Our new guest

This is Heiland.  I picked him up Sunday afternoon after spending several hours working on his kennel.  He's going to spend a couple days here so we can get better acquainted and I can guage his adoption prospects.  Maybe it's because we had met yesterday, but he was happy enough to see me today, brought me his tire right away. 


He loves to go for car rides so he headed for the van and hopped in the open crate as soon as I had a leash on him, and he rode home no problems. 


Before picking him up I had several hours of work to do to make his kennel ready.  It's the kennel adjacent to Sparky and Gypsy Jr. and I haven't been using it since the puppies and it had been vacant for a while before that.

The kennel is 10' x 20' but it has a canopy frame that covers just 10' of it's length.   We had ordered a new tarp for that so I put it up for shade, hung a fan, and ran cords for the fan and rope lights.  I had an unused 6' x 10' kennel panel and I suspended that over the back section of the kennel, like a roof, to discourage jumping.  I covered that with shade cloth so by the time I was done all but the front 4' of the space had a shade covering over it. 

Kennel with new canopy, shade cloth, a-frame,
igloo, and a tire for Hieland to play with.

I pulled the water trough out of Nero's old kennel and soaked it in soapy water with a gallon of bleach to sanitize it.  I'm glad I got that cleaned up and used it because Heiland loved the water, stepping right into the tank as it was filling up. 


Most of this kennel was either heavy guage chain link fencing or had been reinforced with leftover fencing from our pasture fence, which is very heavy.  The front panel of the kennel with the gate was not particularly heavy and hadn't been reinforced and Heiland tested it a bit when I first put him in.  I found a piece of fence scrap that was just about the right size and added that to the front of the kennel.  It's now strong enough that when he bites the chain link it doesn't give him the idea that he could tear it up if he really wanted to. 

He is accustomed to living indoors, apparently, and being outside on an overhead runner.  I hope he will be content out there tonight.  I need to get a feel for what he's like with other dogs, and people. 


He's a great looking dog and I think he's fine, but I'm not going to push it.  I am letting him drag a short leash around for now so I can get a hold of him without reaching for his neck until he gets to trust me.  Once they see me as the food provider my popularity increases greatly. 


I let the terrible trio (Dixie, Hank, and Lana) out to the pasture again today for several hours while I was working outdoors.  I'm amazed that they wanted to get out there and run in this heat, but they did, although they then settled down in the shade.  Those three entertain themselves very nicely and it's fun to see them run.  Besides, a tired Hank is a quiet Hank is a good Hank.