When we bought this old house, it had a Sauna in a roughly  8' x 16' outbuilding.  We don't sauna very much, but thought a solid outbuilding would come in handy for something.  We decided to make some modifications since Dove is so protective of her pups (with other dogs, not people).  We added a dog door, kennel run, automatic waterer, and washing machine.  We put our whelping box in and had pups out there.  The whelping box didn't really work in the space, and was starting to come apart at the seams.

This litter will ride out a good portion of the winter out there, so some modifications had to be made.  First, there were two storm windows covering huge openings.  I covered one completely, and put in a smaller energy star rated window.


As you can see, I couldn't bear to just get rid of the old whelping box, so I used it to patch up the wall.  I'm going to leave it like this, but I'll add some trim.  Next I made a built-in whelping box.  This has two chambers, one for Momma and one for the pups.  Once they get weaned, one will be for sleep and play, the other for elimination.


Here's the view of the door:


The center divider is removable or can be replaced with a shorter piece.  The door can be partially or fully blocked with some white board in a slot.  The interior walls are made of the stuff they use for dry-erase boards.  It should be super easy to clean, but it's not as durable as I'd like.  The outer siding is reclaimed cedar and the same as the exterior of the building.


We needed to have "unmanned" heat so I installed this unit that I had kicking around.  It's overkill.  I think the pilot light will provide plenty of heat.


This is the original woodstove for the sauna.  The basket of rocks traps heat and releases it slowly.  So long as you don't make it too hot, you can keep the heat very even and comfortable with this.  Then I started to decorate (yes, I know I haven't finished cleaning up).


These are Dovie's trophies.  UT plaque and two breeders awards.  Next I hung my trophy moose mount.


I also replaced the light as the puny single bulb didn't cut it without the two huge windows gone.  I put in another energy star rated product; a two tube florescent unit.  I put in "daylight" bulbs and the space is bright, cheery and comfortable.  I will frame in an opening for an air conditioning unit prior to any summer pups.  I want to be able to keep the climate in that room perfect.

I still need to put in some trim, and some other punch-list items, but this is an improvement.  We will continue to improve and modify until we come up with the perfect way to rear pups.