How to build a dog house w/ air conditioning

This is my first instructable! yee haa!

This instructable will detail the dog house I built this summer. This dog house was built for two itty bitty fragile dogs as a safe haven from the bigger dogs and features:
-an air conditioner
-electrical outlet
-exterior conduit electrical
-large "people" access doors
-small "doggy" window and door
-treated lumber stilt foundation (no termites allowed)

"Rough" (some say lazy I say rough and efficient) construction methods were utilized, but dog house is durable and easily supports myself (190lbs).

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Step 1: Designing and costing

The first step was designing the dog house. The dogs using this house are very small so the major factor in this design was my size. This dog house is about as small as possible while allowing space for me to get inside and perform maintenance (filter changing, clean up, dog beds, etc.) or hide. These design sketches have pretty minimal dimensioning and consist of random presentation views, so they should be easy to tweek. If planning on going much larger, stilt (column) supports should be added in grid-like layout at least every 6ft in length and width directions.

Also included in this step was my cost analysis. This dog house cost about $300 (including the air conditioner) and 3 gray hairs.

tedcapote says: Sep 3, 2010. 12:41 PM

Good for you doggy you've just got an air conditioning system on your house lol

shooby says: Nov 13, 2009. 5:24 PM

Air conditioning??? Come on, it's a dog. The passive cooling effects of a shaded space is really enough. If not, then a quick shave would settle the difference.

knotmedude says: Jun 30, 2010. 3:53 AM

NEVER shave a dog. Their coats protect them from the heat, naturally. Make sure they are brushed to get the loose hair, but never shave them.

conrad2468 says: Dec 20, 2009. 8:10 PM

some people love their dogs....

mrcrumley says: Dec 9, 2009. 9:00 AM

GO HOME, CAT LOVER!

warzhammerz says: Mar 29, 2010. 2:35 AM

A good idea would be to have a detachable roof so you can maintain it easier.
It could slide in some how!

SGT FISHER says: Jan 23, 2010. 8:08 PM

my dogs(5) have a 3x3x6 "dog house" with ac also, which BTW is keep in the garage, with their 4x8x1 foot deep hay bed, in the winter we use brood lamps for heat, much safer than heat lamps they can get very very hot, to the point of igniting wood! be carefull. we try to keep teh lamps above there heads when standing, so they cant burn themselves, gotta take care of teh pups! great job!

rwhorton says: Jan 8, 2010. 12:18 PM

I also had a heat lamp setup for my dogs.... one of them knocked it down, it burned the doghouse, my yard (as well as three other neighbors yards) broke the kitchen windows (it was on the back porch next to the house) and caused minor smoke damage in my home.

Be careful of heat lamps!!!!!

evix says: Dec 4, 2009. 7:14 PM

Just laying the PVC on the ground... tsk tsk

Go to home depot, get a romex connector and a gfci.
Switch the plug for the gfi, and hard wire the ac to the 'load' side.
but hide the cord in some pvc or flex tube... Its your dog.

His safety should come before... AIR CONDITIONING! lol

dirtyseaotter (author) says: Dec 9, 2009. 8:21 AM

Thanks for your interest. It would be ideal to switch regular grounded outlet to gfi, but I am lazy. I considered hard wiring a/c, but I like to unplug things to save energy too much. Also I hate romex connectors. The little dogs that stay here were both adopted from neglectful situations, so they have bad teeth and I assume they will not chew through wires... (fingers crossed).

Squash says: Nov 28, 2009. 3:55 AM

Nothing really to do with this type of dog house but just a note. I did not think of this before I started working with animals but you should NOT put blankets, foam, padding, etc., in an outdoor dog house during the winter. Some cities, it is actually illegal to use things such as this in outdoor dog beds. What happens is that they get wet, refreeze, then all the dog has is a frozen bed to lay on which means frostbite. Please pass this on to any friends/family who use these items. Straw and straw bales is best for insulation and a warm bed. Also, thank you to everyone who adopts and saves an animal from a shelter!

Yerboogieman says: Nov 1, 2009. 2:16 PM

We build a dog house for my Doberman Ely. We had a heat lamp, a foam pad and a few blankets in there for him. At first he didn't like it so he would drag the stuff out side and sleep on it. The reason we had him in a dog house is he couldn't get up the stairs anymore. 13 is pretty old for a doberman. Everybody but people in uniform he liked for some reason..

brandon borick says: Nov 1, 2009. 2:53 PM

your call a $300 vet bill
or a .05 cent 22 round
your call

Yerboogieman says: Nov 1, 2009. 3:06 PM

We used a .30-06 for a blind cat. But he died while i was in Vegas of natural causes and my dad called me about him. He died at 3:21am on a wednesday on the 14th of august. Softest floppy ears you would ever feel.

brandon borick says: Nov 1, 2009. 9:21 PM

dam that would vaporizes it

devious69 says: Oct 31, 2009. 9:51 AM

I did something similar a few years ago. I used 1.5" Styrofoam sheets for insulation. I also used a thermoelectric A/C unit to keep power costs down. That unit had no internal thermostat so I had to improvise using a Honeywell T775 thermocouple.

www.flickr.com/photos/bkirk1969/sets/72157601506871790/

lunchboxslayer27 says: Oct 31, 2009. 11:39 AM

a chilly 79 degrees? that seems quite warm

devious69 says: Oct 31, 2009. 7:07 PM

You bet it is. HOWEVER, when it's 110 outside, 79 is is very refreshing, especially under the internal fan - that's a 31 degree difference. The pug knows, he spends all day in there. We only keep our home AC at 76 during days in the summer but that's mainly a power thing. If the thermoelectric AC could do more than 30 degrees differnetial I'd set it lower, but a 30 degree differential keeps the AC running all day. I may try to upgrade the peltier element this spring to a higher wattage unit to get a little more out of it.