Thursday, October 27, 2011

Advice Needed Please

The family is finally finished with the outside of the building (windows cut out & fancy stuff to be added later) & needs to hurry up and get the inside finished! Here is the deal with the inside: there are 3 stalls/kennels and one common area where the family can hang out with the pooches & a doggy door.( What?! The fosters get a doggy door while I, Pauley James, must hold it all day?! )The only time the doggies will be shut in the stall/kennel is at night when it is beddy bye time and if someone is healing/injured, sick or eating. Now the big question is what should they get to put in the stall/kennels ? They thought about hanging some of these up

Does anyone have any experience with them? They will also have plenty of toys to go around. The plan right now is to use beds made from pvc pipes. Has anyone used them before and were the results good? A certain someone whom I love, but will remain nameless, chews her regular bed (she loves stuffing) into pieces!


As far as feeding the doggies, they were considering buying these from Popware:



Any ideas on this? The feeders would be removed after everyone has eaten. Anyone know of similar item that is cheaper?

So that leaves what to do about water? I can imagine that the poochies will get very excited & play a bunch (huh I am going to be stuck in here with the grouchy old ladies!) & they need something that will not be turned over easily. What should we get?

Thanks in advance for any ideas, tips or thoughts!

Here is my "serious" face also known as "where is my chin?" 






XOXOXOXO
Pauley James

14 comments:

pam said...

Hey Pauley James! How's tricks dood? Mommy goteded us them raised beds on PVC pipes and neither Meja or me would use them. She gave them to the neighbor and their Austrailian Shepard loves em. So.....

We've got these cool stainless dished where our bowl fits in in them. Mommy thinks they were about $10. She'll try to grab a pic and put it on our bloggy.

Bobo and Meja

Sarah said...

We have Coolaroo Beds at home and love them! They work great for incontinent dogs (Maggie); I just put a couple blankets on top of them that are easily washable. The ones we got aren't PVC but are metal pipes. I can't remember what website we got them from but they were $20-$25/each, which is a steal!

For water, can you use stainless steel pails and clip them to a hook of some sort? I've seen these used by rescues (clipped to the side of wire kennels) and while they can be tipped over, they're harder to tip than the regular stainless steel bowls.

Unknown said...

I suggest stainless steel dog bowls on the floor. I am skeptical of raised bowls and their longevity.
Don't know much about toys but do use Kongs (so you are on the right track - iMHO). Hanging them up? Always consider dog fights better known as heated discussions.
My favorite water bowl was a thick rubber round feed bin for horses; lasted forever till Farrah came - she played in the water (I mean serious pawing with splashing) and finally put a hole in it. It's about 4 inches high - even my tweenie Dachshunds could drink from it.
I did try a PVC bed - they peed on it (ok, maybe just Annie did as she likes soft places for her tush). As Bobo and Meja note, dogs are very different in their responses to these beds. I would LOVE for them to work. HA.

Unknown said...

Roberta, because we are afraid of fights, we do not leave any pups unsupervised when they have Kongs or anything else food related unless they are in a crate; even our old ladies still get pushy over food. We really did not think about dogs fighting over a hanging ball, but have never had one before. Maybe we will just order 1 for the common area & only leave it down when we are there until we see how everyone reacts to it. Usually all of our fosters get along, it is only when we add in Annie & Chloe that problems start.Okay I have probably just jinxed us.

Unknown said...

Bobo & Meja, that was very nice of you to donate your beds to your neighbor. We would love to see a picture of your dishes & $10 sounds wonderful!

Unknown said...

Sarah, I will definitely look for the Coolaroo Beds. Their price is much better than what we have found! As for the water, that sounds like a great idea & I will now start the search for a sturdy hooks :)

Unknown said...

Ive seen a few blogs that took a plastic garden pot and put their stainless steel bowl in it and made is a raised feeder.
I personally took a plastic milk crate and turned it upside down and but that rubber non slip shelf liner on it and put their stainless steel bowls on it. it looks bad but no one sees it and it works for cheap - raised feeders are expensive.

The ball hanging - im not sure about that idea. Haylie has a jolly ball she pushes around and loves it. I make rope toys out of old towels and braid it together and tie knots at the end - my dog love them and Haylie loves them the longer they are.

Bed - how about hay?

K-Koira said...

The pvc style beds work great for dogs that like to chew on regular beds- but it would probably be nice to have some comforters or other fluffy bedding for those dogs that can be trusted with it, since it is so much softer and cushier.

Water I would get a small version of the livestock watering troughs. The oval shape makes them pretty hard to knock over, and they stand up to chewing pretty good.

As for the toy, Koira has a Jolly Ball and LOVES it. But, the handle can be chewed off if it is left with the dog, and could be dangerous if the dog swallowed some of the plastic chunks, so I use it as an interactive toy only.

Kari in Alaska said...

We have heard those are great but havent tried them!

Stop on by for a visit
Kari
dogisgodinreverse.com

Anonymous said...

Big decisions! My Titan plays with a large Jolly Ball, which is similar to that tug and toss. He likes to carry it around by the handle. Never tried hanging it up. Good idea! But he does chew the handle off, unintentially, just by gripping the handle with his monterous teeth. Good luck hon. I look forward to the reviews.

chandra said...

I bought the Popware food dish/water bowl combo for Mason a couple of months ago and I love it. (He likes it too!) If you're going to remove the bowls after feeding, its a good choice because the legs fold up and the bowl collapses so the whole thing is flat. That said, if the dogs are chewers and have a few minutes alone with it, the Popware would be dust - perhaps not the bowl but the holder for sure.

-Chandra at Daley's Dog Years.

chandra said...

P.S. I have a large Kong Wobbler toy/feeder that I won from a raffle at Trixie, Lily and Sammy-Joe's blog. Mason is afraid of it so it's unused. If you're interested, I'd love to mail it to you guys! Just send me an email. Here's what it looks likes: http://www.kongcompany.com/products/dogs/wobbler/wobbler-1

-Chandra at Daley's Dog Years

Of Pit Bulls and Patience said...

I think most of my ideas were already covered. The metal pails on hooks work great, but I have met a dog or two that wouldn't drink out of them. The kuranda style bed is also great for most dogs, and are easy to add extra bedding to for the older ladies.

On the toy front, I like Jolly balls, but they are hard for groups to play with. Only one dog can really hold the ball, so that leaves everyone else to try and steal it. It depends on the group, but I've seen dogs get pretty competitive with them.

Anonymous said...

Gosh, this sounds like it's gonna be super duper awesome! I'm gonna agree with others who've said that they'd go with the stainless steel kinda bowls. Everything mom's read says that those are the bestest kinda bowls cuz back-tear-eee-ah don't grow in 'em like they do in plastic.

Also, mom said one time when Cap'n Ripley and his sisfur Molly were little, she hung up a cat toy from the door so they could bat at it and play with it. Well, one day mom walked in and the string had gotten wrapped around Molly's paw and she couldn't gets free. Now, this was a small, stretchy string so it might not happen with a regular ol' rope - but just something to think about.

Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie

PeeS. If you gets a chance, come by my bloggie. There's something there that you might be interested in pawticipating in!