Anytime a new dog arrives, some adjustment to the feeding/housing/movement system is required. We've had several new dogs in a brief time and it has taken a little while to work out arrangements, but I think I finally have.
The first dogs out in the morning are the bedroom dogs: Maya, Della, Elvis, and Paisley. I put them out the front door.
Norman is such a brute that getting him to go where I want him, when I want him, has been a challenge. I finally realized it's easier on me to keep Norman and Chico in the kitchen crates at night. In the morning I can open the door to the a/c yard and there's nowhere else for them to go. It's faster and more efficient that bringing them downstairs from the office because they wouldn't always come directly.
Once they are out I can bring Daisy downstairs from the office and get her out the back door to the dog yard while the bedroom dogs are still running around in the front yard. Then I go let the Dakota shepherds out of the puppy shed.
I feed Daisy first on the front porch of the dog yard shed but then close that door and let our dogs into that shed from its back door and then feed Maya, Elvis, and Della. I get food ready for Paisley, Norman, and Chico, and Paisley follows me back inside the house where I feed her in the kitchen. Then I carry the food for Norman and Chico out to the a/c yard and lead them out that gate for the short walk over to Daneland. With me carrying their food dishes, they follow me closely although I have to carry to food dishes close to my chest like a football and try to avoid being tackled by Norman. This is the trickiest part of the whole operation.
After those two have their food, I get food dishes ready for Dakota, Sturgis, and Fargo. They are getting Panacure and canned food in addition to the dry. I prepare all that in the house then carry them outside to their half of Daneland, close Dakota in the shed with one dish, and let Sturgis and Fargo share the other two.
That's feeding accomplished and it's really pretty quick and easy. Our four dogs make their way back indoors and Daisy may stay out in the dog yard or come back in. She moves back and forth a few times throughout the day. She can use the downstairs crate during the day, but at night she comes up to the office so the boys can use the two crates in the kitchen.
I usually walk Chico back to the house on leash in the evenings, Norman more or less comes along. He goes into the crate pretty readily now by putting something tasty in a food bowl and chucking it in to the far backend of the crate so he has to go in after it.
The shepherds are slowly, incrementally, getting slightly better about going inside at night. Fargo is still the holdout, the other two are lured inside pretty readily with food.
That's the new system, although it's only been fully implemented once so far. The pictures are from today's walk with Della and Elvis on the first full day of spring, 2023. It was a beautiful day.
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