So You Want To Build A Dog House?

When it comes to building a home from home for your dog, it pays to consider all the aspects before you start. There would be nothing worse than building a beautiful home for your dog and then discovering you have made a crucial error. So, planning is the key. Make sure you use durable materials that will stand the test of time and refer often to any building plans you use.

When it comes to the interior of your dog’s new home, as long as it can be easily cleaned, there is no end to what you can do. You are only limited by your imagination. If you are going to put windows in your dog house, you could add some curtains. Put pictures on the walls (maybe a group photo of your dog’s precious family). Depending upon where you live, painting the interior of the house can be done in either a particularly dark or light shade, for more comfort in hot or cold conditions. Painting the inside a light colour, for instance, will help keep your dog cool.

It pays to have a raised platform as the floor of the house. This prevents damp and rain from entering. If you want to shield your dog from the elements, adding a pet door will certainly keep out draughts and rain. You may want to add a deck or porch to the house, so your pet has somewhere to loll in the sun. (And maybe just because the neighbours will think it looks good...) When using nails or screws in the construction of the house, make absolutely sure they are driven accurately. A stray screw or nail sticking into the interior can cause serious injury or infection.

If your pet has a penchant for sitting on top of things, it might be worth considering a sloping roof rather than the traditional peaked one. If you decide to go for this, use materials that don’t get too hot in the sun. A piece of external plywood painted with a (non-toxic) preservative should suffice. Depending on just how far you want to go, you could even add some dividers into the interior to create an extra room or two. This is especially useful if you have more than one animal. (And it looks good too.)

A few days, and a good imagination, should see a resulting masterpiece of architecture. There really is no end to what you can achieve once you get going. By the way, if you get it all wrong make sure there’s room in the dog house for you, too.

Build A Dog House
A guide on how to build a dog house.