More About Life at Prairie Wind Kennels
FACILITIES AT PRAIRIE WIND KENNELS
“It’s a Dog’s Life” takes on a different meaning for the German Shorthaired Pointers at Prairie Wind Kennels. Located between historic Laramie and Cheyenne on the high-prairies in the shadow of the Medicine Bow Range at an elevation of around 7.000 feet. Our facilities include four separate kennels, each holding around eight dogs. Each is temperature controlled, fully protected inside sleep areas with outside runs and play areas. We have game birds available for training all year: quail, chukar, huns, and pheasant. They are kept in a marvelous facility dubbed the “Bird Palace”.
Our facilities and property are ideal for dog-living, dog-training, dog related competitive events (especially for German Shorthaired Pointers), guest comfort, and horse-living. Our facilities include a large indoors arena for horse riding and training, outside and indoors runs for horses. Our “bunk-house” is a large facility set up to comfortably meet the needs of our two week-long NGSPA (National German Shorthaired Pointer Association) Championships, NAVHDA Natural Ability Test, guest visitors, and even weddings. It has a commercial kitchen, men’s and women’s rest-rooms with showers, a laundry facility, seating for a hundred people, a regulation pool table and a three bedroom apartment and guest-facility. We also have a separate 5 bedroom Guest House on 20 fenced in acres at the east-end of our property. Our grounds include a square mile of totally fenced in area, with about 60 acres of natural game bird habitat along a brushy creek. There is a variety of terrain including rim-rock, rolling prairie, rock outcroppings and brushy hill-sides.
PUPS GROWING UP AT PRAIRIE WIND KENNELS
It is a wonderful setting for a young and talented German Shorthaired Pointer pup to grow up in. They start out in an extremely safe and nurturing environment, then as their bodies and senses develop they are gradually introduced to many new experiences. Each new experience builds confidence and draws out their natural intelligence. They learn to romp and play on all kinds of “strange” surfaces and “challenging” new environments.
Starting from the very beginning, the pregnant mom is brought into our house to live with us the last month of her term. She gets wonderful care, is introduced to her whelping box, and learns to be around and totally accept our several “house dogs”, and gets used to the daily routine, often going in to the office with Keith.
Other breeders think we are crazy, but we keep the whelping box in our master bedroom so that we will be right there when the pups start to come. It may mean a series of sleepless nights, but we keep the mom and young brood in our bedroom for the first one or two weeks. Many things can happen to young pups during this critical period of helplessness, but we are always there to intervene and help.
The next move is into a special room in our house downstairs. It is a large room with controlled climate, lighting, and room for mom to escape the pups if she wants. The pups receive constant human attention during this period, with Keith often sleeping in the neighboring bedroom to respond to the alarmed cries of our young German Shorthaired Pointer pups.
At about three weeks the pups receive a homemade concoction of healthy and nutritious food to begin the weaning process which begins in earnest at around four weeks. When the pups are weaned and on their own we move them to a beautiful kennel adjoining our house. It is temperature controlled and perfectly set up for young pups to be safe, clean, and have room to romp and play.
Our German Shorthaired Pointerspups are introduced to paper as soon as they are old enough to crawl out of the whelping box. They learn to eliminate on paper outside of their sleeping area immediately. This pattern continues and they are very close to being “potty trained” when they are eight weeks old.
We get to know each pup, and give individual attention and loving care to each one. After they have had their first shots at six weeks, we introduce them to game birds, game-bird habitat, the office at Sierra Trading Post, many new people, young children, and other mature but “safe” German Shorthairs. We believe this is why our pups are so well socialized when they are finally ready to go to their new homes.
Most of our litters get to go on side-trips which might include a week at our house in Cody, Wyoming, Christmas with our children in Monroe, Washington, or a nearby Colorado field trial.
We take the job of breeding, raising, and socializing our German Shorthaired Pointer pups very seriously. As you might imagine it is a lot of work and a huge commitment of time and effort. That is why we only have one or two litters a year. But as we always say: “It is about Quality not Quantity!”
DOGS AND PUPS LIVING AND MATURING AT PRAIRIE WIND KENNELS
Some of our German Shorthaired Pointers spend a lot of time traveling the country running field trials, or attending summer and winter training camps. But all of our dogs spend time “at home” for balance. While at home they have time to run free on our 20 fenced-in acres at home. They take turns coming in to spend time in our home, and every day three or four dogs accompany Keith to the office. They learn to “drive” his truck, and to be comfortable around strangers.
Our “old ladies” spend their retired years in comfort around our home and helping our pups become socialized. They warn us of strangers approaching and brighten our days.
At Prairie Wind Kennels our German Shorthaired Pointers of all-ages are cared for and loved, possibly to the extreme, but that is the way we want it.
