Facilities and care

Dogs in our care are housed in indoor-outdoor runs and can go in and out at will. The outdoor portion is 4' by 12', concrete-floored, with a galvanized roof to protect the dog from sun and rain. The indoor sleeping area is 3' by 4' with a wooden sleeping platform, and is fully-enclosed and private. Heated and air-conditioned runs are available for house pets; working retrievers are generally kept in unheated runs. Fresh water is available at all times, in stainless-steel water buckets which are emptied and cleaned daily.

All runs are cleaned twice daily by shoveling and hosing. We disinfect and sanitize with a gentle Clorox/detergent mixture weekly. We keep chemical use to a minimum, managing insect pests with Borax and Sevin dust (flea powder). Our feline rodent-control specialist keeps us free of rats and mice. Of the many field-trial dogs which have spent essentially their whole lives with us, none have had disorders related to chemical exposure such as cancer, allergies and skin disorders.

We clean the runs and feed the dogs ourselves. This gives us the opportunity to interact with each dog three times daily (in addition to training) and to observe the dog's demeanor, its droppings, and other indicators of health. Ordinarily boarding dogs are kept in their runs, but if we observe that a dog does not urinate or defecate in its run, we air it on lead at least twice daily. Keeping more than one dog in a run would compromise our ability to assess the dogs' well-being (and need of airing) as well as cleanliness, so we refuse to keep dogs together (except for litters of puppies). When boarding reservations are made in advance, we can usually arrange for dogs from the same household to be kept in adjacent runs (separated by chain-link).

Each dog in training is transported to and from the field in his or her own clean, safe, well-ventilated truck compartment. Compartments are insulated for warmth in colder weather.

We feed Diamond adult maintenance formula to our adult training and boarding dogs. This high-quality dog food is 28% protein and 18% fat, and enables hard-working retrievers to keep condition and maintain beautiful, healthy skin and coat throughout the year. We keep a high-quality puppy food (Science Diet or Eukanuba) available on request for puppies, although recent research findings on hip dysplasia have led many retriever people to start feeding adult food at an early age. Adult dogs are ordinarily fed once daily, in the evening. Puppies are fed two or three times daily, depending on their age. Adult boarding dogs can be fed more than once daily at no extra charge.

Runs are latched and secure against escape, and just in case an untrained dog slips past us, the kennel yard is completely enclosed with a perimeter fence.

We are very proud of the cleanliness of our kennel and quality of care we provide. As gun dog trainers we are exempt from state licensing requirements, but we voluntarily maintain a state kennel license to demonstrate that we comply with, and in most cases far exceed, state requirements for cleanliness, care, and handling of dogs and cats. On our state licensing inspections, we routinely receive perfect scores and compliments from the inspectors.