Welcome to our virtual tour of SkyBlue Kennel!
We live in scenic Western MA with a beautiful river running behind our property. Our family consists of myself, my husband Rich, and our four children. Our kids, like us, are animal lovers - between the four of them, we have a menagerie of pets including rabbits, a guinea pig, turtle, chameleon, salamanders, hermit crabs, snails, and fish. We originally moved here because of the dogs: we bought the property mostly because of the barn (which had been used as a workshop), as we thought would be great for the dogs after some renovating. Twenty plus years later, we've spent most of our adult lives building the type of facility that we believe the dogs deserve. In order to have a real breeding program, where one is establishing a line and making a true impact upon the breed (rather than simply breeding to produce puppies), one must have the necessary space to be able to property care for their dogs and provide them with plenty of exercise, human interaction, a clean environment, and so forth. We know that people sometimes have reservations about purchasing a puppy sight unseen, because of the scammers who are selling puppies that they don't even have or those who don't provide proper care for their dogs. As such, we welcome you to take a virtual look around SkyBlue!
Lenox enjoying our pond
our home, taken from the front of the kennel. The entire backyard is fenced behind our home, giving the dogs plenty of room to stretch their legs and run, play fetch, or swim.
Diego & his grandson playing out back
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blue building to the left is our kennel, which faces our house
our koi pond
a portion of our backyard, where it connects to our kennel yard
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Here are some pictures of the exterior of our kennel building and dog yard. All of our dogs sleep inside, the kennel runs are used to keep everyone safe - oftentimes we have females in season, or have various groups playing together out back, but still want to provide the others with the opportunity to be outside weather permitting. Our kennels each have a dog house, chew toys, metal roofing, privacy panels, and dura-slat flooring (anti-microbial). Our dogs are not left outside when we are not home (which is rare - there is usually an adult present at all times, as my sister, Tristan, lives next door. In the rare times that I am not home, she is).
photo taken in 2019
photo taken in 2020
each of our dogs has their own personal inside and outside space - this group belongs to Darwin, Sativa, Bandit, Gemma, Dagon, Diego, Sprite, and Paddy
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birds eye view of a portion of our kennel yard, we have larger runs located directly behind the kennel, as well
our outdoor puppy pen, which has composite decking, which helps keep them clean and prevents them from digging and eating things like rocks (terriers will be terriers!)
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Here are some photos of the inside of the main portion of our kennel building, which is fully equipped with heating and air conditioning for year round comfort. Each of our dogs have their own personal space with beds, water, blankets, and chew toys. We have chosen our building materials carefully, in order to be able to keep things as clean and safe as possible.
Diego and Sprite, before we redid the floor
feeding station, and front door which leads to the front yard - our dogs are exclusively fed Purina (Pro Plan Sport for adults, Pro Plan Lamb & Rice Puppy for the younger dogs.
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the back room, that leads out to the kennel yard
Bandit's nook
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When raising puppies, you learn quickly learn that they are a lot of work; over the years we've found that certain things are essential in being able to keep the dams happy and puppies healthy. The first of which is privacy. Too much commotion really early on tends to stress even the most "chill" mom out. In 2019, we built an addition to dedicate solely to mothers and puppies. Our room is equipped with cameras, so we can observe the pups around the clock, a lounge/play area (so we have somewhere comfortable to sleep when babies are young if needed) and customized pens that are able to convert from a whelping area to puppy pens complete with a litter box area to help in the potty training process when old enough. The whelping room, like the rest of the kennel, also has heat and air conditioning.
Content dams & happy babies. Each whelping area comfortably fits a whelping box, as well as personal space for the moms. We leave the doors off in the beginning, so that they can come and go freely.
the blank slate, fall 2019
Each whelping area has it's own camera and is heated under the whelping box, to keep babies draft-free.
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With young puppies, we sit with them every 3 hours to make sure everyone is nursing and behaving as they should. In the beginning they are weighed throughout the day, too.
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We keep the radio playing during daytime so puppies start getting used to different sounds. Note the full laundry basket to the left (so much laundry!)
Darwin x Gemma babies enjoying a meal
Puppies are brought into the house to get used to different places, surfaces, sounds, and other animals (other dogs, a rabbit, guinea pig, and so forth).
It's no wonder puppies think Hugo is a fun place to lay, he's like a giant shaggy bed.
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By 5 weeks, we remove the whelping boxes, and make a designated litter area in the back of the playpens. By 6 weeks, our puppies are fully litter trained, so at night, they only potty in the designated area. They are only in the pen to sleep at night and spend the day out playing and interacting.
Puppy playtime
Markie loves puppies till they get to be about this age!
When the humans need a break, babies go into their outdoor play yard to burn some energy.
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We hope you enjoyed seeing the environment that we raise our dogs in - we look forward to meeting you someday and watching your puppy grow up!