What would you want in a "dog room"?

Thanks so much for all of the suggestions, everyone!

This room will be in the house - I have seen some beautiful outdoor pens/kennels, but for my peace of mind I would prefer to have my dogs in the same house as me. I also will never have as many dogs (or puppies) as a breeder would - I'll usually have three (one young up-and-comer, one competitive adult, one retired/close to retirement), and maximum four. The dogs will have access to the rest of the house when I am home - the main purpose of this room is to groom, feed, organize and store equipment, and to give them extra space to roam when I'm not home (currently they are kenneled while I am at work).

I went over the floor plan today - if we go with the plan I'm leaning toward right now, it will be on the right corner of the house. The room will be approximately 8 x 16, and there will be a patio door to a grassy area bordered on two sides by the house and garage, and the other two sides by a fence (I live in an area with lots of wolves - plenty of dogs, large and small, have been killed in our area over the past few years, so a fenced in area is a must if I'm not out there with them). Hopefully there will be a second large window as well - based on the feedback, it sounds like a lot of people are advocates of lots of windows. There will be a connecting door to the laundry room. Having read through the responses, I will also definitely be putting in a cable connection.

I'm thinking of putting in a tiled area similar to a shower basin instead of a tub - any thoughts? **Similar to http://www.houzz.com/photos/375168/Laundry-Room-traditional-laundry-room-philadelphia or http://www.houzz.com/photos/322068/Dog-Wash-Room--traditional-hall-minneapolis

I loved the idea of the ceiling fan and the radio. I'm also going to try incorporate some room for an additional few dog beds which aren't in the crates.

Toffee's Mom and romeosangiovese - The basement will actually be left completely unfinished and used for the purpose of dog training! I'll be putting mats down there, and I loved the suggestion of full length mirrors.

Thanks again for the suggestions, everyone!
 
Since I've only got one sheltie what he needs may not be what your dog need but one thing I've noticed mine needed was fresh cold air in the night. So if I was to have a dog room for mine, I would like the rest of the house to be insulated somehow so that if the dog room has windows open in the night rest of the house's heating system won't kick in.
 
I think those shower stall washing areas are great for large breeds that would be difficult to lift into a tub. First, it will kill your back to be bending over the whole time, the dogs shake if they get the chance, and will soak down you and the floor. Also, grooming or bathing a dog while the dog is on the floor is much harder. You want the dog to stand still, and getting them up off the floor, as in, in a tub, or on a grooming table encourages that.
It is just so much more practical to have the dog at your height, where it is easy to reach under the belly, and wash all the parts.

I think the 16' is a good length, but 8' is narrow. I would suggest either 10' x 16' or 10' x 14' if you have the option to change the dimensions. 8 feet is spatially narrow, unless the room's purpose is overall small, ie. bathroom, walk-in closet. But when you have a room half as narrow as it is long, it really gives a hallway feeling. Meaning everything is lined up on the wall and you have a corridor to walk down. It works (kind of) in laundry rooms, because there is usually no furniture and visually you have built in everything (w and d against the wall). If you think of a sliding glass door as being 6' you can visualize 12" on each side of the opening.
All this is of course a moot point if you are working within the parameters of a existing space.
 
missjenneygirl said:
I think those shower stall washing areas are great for large breeds that would be difficult to lift into a tub. First, it will kill your back to be bending over the whole time, the dogs shake if they get the chance, and will soak down you and the floor. Also, grooming or bathing a dog while the dog is on the floor is much harder. You want the dog to stand still, and getting them up off the floor, as in, in a tub, or on a grooming table encourages that.
It is just so much more practical to have the dog at your height, where it is easy to reach under the belly, and wash all the parts.

I think the 16' is a good length, but 8' is narrow. I would suggest either 10' x 16' or 10' x 14' if you have the option to change the dimensions. 8 feet is spatially narrow, unless the room's purpose is overall small, ie. bathroom, walk-in closet. But when you have a room half as narrow as it is long, it really gives a hallway feeling. Meaning everything is lined up on the wall and you have a corridor to walk down. It works (kind of) in laundry rooms, because there is usually no furniture and visually you have built in everything (w and d against the wall). If you think of a sliding glass door as being 6' you can visualize 12" on each side of the opening.
All this is of course a moot point if you are working within the parameters of a existing space.
Click to expand...

In an ideal world I would have a larger dog room, but unfortunately, if I increased the width of the dog room, automatically the width of the laundry room, bathroom, closet, and entrance on that side of the house would also be increased, which means a lot of wasted space, and at $100 - $150 per square foot a lot of wasted money. There were floor plans which allowed for a larger dog room, but they also didn't allow for patio doors and an outside run, which I consider just as important as the dog room itself. The patio doors will be on the 16 foot side, and we're planning for some creative uses of the space, so hopefully it won't end up looking like a hallway :smile2:.
 
Perfect!

We all have to work within the realistic parameters of the space, and of course, budget we have. We are just so lucky to be able to have a designated space to keep all our dog supplies neat and organized.
Good Luck with your project, and keep us filled in along the way.
 
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