Anyone want to share pics of their dog houses?
anybody have any neat homemade ones or funny looking ones? Please share.

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I'm only here to share knowlege and to learn.

Those are NO good for cold weather. Too much air can get in and the dog could actually freeze if in freezing temperatures. I have a few homemade dog houses (with cedar shavings inside) but they serve the purpose and are not for looks. I also have a few that are of the fiberglass kind that you can get at feed stores or Wal-Mart or K-Mart. My homemade one are just made out of sheets of plywood with shingles on top for rain purposes so they will last longer. If you have wooden dog houses it is best to have the door on the side so that when cold weather comes and in windy conditions the dog has a wall to be behind instead of air coming straight in on him or her from the door. Sorry, I don`t have photos but just telling you of what I have. Then I have those dogs that are in the indoor dog house. You know the kind. The ones that hog your bed and couch and everything else they want.

"If your not in it for life, get a stuffed animal."

DogBabi- That is a neat looking house - Do you know how they hold up? Does the sun make them brittle??

Mimi

'When we stop learning, we die.'

I don't have a picture, but my husband has made many dog houses..He always lifts the floor off the ground as well as adding a sheet of insulation board between the layers of wood.Then he places a heating pad.We use Stanfield Heat Pads, they are very safe and come in different wattage,and they last.They he adds vinyl pet doors..The houses are very warm and can be desighed anyway you want.

Hi AmPugs: I don't know a lot about the barrel houses. I think they do hold up pretty good if you put a tent like tarp roof up over them. We used to have a couple that were similar to those. Only, they didn't have the overhang out front...They had been cut about 2/3 open for the doorway and the bottom looked the same. The guys that made ours put a 2x4 on the back end and a 4x4 on the front end to keep it from rocking and they drilled drain holes in the front end in case water got in it, it could drain out easily and the height difference wasn't enough to bother the dogs.
We only had ours for about 2 years and then
we got two dogs as rescues and they ended up with parvo. Since you can't disinfect plastic totally, we burned them. We couldn't take the risk of that parvo spreading anywhere.
As for wintertime, Bar B is right...they aren't really great unless you have your dog pens sheltered from the wind and stuff. When we had those two, we took strips of old levis and cut them about 2" thick and scrwed them to the top of the doorway. The dogs could still see out inbetween the strips, but the wind was blocked.
We also put old clothing and/or blankets inside for them and then tarped the fences on the wind side of the pens. The dogs seem to like them just fine.
We have all kinds of dog houses...some pretty funny ones...we took a pick up bed that had been converted into a trailer and put a camper top on it and put an old mattress inside it for some of the dogs. These dogs have a pretty good sized yard and it was going to come a big rainstorm and we had no time to build a dog house and really couldn't afford to buy one, so we backed that pickup bed trailer into their yard and secured it to the fence wire and put some cinder block steps up there and the dogs went nuts over it. They really loved it. We also put a tarp up a bit higher above the camper to help keep the rain out, just in case the camper might have leaked. It didn't. Since they liked it so much, we let them keep it and the tarp has helped to keep the heat off of them too. The tarp makes like an overhang and that way their steps don't get wet either.
This looks like a book here...I'll write more about our other dog houses later.
The food barrels are an inexpensive way to have a dog house and they are more affordably disposable (should the need arise) than the igloos and other ones you buy; for us, anyway.

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I'm only here to share knowlege and to learn.

I kind of cheat - there's a guy here in town that makes nice dog houses for around $25 out of wood - They look pretty good too.
I had a couple of metal barrels with palattes over them in a kind of A-frame. Deep bedding and tarpaperand shingles on the roof - made a neat house for the barn cats. I was wondering about the plastic though - it seems to get brittle real fast.

Mimi

'When we stop learning, we die.'

Thinking about it, it would get brittle without a roof of some kind over it and then it would still get brittle over time...but the food barrels here run about $14 for the large ones and the igloo dog houses run about $109...so it's not bad to replace them every so often (monetary wise).

I have seen similar ones made out of metal barrels also..

What we did over the regular dog houses that have roofs already...we made roofs out of wood and tin 6 feet high. That helps to keep the heat down inside the dog houses and gives the rain a place to drip farther away from the dog houses too.

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I'm only here to share knowlege and to learn.

DogBabi,

I have always heard that the cedar shavings have been warmer during winter months and found that to be true for my area. Try one house during the winter in your area and see if you can tell the difference. The blankets and quilts are usually ice cold when they first laydown but with shavings, it is like a calf laying down on hay. DON`T use hay or straw cause it makes them itch and sneeze. Also cedar shavings makes them smell better...just my opinion.

"If your not in it for life, get a stuffed animal."

Hi Bar B...thanks for the advice..Where can I get the cedar shavings? I'd like to try them this year. We did use some hay last year, but the dogs didn't seem to like it much. The thing they've liked the best is the old blue jeans..don't know why. maybe it's cuz they can't tear them up as easy. They do eventually tear up the blankets.

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I'm only here to share knowlege and to learn.

I get mine from either Lowe`s (a hardware store), Wal-Mart, K-Mart, feed stores sometimes carries it. It is bundled in a plastic bag the size of a hay bale. Pine is ok too but cedar is suppose to detour fleas...

"If your not in it for life, get a stuffed animal."

Thanks for the pics Rayna! I too am thinking of getting an outdoor building and making petitions in it for their own areas. Like stalls in a barn for horses. Think it would look cute, like a childs playhouse. Then again maybe I just need to move boyfriend out and ALL pooches in...He is soooooo jealous...

"If your not in it for life, get a stuffed animal."

Bar B, it is an idea!

Abortion Stops A Beating Heart

quote:

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Originally posted by Rayna:
This is hubby's doghouse. LOL

Abortion Stops A Beating Heart

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Rayna,
You sure have some nice buildings. It is so pretty and green where you live! South Carolina is beautiful.

I don't have any pics, but we gave our 4 dogs a whole trailer house, big 18x80...the trailer had been flood damaged and dried out and we cleaned it all up and put some baby bed mattresses in there and the dogs love it...a whole house to themselves...of course the doors are the actual door opening where the doors of the house once were.

my dog house is my house
or rather my dog's house is my house

Sorry, no pictures yet***need to get a camera
Hope to soon.

Wow now thats living

NakidDog, thats a very cool set up for your pups! I love it!thanks for showing us all

We use a Camper Shell from a truck, for two adult dobies. They love it because they can look out the side windows. We cut plywood to fit the front and made a small door. It is totally waterproof and we put a plywood floor and carpet down. I had a wooden dog house they would not stay in because they could not see to "guard" the yard. But they are always in this one.

WOW Nakiddog...can I stay at the doghouse?LOL
That is some doghouse gal...

"Have you hugged your DOG today?"

NakidDog- Mia and Sophie (and me of course) could not be more jealous! Did you build it yourself? I think it's such a great idea and I'd like to copy you one day!

I have a friend whose doghouse is a miniature spitting image of her house.

Cat