Pets At Home Stores - Support Adoption For Pets

A MASSIVE thank you to the Pets at Home Support Adoption For Pets Scheme for their financial support to provide additional kennelling, drainage to prevent flooding and a rat proof food storage area

Alice and Jayne receiving the cheque at Hereford Pets at Home

Alice with Chenko and Jayne with Caucasian Shepherd Azer, receiving the cheque from the Pets at Home Support Adoption scheme from Henry at the Hereford branch of Pets at Home. The financial assistance was given to GSDR for 3 projects - drainage, additional kennelling and a rat proof food storage area.

THE DRAINAGE PROBLEM

This was the problem at the end of November 2012

Because of excessive rain last year, the dog runs were either under water or just a mud bath. Puppy Molly Moo wasn't so keen on getting her feet wet back then

The mud bath

Most of the winter months, the dog runs were unusable because of mud or flooding. It was a big mess

A very wet and muddy Molly Moo and George

Because of the flooding and mud problem, we had to limit the number of dogs here. Poor George came off the worst and we were forever hosing him down to try and keep the mud out of his white long coat

The drainage solution

Because we lie at the bottom of a hill, the dog runs and kennelling area previously were being deluged with rain water coming from neighbouring fields. The solution was to dig a drainage channel which is around 3 ft deep and backfilled with hardcore, right around the area where kennels and runs are situated. The chickens were impressed!

Drainage channel round the back of the runs

This channel runs right out onto the lane in front of the property where it drains down into a proper council maintained drainage ditch and flows out into a river.

The new kennels block

This is the new thermal lined kennel block. We purchased a 6 kennel block size but it was divided into 4 so that we could have bigger runs so that the dogs would have more space. Our field is south facing so the kennels have been situated so that the runs will not be exposed to the heat of the sun in the summer. The kennels are thermal lined so warm in winter, cool in the summer heat.

Kennels with runs and hatches

All four kennels have sliding hatches and runs and two of the kennels have pulleys so that you can slide the hatch without entering into the kennel which is useful for dogs that may be nervous or protective when they first arrive

Thermal lining

All four kennels are thermal lined so they will be warm in winter and cool in summer. The only thing we need to get done now is run a power supply so that we have heating and lighting.

Thermokennel

We originally planned to purchase 6 of these and fix them together as a modular block. Fortunately we only purchased one which has proved disappointing. It is our opinion that these Thermokennels are not value for money and they look like a public toilet. The decision therefore was made to go for the thermal lined block above, purchased from Duchy Farm Kennels which we are very pleased with.

The existing kennels

We still have our original 3 kennels in our converted outbuilding. Although it doesn't look much, there are 3 sturdy kennels inside there. The building is lined with 3 inch thick Kingspan with metal sheet on top plus there is lighting and heating in the way of heat lamps in each kennel and wall heaters. We will run our power source from this building across to the new block. We have had to make repairs to the base of this building because the wood had rotted.

The dog runs

All 3 dog runs have now been membraned and close on 100 ton of stones has gone down on top in the runs and the walk way to the kennels. To reduce the risk of flooding to the runs, the level was raised by bringing soil from our field to raise the height of the runs by about 12 inches before putting down membrane and stones. These stones are the rounded ones so they don't hurt the dogs paws.

Azer and George in the runs

The dogs still get wet but we have reduced the problem of mud drastically

The old shed

We were going to purchase a metal storage shed to provide a rat proof storage area so that we could bulk buy food to save money. We were advised however, that a better solution would be to repair and upgrade our old large shed.

The shed before

The first job was to remove the old floor and assess the condition of the joists.

Underneath the floor of the shed

The joists were all perfect and lying on slabs, which made it easy for our carpenter to make a new rat proof floor. The sides have been sealed with a special material that rats can't chew through up to a height of two feet. The floor is also lined with rockwool to provide insulation.

Old window frames which were rotten

The windows and frames have now been removed and replaced with plastic double glazing to prevent extremes of temperature in the shed during winters and summers. This is important if you are storing dried dog foods

The shed painted and re-roofed

A coat of aluminium oxide and exterior gloss to protect the wood

Fully lined shed with lots of shelving space

The whole shed is lined with rockwool with plaster board on top to keep it cool in summer and warm in winter. This is important because if you have extremes of temperature when storing dried dog foods, it causes mould problems

Shelving provides lots of additional space for storage

Secure rat proof storage area complete

Even the doors are insulated and lined. The freezer is solely for raw meat and chicken carcasses

The Pets at Home Adoption scheme gave us the grant and stipulated that it could only be used for the above 3 projects. We did go over the estimated costs because we underestimated the amount of stones we would need. We also had to make the repairs to the existing kennel block. We are sure that you will agree that this is money well spent for the comfort and safety of the dogs in our care. Again we would like to thank the Pets at Home Adoption scheme for giving us the grant for the projects and our thanks also go to Ray Lambert from Team Two Fat Blokes who was instrumental in gaining us this grant.

Please help us by making a donation so that we can help re home more unwanted German Shepherd Dogs. Donations can be sent to Jayne Shenstone, German Shepherd Rescue, Little Vauld, Marden Hereford HR1 3HA. We also accept Paypal payments - just click on the Paypal button below. Thankyou.