LACEY (The Flea Market Pooch no one wanted) COOKIE (the abused and starved pitbull with no hope, PUZZLES (flea market pup that the owners were arrested on animal cruelty charges) RALEIGH (the boxer/ pit thats mother was tragically hit by a car) DYNASTY (The pitbull that was only used for breeding and her owners left her to starve on a chain who was also unknowingly pregnant) ABBY (The only puppy we were keeping from the litter due to Lacey taking such a liking to her) and BELLA (the black puppy that no one wanted out of the litter) That is a grand total of 7 dogs. Cookie, Puzzles, and Raleigh are crate trained (Kind of) They stay outside during the day and sleep in their kennels in the house at night (Puzzles would stay in his cage 34-7 if Id let him. He hates the outdoors and wants nothing to do with it or the rest of the house, His kennel is his safe haven I guess)Lacey gets the run of the house I guess you could say, She eats my doors if I lock her in the bed room so we let her roam. Dynasty has to stay in the bathroom while we are gone because she really enjoys the stuffing in throw pillows. Bella and Abby are both in kennels while we are gone (which is never more than a few hours because I do not work) but they aren't completely house trained yet so they arent allowed in general population until that day comes lol I know that was a very long back story but here is my question I guess. I really hate that my dogs are in crates for hours at a time, but I open the door and they run straight to them. I have tried leaving them outside and they just wont have it! I can not let them just run free in the house because there is so many of them. If you ever seen my dogs and met them you would know they are very well taken care of and they are all so loving and rambunctious.. Any ideas on what I can do? Should I make some of them live outside permanently or just keep doing what I am doing because they seem pretty content with the arrangements? I have a baby on the way also, but the dogs dont concern me in that aspect. I'm not going to "boot" them out because of that, just needing to know what to do to better take care of their needs! They are all very healthy now by the way. It has taken us months with each of them to get them healthy again from the circumstances they were in before. (Except Abby and Bella of course) Thanks in advance
:)