In many places, there was a late Spring. We are now either officially in Spring, or almost there for some of us. It's time to turn our attention onto Spring cleaning, and assessing whether we should buy or breed new animals, or perhaps, keep the numbers stable, and assess their living arrangements. Many people have expressed to me the desire to improve the living arrangements of their outdoor dogs, especially with all the unusual weather of the last couple of years. In prior posts, I have discussed dog kennels and commercial kennels, and shown my own. However, most people don't need all that. They might need something called a canine castle. This design is better than a dog house, but not as pricey or as monumental a task as an actual kennel.
These are actually designed for one dog, although I do know people who comfortably house two dogs in these, and then let their dogs run on their property when they are home.
Notice that this structure sits up off the dirt, and has a doggie door which allows the dog to go inside during rain and snow.
The roof is pitched not only to match the owner's house, but to accomodate snowload, which can slide off the roof without collapsing it. Even in the American South, we need to pay more attention to snowload than we did in the past. We have had some very wet and heavy snow this past season.
This is the back of one of these structures which accomodates an adult entrance. This is especially helpful if your dog has new puppies inside or if your dog is ill.
The inside of this one is not complete, and that's why there are some things which should normally not be stored within a dog structure, but you can see the conventional construction and the dog door from the inside.
In our area, these can be built on your property for about $1300. US . However, you can certainly design and construct your own for much, much less. You might try locating the kennel panels and gate for the front first and design your plan around their size.
Prior posts of mine on the subjects of kennel construction can be found at:
http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/01/notes-on-building-kennel-or-kennel.html
My posts on dogs:
http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-value-of-dog.html
http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/05/is-it-canine-dementia.html
http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/12/angus-and-follow-up-to-canine-dementia.html
