Housing multiple litters...

[Officially Retired]

I was wondering what peoples opinions are as to the best type of setup to use for housing 3 or 4 litters of pups? What age do you put them together? Have you had success keeping them in one LARGE kennel or several smaller setups? Just trying to do the best by these little knuckle heads. What I do now seems to be working.

Without question, the best puppy setup is above ground pens. Period. However I would never house 3-4 litters of pups together, ever. Just one litter of pups poop & shit all day, and so 4 litters of pups kept together multiplies that by 4.

Here is what I do...
I use a transition process with them.This is what I am doing now but would like to have suggestions for future ventures... I have 2 winter birthing kennels which have whelping boxes that are built inside a wood shed.On the bottom of the box as well as the side facing the outside I have a 2" piece of insulation board. Outside they have 4 x 6 X 6 kennels for the mamma to be able to go out and use the rest room as well as get away from the "savages".Puppies never make it outside in this phase.

That would be a better setup with 4 modifications: 1) don't use chain link, use hog panel, as bulldogs can bite through chain link; 2) the ground should be cement, not earth, as dogs can dig under the earth; 3) do not make your boxes out of particle board like that as it's easy to chew out of; 4) all kennels need a roof!

Here is what I do...
In summer I just use my above ground kennels.Then I have the next phase which are 3 of Jacks above ground kennels that I jacked up at first then had to fix. Thanks for the pointers Jack... :oops: After they are big enough I have a 8 X !5 kennel off of the back of the shed with a larger puppy house inside. As soon as the weather breaks I am going to dig the 4x6 kennel floors up and put down large stone first and gravel second. The puppy pen has about 8-10 inches of gravel. This setup is tailored for 2 litters, not what I have now. I am in the process of building two 14X20X6 kennels on my other yard so I will have a total of 3 kennels that I can separate these little butt munches into as well as my 3 above grounds. Please post your ideas as well as pics. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

I would simply stick to above-ground kennels. Any kennel on the ground is bad news for pups ... for reasons of piss/shit accumulation ... especially when factored over YEARS of time at the same place. It simply is bad practice. How do you hose-out the trampled shit? What happens when the pups get sick and all their poop mixes with the dirt?

Dirt kennels and pups are simply not best practice; it's common practice. You could back 3 more above-ground kennels into the spot where you have the one dirt kennel. In fact, you could increase your entire usable space in your yard just by backing all your other above-ground kennels into the fence, rather than placing them sideways into the fence. It also makes hosing them out and raking the shit under it easier too.

Jack