You mentioned kennels Larry, are you a breeder?
Nope, just a soft hearted sucker. I currently have 5 dogs, a Picardy Spaniel, a Blue Picardy Spaniel, a chocolate Lab, a Large Munsterlander, and a little Heinz 57 that is just cute that my wife hauled home. The Lab was a stray and the Munsterlander was a rescue, who had been bounced from place to place until he found a home here. The Picardy Spaniel is our oldest. She has hip dysplasia, and has run her final hunt. We're taking her in to be put down tomorrow. She can still walk, but has to be helped up sometimes, and is in pretty constant pain. It's time.
It's very sad, because she is only 12 years old, and in great shape otherwise. She was just the product of a greedy breeder who wanted to make some bucks selling a rare breed even though he knew his breeding stock carried genes for CHD.
Like you, I had planned to downsize my dogs. I figure a 40 lb. dog can do anything an 80 lb. dog can do, and is easier to care for. Things didn't work out. Five years ago, a lab showed up on a 104 degree day swimming in my front yard. He was the most pitiful thing you ever saw, about 9 months old, and what coat he had was either full of scabs or gone completely. He was so starved he could only eat half a dozen kibbles at a time. Of course I took him in. He's not much of a hunting dog, though. He's the worst boot polisher I have ever had. The only way he will retrieve a bird is if I go with him. :{
Last spring my wife and I saw an ad in the paper for a free trained large Munsterlander with NAVHDA test results. A trained bird dog is worth at least $2000, so we figured he would find a home easily. I was tempted, but a Large Munsterlander is way bigger than I wanted for a hunting dog. The next thing we know, he showed up in an adoption ad from a local animal shelter. The guy who adopted him kept him for 24 hours and dumped him at the shelter, because the dog barked when left alone in the yard. When we got to the shelter, he had been fostered into another home on his way to a breed rescue organization. We had to arm wrestle them for him, but we brought him home, where he quickly became part of the family. Once again he was in poor shape, about 30 lbs. underweight, and he had stress shed his entire undercoat. We kept him inside and covered him with a blanket to sleep so he didn't get cold, even inside the house. After good food and affection his coat came back, and yes, he is a hunter. He has a few bad habits, so I have to keep an e-collar on him.
I think you can see why I need kennels. The dogs like being outside during the day, and my house stays a lot nicer if it doesn't double as a dog run. When I am home, the dogs are loose. We have 93 acres and they have been trained not to go near the road, so they have a really big back yard. It's interesting that if I leave the kennel gates open, the dogs will often go back into their kennels to catch a nap.
