Herc and work

Early Saturday afternoon I picked up Hercules in Charlottesville.  He was coming to me from another VGSR foster home.  It appears that Herc is one of those dogs that gets possessive and protective in his home after settling in.  We are going to see what he's like in a new foster home, mine. 

He seems like a nice enough dog, he rode well in the car.  I put him in a kennel by himself for the afternoon adjacent to Riley and the boxers, Augie and Lana.  There was a little fence fighting, mostly instigated by Augie, nothing serious, just male posturing.


While they were getting acquainted Clay and I put up a canopy over one of the kennels that I've been working on for a while.  It's the one that was damaged in the derecho last summer.  I had taken it down completely and have slowly been putting it back together.  The old kennel was made with panels that were only 4' high.  A set of new 6' kennel panels had been donated to me so they were put into service.  It will make for a more secure kennel since it's higher, and more importantly, we no longer have to bend down to go through a 4' high gate. 

For additional security, I put 2x10 boards along the inside perimeter of the kennel to prevent tearing through the chain link or digging at the base.  The gate was strengthened by putting on a second latch and covering the gate panel with a welded wire panel from a disassembled crate. 

I had built two, 4' A-frame houses and put them together to make an 8' shelter filled a foot deep with straw and made even cozier with an igloo doghouse turned with the opening facing into the A-frames.  All that remained was to put a new canopy over the top and we did that today.

 


It's nice to have that space useable again.  I put the two boxers in it this evening and then introduced Hercules and Riley.   They had already met through the fence, Riley is friendly enough, and there were no problems. 

The horse goes home tomorrow.  We will miss him, but it will simplify the routine around here at least a bit.