IN THE DOGHOUSE

On a previous post Leah asked about Nellie's doghouse.

This is Nellie’s town kennel and doghouse. She was just a year old when we moved to the modular home. While Mike built the kennel, she watched the process from her portable cage. Somehow she seemed to know it was her new place and has always been at home with it. She really doesn’t seem to mind going to her kennel anytime but it’s the place she most prefers at bedtime. However, she is clever enough to lift the latch with her snout and come out unless we lock the gate by inserting something (a karabiner) in the slot.

 

As you can see, the barrel, a 50-gallon drum, is set outside the kennel to allow maximum outside room. The doghouse is filled with wood shavings which help to clean her. She gets extra shavings in the winter to keep her warm.

At the farm she doesn’t have a kennel. Instead, her barrel doghouse, a pickle barrel that Mike picked up someplace, is in the old woodshed. Again she prefers to overnight in her house. (If this looks rustic to you, remember that she’s a dog -- and a hunting dog at that.)

Our routine is that Nellie comes into the house as soon as we’re up and around. In town, we open her kennel so that she can come out. At the farm, she comes out on her own and whines at the kitchen door when she’s ready to come in. Sometimes she whines before we’re up, but if one of us is up she seems to know it – probably hears us moving around.

 

During the day Nellie is seldom confined to her kennel. She stays in the house if we have errands to run or we take her with us. However, occasionally we leave her in her kennel while we’re out, and while she doesn’t mind going to the kennel, that’s when she’s apt to let herself out if the gate isn’t locked.

Nellie used to enjoy napping on her pillow while Mike and I watched tv in the evenings, but during the last year she has shown a marked preference for going to bed early. I used to let her out for a few minutes after we finished the dishes and she would come right back, but now she tends to put herself to bed. This practice has necessitated a change in the bedtime tooth-brushing routine which now must take place right after supper.

When I married Mike, the doghouse was a flat-roofed wooden structure that eventually deteriorated. It seems to me my nephew L.J. suggested the barrel house, but Mike doesn’t remember. We’ve used barrels ever since. KW