How to Build a Dog Kennel that is Attached to a Storage Shed

Guidelines, Materials and Instructions

Our current home came with a fenced yard and dog kennel with an additional enclosed dog run. Problem was, the "fenced yard" had huge gaps in the fence, the dog run was ready to fall down and the kennel was a poorly designed, rotting box tacked inside a equally decrepit storage shed. This was clearly not going to work for our large dog, especially since the dog kennel was made for a dog the size of a small chihuahua, a breed already on the tiny side. We had a much larger dog of an indeterminate breed.

We considered these options: hire someone to build a new dog kennel for us, buy one pre-made or build it ourself. We chose to build it ourself. While I'll provide directions, you should always adapt any dog kennel instructions to the needs of your specific dog. In our case, we used an existing dog run, added a new storage shed and built a dog kennel with an entrance in and out of the shed. This was a good combination of exercise area and protection for our dog. For the purposes of this article, the term "dog kennel" will describe a dog house which was adapted to fit in a storage shed and includes a dog run. You can adapt our directions to your needs.

Here are some general questions to ask before building a dog kennel:

1. What are the characteristics of your dog? Whether you have a Heinz 57 (mixed breed dog) or a dog registered with the American Kennel Club as a specific breed, your dog will have specific traits. Some dogs, like Siberian Huskies, can stand cold weather and other dogs are really meant to be protected from extremes of heat or cold. Clearly, you'll want to adapt your dog kennel to the size, shape and adaptability of your dog.

2. What is the weather like? If you live in a moderate climate, you can build a basic dog kennel. We have winter here so we didn't expect our dog to stay outside year round. The local news stations actually inform viewers when weather will be dangerous for pets and we heeded those warnings. We also made sure there was plenty of padding and insulation for chilly weather.