night while setting up dog kennels, she decided against it. Now I have an extra microwave that I need to find a home for.

I love tile and I was going to install tile, but my wife feels that it's too slippery and doesn't want it. We talked about other options, but she's set on just leaving it bare concrete. When the dogs get bathed, there is a lot of water that ends up on the floor. Even when it's wet, the concrete has good traction for the dogs.