Our Kennel

How to build your own dog kennel

Once we had decided to build our own dog kennel, we soon discovered that a ready-to-order dog kennel is not available in South Africa, like it is in Germany or the USA. We did a lot of research to design a kennel suited to our available space as well as our humid climatic conditions. Hygiene and safety for our dogs were important considerations. Eventually we had building plans drawn up and approved by our local municipality. We used a building contractor to build the dog kennel. This was more expensive, but saved us time.

Here then are a few pictures and steps to follow, if you would like to build your own dog kennel. Once your kennel is complete, you will be glad that you made the effort. Believe me...

	Building plans were drawn up and approved. The foundation trenches were dug in our back garden. The concrete foundation was then poured into them. Victor and Eeva found these sand mounds great fun for digging and lying on. Everything was investigated, including the wet cement!
	Once the concrete had set, the walls were bricked. The foundation was filled with sand and compacted.
	The roof was fitted over the kennel. We chose to cover the complete kennel area, to provide shelter from sun and rain. The floor slab was then reinforced and poured.
	The front steps were bricked, and the rear kennel enclosures were built on top of the floor slab.
	The brickwork was plastered and painted. Galvanised metal stable doors were fitted to the kennels. We chose galvanised metal doors, as wooden doors are likely to bind with high humidity and are likely to get chewed... The galvanised fence frames and gates were fitted to the runs.
	The completed kennel. We have divided the kennel into two adjacent runs. The rear enclosures each have a wooden floor board, covered by a rubber mat and woolen blankets for warmth. Woolen blankets are the easiest to clean in our old washing machine. Foam rubber gets scattered all over the garden!

In the past we have had e-mails congratulating us on our kennel building, but also some showing concern that our dogs are confined to it. Actually our dogs are with us most of the time. They get rotated through our garden and have full access to it. We mainly use our kennel to safely separate our dogs when our bitches come on heat. If we leave home without our dogs, the run gates are left open, so that our dogs stay warm and dry.

Building our kennel was well worth the trouble!

Since building these kennels we have made some improvements to them. The most significant are wall tiling in each rear enclosure and epoxy resin sealer on the floor both to help when cleaning the kennels. The drain has also been split into two, one in the front of each run. We found this to be more effective.

Since building our first kennels we have added these down the side of our house. These kennels are free-standing and movable, with galvanised iron mesh front and rear and wooden sides and ceiling. The roof is constructed from corrugated galvanised iron sheeting painted green. Our dogs sleep in boxes and have platforms for lying on. They are right next to our house and in close contact with our family.

Plans for our dog kennel

We have had some requests for the building plans of our dog kennel. Included below is a copy of the original views.

North Elevation

West Elevation

East Elevation

Section A-A

Ground Plan

Page Revised Site Created Copyright ©	14 March 2009 22:08. 18 February 1999. 1999 - 2009 Rainer Neff All Rights Reserved
Please read our LINK DISCLAIMER