How to make a dog house with your own hands?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

A house for a dog is not at all a whim of the owners of the animal. Each pet needs its own place, a corner of personal space where you can go. Houses are especially necessary for small animals living in a family with small children.

What to look out for?

When planning to design and equip a house for a dog with your own hands, you need to take into account a number of important points:

• the bottom or a replaceable dense mattress is more optimally made of polyurethane foam, and not of foam rubber, and even more so not of synthetic winterizer or cotton wool;
• the base of the bedding should be pulled into a fabric cover, it should be replaceable, the best option is to sew in a zipper, buttons cannot be used, ties are uncomfortable, and elastic bands may not hold the pillowcase, especially if the animal is constantly moving;
• you don't need to build a house for an active animal out of old large boxes, even when using a frame;
• you can not use the foam so that it is available to the dog, not only her mouth, but also the claws;
• if there is a small child in the apartment, the place of the pet should be either uncomfortable for children's gatherings or made of verydurable materials.

Each of these points must be taken into account, otherwise all the efforts and emotions spent on the dog house may be in vain.

About mattress materials

Polyurethane foam is a durable and resilient material. On a mattress made from it, the animal will never have bedsores, worn elbows and other nuances that are unpleasant for the owners, spoiling the look of the dog, caused by improper bedding.

Often, old pillows are taken as a mattress, especially for small animals. This is not entirely correct. A dog can tear a feather pillow with its claws, many of them have a habit of "digging" their bedding. The synthetic winterizer does not hold its shape, but rolls up in lumps inside the pillow. Such a mattress is completely uncomfortable, moreover, it is able to provide abrasions on the elbows even in a young animal.

In addition, such an old pillow will definitely form the dog's habit of "digging" the bedding, as the animal will try to make its mattress at least a little acceptable for rest. Having learned once to dig, the dog will do it always and everywhere. That is, he will begin "excavations" on the master's bed, on the sofa in the living room, in armchairs and in other places. The same applies to cotton wool.

Foam rubber does not have such disadvantages as feathers, synthetic winterizer or cotton wool. However, for a mattress, firstly, you will need a very thick, wide piece of material, and secondly, with maximum density. Such foam rubber in construction markets is not very cheap and is quite comparable in terms ofcost-effective with a ready-made chipboard shophouse covered in faux fur.

However, if there is a mattress from a crib, then, of course, it must be used. The only disadvantage of a wide sheet of foam rubber is that it does not last forever. This artificial filler rots, "gets old", crumbles, fades.

Specific fillers, such as chopped dry grass, polished grits, wood dust, are usually rarely used. But if you want to make just such a mattress, you need to take into account the temperament of the animal. Not every animal will sleep sweetly on a mattress that smells like meadow grass, a mattress that rustles with cereals, or on a hard bedding with wood dust that smells like a sawmill.

About the mattress pillowcase

Whatever the mattress in the dog house is made of, the base must be insulated with a cloth. You can do this in different ways:

• sew the base of the bedding into a bag of soft tarpaulin or other durable and moisture-resistant fabric and put on replacement pillowcases;
• immediately use dog underwear.

Do not require sheathing the base for pillowcases only polyurethane foam bedding. They can be immediately put on interchangeable covers made of dense fabric. Foam rubber should be sewn up and only then put on a cover that can be removed and washed.

As a fastener on pillowcases, it is more optimal to use a zipper. Buttons can be chewed off and swallowed by an animal, or a small child can do this, if there is one, of course. The age of the dog is not so important here. Of course, the puppy will tear off the buttons anyway, but an adult animal is quite capable of doing them.

Ties and ribbons procrastinate, gnaw and tear off absolutely all dogs. The same applies to all kinds of decorative elements of pillowcases and the whole house - bows, ruffles, brooches, lace balls and more. Such a touching mattress and a house for a dog is not suitable for a pet's life. They are used exclusively for photo shoots.

Do I need a frame?

This question is faced by all owners who are considering how to make a dog house. Pet stores offer options with and without frames.

When making a house from scratch, you need a frame for it, especially if there are small children in the family. In the presence of children, the house is made not only for the pet, but also for the child. Nothing can be done about this, the baby will still go to visit the dog, like the animal to him. Of course, in the presence of a child, the frame must be made strong, and the top of the house must be as unsuitable as possible for gatherings and leaving toys.

What can I use?

As a rule, a house for a dog in an apartment is not built from scratch, they do not buy sheets of chipboard or something else for it, but use old things and furniture as a basis. Thanks to this approach, the pet's corner is unique, non-standard and, of course, interesting and aesthetic.

Do-it-yourself dog houses, photos of which can be proudly published on social networks to the envy of friends, can be designed:

• fromplay tent;
• baby strollers;
• bedside tables and other furniture;
• baskets and so on.

In principle, absolutely any old thing, even an umbrella, can be used to build a corner for a pet. Large cane umbrellas make very original houses for dogs of small breeds in the form of sailboats, balloons and other designs.

Of course, when choosing what to build an original place for your pet from, you need to proceed from the size of the animal and its preferences. Some dogs sleep curled up, others stretch out on their backs, like people, and spread their paws or lie on their side. It is necessary to take this into account, because the pet should feel comfortable in his personal corner.

How to make a play tent?

Using children's play tents is the easiest way to make a dog house. You don't have to do anything but the mattress. However, there are some nuances:

• you need to choose a permanent, stationary place without bright light, drafts and not on the aisle;
• required to secure the tent to the floor with self-tapping screws;
• mattress should be a couple of centimeters wider than the base.

This house is often additionally decorated. For example, with a high open passage, curtains are hung on a fishing line into the tent. Triangular tents are stylized as wigwams or tents. It looks quite interesting, but, carried away by the external design, one should not forget that the onlythe purpose of furnishing the house is the convenience, safety and comfort of the dog.

How to make a stroller for newborns?

The baby carriage box is the perfect, fully finished house for a medium-sized dog. All that is required from the owner of the animal is:

• make a mattress;
• find a house for a permanent place in the apartment;
• fix the "lampshade" of the box firmly;
• attach with screws to the floor;
• make the exterior design optional.

Although the box is quite heavy, it is necessary to fix it on the floor with self-tapping screws. This is required by normal security. A dog, even small and light, can play out and knock over the box, crushing itself. The same can be done by a child who will definitely visit the dog.

How to use furniture?

Old bedside tables are the foundation of truly inexhaustible possibilities of how to make a house for a dog with your own hands so that it becomes not only a cozy hole for a pet, but also an interior item in the apartment and a reason for pride.

The simplest design solution is a fabulous house. For this you will need:

• cut holes in the walls of different sizes or completely remove them, leaving corners-columns, you can make stripes or something else;
• furniture legs need to be removed;
• the whole structure is only fixed to the floor if the dog is big enough to knock it over;
• the upper perimeter is formed from the remaining pieces of wood.

The whole structure needs to be decorated in accordance with the interior and your own taste. It can be sanded, treated with colored impregnations or stains and varnished. The result is a house that looks like it is made of expensive wood in a modern rococo or baroque style.

Can be painted with juicy bright colors or, conversely, pastel, whitewashed shades of enamel. In the first case, you get a house in a Mexican household style, and in the second - a European pastoral. Can be wallpapered or covered with fabric. You can use airbrushing.

There are no limits for imagination in the design of appearance. The top of the bedside table does not need to be forced with your things. It should be taken under any things of the dog. For example, if the animal participates in exhibitions, then the top of the house is the best place for awards.

How to make from cart?

A good country-style dog house will come out of an ordinary basket. When designing such a place for a pet, you need to proceed from the shape of a wicker product. The way it would be appropriate to use a large box with a lid would be completely unacceptable for a small "grandfather's" basket with one handle.

Such houses are suitable only for small and fragile dogs, for example, they are no longer suitable for an English bulldog or Scotch tape. To determine how best to make a house, the basket needs to be turned in different ways in the place allotted for it in the apartment. Often they don’t do anything at all, they just fix the braid on the floor and lay the mattress, and hang something on the handlefunny.

Indeed, this option is often the most convenient for the dog. And so that the house does not look completely poor, above the handle you can place a plate cut out of plywood, processed and beautifully designed with the name of the pet. Of course, it must be securely fastened.

Using a basket is also good because such a house also serves as a carrier for the animal. If you need to go somewhere, just unscrew the screws that secure the basket to the floor. This is important because, once in a hotel or in a compartment of a long-distance train, many animals begin to get nervous, whine, bark and even howl. And if they are in their own familiar house, on their own mattress, then such incidents do not happen.

Of course, you can build a real house from scratch. This will require the appropriate skills, tools, a place to work and free time. And as an architectural project, you can use drawings of street booths, children's play areas, even country houses.