Welcome to our home and the home of Dunsbairn Westies. Our house is situated on pretty woodland acerage in the Valleyview, Alberta area about ten minutes from town. Valleyview is about five hours north west of Edmonton, Alberta.

All of our dogs get turns inside the house and take turns in the kennels. I have to separate my dogs in groups of who I want bred when and with who, and who gets along with who.

From our living room, the dogs have free access to the run that measures around 32 X 16, so it is a good size for them, as shown in the photo below to the right of the house.

When the puppies are not outside playing or having a ‘kitchen playtime’ or getting an individual cuddle from someone watching a movie or TV show – they are housed in their own area from about five weeks old (with their mother but from this age she wants to spend less and less time with them) this is where they sleep.

They spend their early weeks in the main-floor bathroom because the steam from the showers adds moisture to the air, which is good for newborn puppies.

This is what a typical set up looks like newly cleaned – within five minutes of coming in from the muddy garden - the floor and the roof of the dog crate will be covered in mud once again. Since this photo was taken I have found that the pups are quicker to learn to houstrain if I set the cage up in a long rectangle in the kitchen. That way I have the bed at one end the food and water and toys in the middle and the paper at the far end. The puppy will naturally try to do his business as far away from his den as possible so this new set up gets him used to paper training.

I have tried the special puppy training pads – but I find that the pups are attracted to them and play with them and get them all balled up so they are no use – my favourite paper is the Edmonton Journal for large size sheets of floor coverage. The door is off the crate so they can get in and out as they like, sometimes I use a box instead if it's not too muddy outside – they usually keep that area clean and take the toys and hide them at the back of the crate. Dogs feel secure in a crate and like to have a place to keep their special things.

My indoor kennels with outdoor dog runs are almost finished as of the fall of 2008 just need a little paintwork and to get the door flaps installed.  The underfloor heating makes them cozy in the winter and provides hot water for my grooming area. The kennels are close to the house on the side of an old mechanic's shop.

This is how it started off in 2006 as a wood storage area and a garage shop office conversion. It took longer to finish than planned.

I have lots of other ideas for improvements as time and money permit - we have an unused shop that I would like to turn into a winter training and exercise area one day. My husband thinks we should build partial shade covers for the outdoor runs for the summer heat. My next major dog improvement project though, will be putting a cement base outside the dog run off the house and building another dog run on the grass - that way the door to the grass run would only be open in good weather - as the amount of mud in our home right now in spring and fall is pretty bad. My Westies can come in and go out as they please as we put a dog door in our door off the living room to the dog run.

I started breeding in 2005, thus far, all the profits (and then some!) up to this point have been invested back into building up excellent stock by importing dogs from champion lines and a making a great living environment for them.  The health, comfort and lifestyle of my dogs are more important than making profit at this stage of the development of my kennel business.

My indoor/outdoor kennels

This is my bright and cheery grooming area. I can give most of my dogs a haircut and a bath in about an hour each with this system. It is much easier than trying to do the work in the house kitchen. We often listen to Bob Marley CDs when grooming as it chills the Westies out and has a  beauty shop groove to it. :-)

Two views of the individual kennels from the inside - there are six of them 4.5 X 6 feet and each has a matching outdoor area which is 9 feet long. So life isn't so bad for the dogs when it is not their turn in the house. (I plan to paint the doors white.) The woodwork has been painted with an outdoor paint in order to allow easier cleaning.