TOUR – Archway Labradors (Retriever)

Archway Labradors is a breeding kennel for Black, Yellow and Chocolate Labrador Retievers, located just outside of Carman, Manitoba. I’m BettyAnn Leyenhorst, and I run the kennel on our home property with the help of my husband Andrew, and a few part-time employees. Although we do not provide in-person tours, I’d like to share with you this photo tour of our facility. I hope these photos give you an idea of our kennel set-up and how we care for the dogs that live here.

This is the main kennel room inside our building. The building has floor heating and the kennels have rubber mats, which keeps the dogs comfortable and dry. This room is regularly pressure washed and sanitized, as cleanliness is very important for our dog’s overall health. The dogs are separated into the smaller crates on the right for their meals, and then moved across to the left and grouped together in the larger kennels while resting. The dogs have a variety of toys indoors, and of course, access to fresh water at all times.

This is the first room upon entering the building. We may keep dogs in regular crates up front here for various reasons. Dogs in heat, pregnant mothers, nursing mothers of older puppies, and young dogs whom we feel need extra training and supervision may spend some time in this front room, entering the runs through the east run’s front gate. Depending on what is happening at Archway, this room may also be empty and used to show our customers available puppies.

We have another larger room in the back of our building which is used for different things depending on what is happening at the kennel and what dogs we have in our care. We have kennels that can be set up for young pups who are sticking around with us for a while yet. We also may use this room for a nursery extension with our collapsible nursery pens if we need the space. In winter, it can be used as an indoor playroom.

In the center of the building is our storage room. We store things like the cleaning supplies, fans, heaters, toys, collars, food bowls, water pails, and the pressure washer, dehumidifier and shop vac. For the puppies we need heat lamps, blankets, towels, a weighscale, microchip reader, and those adorable colorful ribbons.
In this room we also have a washer and dryer, a bath tub, and a utility sink.
Of course, there is also a pallet of TLC dog food and puppy food bags, and boxes of TLC cookies for treats.
We also keep any medical items and medications here.

We use Kongs very regularly at our kennel. These durable food toys provide dogs with a enriching and satisfying challenge, and we highly recommend them! Our routines include soaking part of their TLC food ration and stuffing it into the Kongs before freezing them for this activity. The dogs are separated into the smaller crates to enjoy a kong.

We have two main dog runs at our kennel. They each have plenty of room for the dogs to run, and we added some different structures for them to play on.

Summer brings weather that allows the dogs to both play and relax outside. We can provide more outdoor time during the warm months, with access to shade and water.

Our dogs also get out and about on the yard. We take them on leash walks around the property and along the treelines and feilds behind our place. They also enjoy spending time with me out around the yard in the summer.

In the summer months, our grandchildren regularly come over and spend time with our dogs. They help us socialize, excersise and practice basic obedience commands. A fast-paced and competitive game of fetch is always a hit with most of our dogs. .

We enjoy winter at the kennel. Although there can be many stormy, cold and windy days durring our Manitoba winters, we still need to get the dogs outside to excersise. We may do more indoor activities on the bitterly cold days, but do take advantage of and enjoy those beautiful, fresh ones!

Our Nursery room is in the front of the building and has two nursery pens for our moms and their puppies. When the moms are getting close to thier due date, we move them from the entry room into these pens with a pool. The pool helps keep the puppies contained and safe durring the first few weeks of life. We provide blankets and a heat lamp in the pool. Once they have thier eyes open and are crawling around we remove the pool and they begin to explore thier pen. They grow quickly, gaining weight every day on mom’s milk, and soon they are eating out of a shallow pan of soaked puppy food. The building has floor heating throughout which keeps the puppies cozy and warm at the floor level. We may also use additional space heaters or fans in this room if needed to keep an optimal temperature. There is a window between the entry room and the nursery, so that we can peek in to check on them without disturbing the family.

The puppies grow so fast! We add softwood shavings to the back of the pen for them to use. This keeps things cleaner and drier in the front of the pens between our regular cleanings. It also introduces the puppies to the idea of pottie training, and keeping an area clean. If the weather is nice, we open the doors to the outdoor nursery pens, and the puppies can have their first few looks around at the outside world.

Our grandchildren also enjoy visiting puppies! If the pups are old enough, we may also let them out into the main dog runs for more room to run and play with the kids. We also move the pups outside for play time while we do a deep clean of their indoor pen.

Before we know it, it is time for us to say good-bye to another beautiful Archway puppy.

Have a good life, little one!

Raising these wonderful dogs really is a lifestyle commitment for us, and a true labor of love. We are thankful to all of our great dogs for bringing these amazing pups into the world. We also thank all of our valued customers, and wish you and your puppy all the best in your journey of life together.