The larger the dog is, the more space it requires. Also, it is a living creature that needs comfortable conditions: a place to rest, protection from the wind, the scorching sun, rain, snow, and hail.
Caring owners at such moments seriously think about purchasing an outdoor dog house. Someone buys, and someone can build with their own hands. The most popular and budget options for dog houses are wooden kennels. Let’s take a closer look at these models.
Wooden doghouse as a classic solution
Wood is the most common, cheap and simple solution. It’s obvious, as the tree protects from sun, water and win, besides it is eco-safe material, without harmful substances. Such models have also pretty long service life: for about 6-7 years. Then the material becomes dry and loses its reliability. Otherwise, it’s easy to remove the old one and build\buy the new one.
If you decided to build an outdoor doghouse by yourself, it will be enough simple thick pinewood boards, plywood, and palettes. Keep in mind, that you shouldn’t treat materials with any chemical facilities, like against beetles. The reason is that dogs are very sensitive to smells, and the chemical substances can make the dog house uncomfortable for the pet.
The wooden structure should not be treated with any antiseptics and impregnations from bark beetles, because the dogs have a very developed sense of smell and the animal will be uncomfortable in a strongly smelling room.
Good advice for owners of the wooden houses. Try to make a kennel from the same material, like your home. Firstly, it will fit into the overall exterior. Secondly, it can save your money on materials. Also, you can make a house from broads, and add a blockhouse or slab.
Brick outside kennel
A big doghouse from bricks is very suitable for large breeds: German Shepherd, Caucasian Shepherd Dog, St. Bernard, Chow Chow. Such a kennel has large pros: long service life, reliability, and protection from any weather conditions: snow, wind, sun – nevermind.
A big doghouse can be made by yourself, and it’s not necessary to do it exactly with bricks. You can choose other materials, instead of bricks, like foam or cinder blocks.
Schematically, the building process of the brick doghouse has several steps:
- Clean and level the plot for the building, remove any garbage, stones, branches, etc.
- Mark out the contours for the future building.
- Dig a trench around the perimeter for the foundation.
- Pour a trench with concrete and left it to harden for a couple of days.
- Start to build the walls, checking out the vertical of structure and angles: it should be 90 degrees only.
- Leave some space for the manhole, but it must be suitable for your dog’s size.
- You can put a wooden block across the manhole and continue to build the whole masonry above.
- Now, you can insulate it by the wooden lining.
- Make an overlapping from the boards or plywood and install the roof from, slate, for instance.
As you can see, wooden and brick dog kennels are a universal solution for any type of dog, especially for a large breed. A wooden booth is easier to build and cheaper in terms of materials, while a brick model shows excellent weather resistance and long service life.