About this Site

The impetus for creating this site began when a friend asked me a seemingly simple question: "What kind of dog house should I get for my dog?" Well, it was quite a few years since I built a dog house for our hunting beagle Chip so I suggested that we do a little research to see what's out there. That's when I realized there's more to this dog house thing than I initially thought...

Some of the questions we were confronted with: Should we go with wood or plastic? If wood, what kind of wood? A peaked or flat roof? Wood shingles or asphalt shingles? Centered or off-set doorway? What about insulation and heating? Is a cooling system required? What size house is needed?

In trying to answer these various questions, it quickly became apparent that the relatively simple task of selecting a dog house has been needlessly complicated by an abundance of inaccurate, incomplete, confusing, and biased information on the Internet. There are also lots of conflicting recommendations floating around.

For example, some web sites extol the insulating virtues of plastic dog houses whereas others tell you that plastic stinks and wood is the only way to go. Some say wood shingles are best, others claim asphalt shingles are best. There are also many different "formulas" offered for determining how big a dog house should be (this is probably the most confusing aspect of buying a dog house).

To make a long story short, we eventually waded through the muck enough to make a semi-informed decision about what kind of house to buy for Rover. Now, he's happy, warm, and dry. And we both learned a few things along the way...

This site contains much of what I learned as part of that dog house buying experience plus lots of additional information I picked up afterwards. I hope you find this material useful.

Note: I am not a veterinarian, certified dog trainer, or any other kind of official dog expert. However, I am a fairly accomplished hobbyist woodworker and I believe I have a pretty good grasp of sound construction techniques. What I know about dogs is from growing up with a few of them as family pets and from what I've learned in researching the material for this site. In cases where there is no clear-cut consensus from the so-called experts about a specific topic, I've made efforts to present more than one viewpoint so that you're in a position to make an educated decision based on the available data.

Best of luck in your dog house quest...

Bill K

Comments or questions?