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    The Dog Friendly Home: DIY Projects for Dog Lovers
    The Dog Friendly Home: DIY Projects for Dog Lovers
    The Dog Friendly Home: DIY Projects for Dog Lovers
    Ebook340 pages1 hour

    The Dog Friendly Home: DIY Projects for Dog Lovers

    By Ruth Strother

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    About this ebook

    “Outlines a variety of appealing projects, from doghouses and training equipment to bedding and accessories (the nightstand/dog bed is adorable).” —Library Journal

    Let your creativity shape a fun and caring environment for you and your dog to enjoy every day of the year. Whether welcoming a new puppy into the house or trying to share a small apartment with an overactive Springer Spaniel, these home and garden projects cater to the needs of all DIY dog owners alike—from interior home improvement to beautiful lawns, special play areas, and other projects dogs love. The DIY projects in this book walk you through the reasons dogs love them as well as the benefits they provide to you and your dog. In addition, step-by-step instructions with full-color photography are included to build the projects. Valuable dog facts, insightful tips, and quick and easy mini-projects—including everything from homemade dog biscuits to fun games that make for a happy indoor dog—are also included. Learn how to build: a doghouse, dog window bench, raised food counter with storage, doggie den nightstand, outdoor agility projects, and more!

    “A DIY (Dog It Yourself) project book that can save pup parents real money. Projects include a dog palace, a nightstand bed for watchdogs on night duty and raised dog dishes for ailing diners.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9781610597531
    The Dog Friendly Home: DIY Projects for Dog Lovers

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      Book preview

      The Dog Friendly Home - Ruth Strother

      Introduction

      MOST OF US CONSIDER OURSELVES TO BE DOG LOVERS. WE CARE FOR OUR DOGS BY WALKING THEM, PLAYING WITH THEM, TEACHING THEM, feeding them, loving them—but we want to do more. The dog-friendly projects in this book were created for beginning do-it-yourselfers who want to make something special for their canine pals. In most cases, all you’ll need are a few basic tools and your creativity. These projects are simple, useful, and attractive. If you don’t consider yourself to be especially handy with a hammer, saw, or drill, you can get a leg up (pardon the pun) by taking a weekend course offered at many local home improvement stores. You will find the brief introduction on materials and tools that follows to be helpful as well.

      This book is filled with tips on dog behavior, care, training, and fun. Each project is accompanied by valuable information that will help you acclimate your dog to its use, happily and without fear. You’ll learn not only how to install a dog door, but also how to train your dog to use it. Tips on how to get a reluctant dog to accept and use a bed accompany information about the three styles of bed you can choose from when you build your dog a special place. Included are dietary information to help you fill the raised bowls you just built, and information on grooming accompanied by instructions on setting up your own grooming station—all this and more will help you develop a dog-friendly home.

      The information in this book spills out of the house and into the yard as well. You can install an invisible fence and teach your dog how to obey it, and create an agility course in your very own backyard.

      In addition, this book will identify toxic plants, offer you tips on how to care for a garden in a dog-patrolled yard, and give you pointers on ways to erase those dog-created brown spots in your lawn. Back inside the home, brief and effective ways to repair dog-chewed furniture and remove soiling accidents are covered.

      All the projects in this book were designed with cost in mind. Less expensive materials are used when they don’t compromise the quality of the project, and more expensive materials are suggested when they will greatly enhance the beauty and integrity of the project.

      Making accoutrements for your dog is a great creative outlet. You can take the structural fundamentals of most of these plans and embellish them with your own designs, colors, and materials to make them especially suited to your dog and the style of your home. Turn the ordinary to the fanciful or dignify the piece with sophisticated style; whatever you decide to do, by building and designing that special something for your canine companion, you are taking that one extra step to do more for your dog and show him how much he means to you.

      Building Materials for Your Pet Projects

      Building homes and accessories for your pets can be accomplished with many of the same tools and building materials we use in our houses and landscapes. However, in some cases the fact that our pets are more inclined than our children to eat their house does impact the selection process. As with people-scale projects, you’ll select materials for your pet projects based on safety, ease of use, appearance, durability, and cost. And most of the projects in this book can be constructed with simple hand and power tools that you probably own already. On the following pages we review some common materials with these considerations in mind. After that, you’ll find a very brief refresher course on a few basic woodworking skills you’ll need for even the most simple pet projects. Then, we jump feet-first into the pool of pet projects.

      Sheet Goods

      Sheet goods such as plywood and medium density fiberboard (MDF) can be shaped easily with a router and feature a smooth surface that takes paint well on both faces and edges. Machining most sheet goods produces hazardous dust that needs to be collected.

      Interior plywood. Frequently sold with a smooth, finish-grade hardwood veneer surface, plywood may be painted or sealed and stained. Plywood cuts easily and is the easiest sheet good to fasten. Hardwood plywood is expensive and should be sealed to protect it and to slow off-gassing of formaldehyde.

      Common sheet goods that may be used for pets include MDO (medium-density overlay), MDF (medium-density fiberboard), and hardboard (also available as perforated pegboard).

      Veneer plywood offers a variety of wood species in a durable and cost-effective panel.

      Exterior plywood. Panels are inexpensive and easy to fasten and cut. Exterior plywood does not contain formaldehyde, making it preferable to hardwood plywood for interior structures where appearance is not an issue. Surfaces and edges are rough, and the plywood may not lie flat without framing.

      Wood

      Softwood construction lumber. Stud grade 2 × 4s, 2 × 2 furring strips, lath, and construction grade 1 × 3s are a few examples of construction lumber that is safe, natural, easy to work with and extremely inexpensive. With a little care, you can turn these rough-and-tumble materials into dog projects that belie their blue-collar pedigree.

      Sanded plywood, sheathing plywood, and oriented-strand board (OSB) are economical project materials that can be painted, carpeted, or used for structural purposes.

      Cedar and redwood are naturally rot and insect resistant and hold paint well. Use them for outdoor pet structures. You can find them in the fencing and decking sections of home improvement stores. Do not use cedar shavings, or any wood shavings for that matter, as bedding in doghouses because it can become moldy.

      Hardwood. Hardwood is useful for any interior building project, either for making the entire project or to trim out a larger project made with sheet goods or softwood.

      Pressure-treated wood. Pressure-treated wood no longer contains arsenic, as it once did, so it’s not as toxic as it used to be. Use it on outdoor structures where proximity to soil may cause rot in untreated wood. Avoid pressure-treated wood on parts of structures that may be chewed by your dog.

      Species of lumber that are suitable for pet projects include (clockwise from top): Redwood, pine, maple, oak, poplar, dimensional framing lumber (spruce, pine or fir), and cedar.

      Miscellaneous Materials

      Paints, finishes, chemicals. Find paints, finishes, and chemicals that are nontoxic to dogs with an internet search for pet safe paint or non-toxic paint. These are just two searches of many that you can conduct on the Internet in your quest for paints and chemicals that are safe for your dog.

      Water-base or acrylic paints are safest for use around pets, but whichever finish materials you choose, read the product information very carefully.

      PVC water supply tubing comes in ½, ¾, and 1" diameter, with a host of fittings available. The tubes can be joined together with simple friction, or they can be solvent-welded for permanent connections.

      PVC pipe. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is easy to use, inexpensive, versatile, and paintable if you scuff it up with sandpaper first. To cut PVC use a miter saw or PVC saw.

      Woodworking Techniques

      Cutting. Circular saws and jigsaws cut wood as the blade passes up through the material, which can cause splintering or chipping on the top face of the wood when cutting against the grain. For this reason, always cut with your workpiece face down.

      To ensure a straight cut with a circular saw, clamp a straightedge to your workpiece to guide the base of the saw as you cut.

      A power miter saw is the best tool for making straight or angled cuts on narrow boards and trim pieces. This saw is especially helpful for cutting hardwood. An alternative is to use an inexpensive hand miter box fitted with a backsaw.

      Shaping. A belt sander makes short work of sanding tasks and is also a powerful shaping tool. Mounting a belt sander to your workbench allows you to move and shape the workpiece freely using both hands. Secure the sander by clamping the tool casing in a benchtop vise or with large hand screws or C-clamps. Clamp a scrap board to your bench to use as a platform, keeping the workpiece square and level with the sanding belt.

      Always use a straightedge cutting guide when trimming panels with a power saw.

      To ensure that matching pieces have an identical shape, clamp them together before shaping. This technique is known as gang sanding.

      Squaring a Frame is an important technique in furniture construction. A frame or assembly that is not square will result in a piece that teeters on two legs or won’t stand up straight. Always check an assembly for square before fastening the parts together.

      To square a frame, measure diagonally from corner to corner. When the measurements are equal, the frame is square. Adjust the frame by applying inward pressure to diagonally opposite corners. A framing square or a combination square can also be used to see if two pieces form a right angle.

      Piloting and Drilling. Pilot holes make it easier to drive screws or nails into a workpiece without splitting the wood. If you find that your screws are still difficult to drive or that the wood splits, switch to a larger diameter bit. If the screws are not holding well or are stripping the drill holes, use a smaller bit to drill subsequent holes. Use a standard straight bit when drilling pilot holes for finish nails.

      A combination pilot

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