Thread: Meet Harley/Kennel Build (With Photos)

A few weeks ago the Mrs and I decided to get a puppy. After a little bit of looking around we found a litter here in Palmy - Mum was a 50/50 black Lab/GSP from a hunting background (with a forum member) and dad was a purebred chocolate Lab. We went and met the litter and immediately fell in love with the little black bitch.

With the pup picked, we got to work building a kennel as she would be outside during the day. Because we were in the dead of winter we decided to go all out and make it fully insulated. Neither of us being particularly skilled or experienced with carpentry it was going to be an interesting challenge.

We decided to line the interior with 4mm untreated ply and used shiplap weatherboard for the exterior. Insulation was sorted with 40mm compressed polystyrene sandwiched between the ply lining and weatherboard cladding.

Once the kennel was sorted we moved on to the run. Pretty straight forward - Used fence palings for the deck and a plastic coated pool fence for the mesh.

With the run constructed we threw on some stain to help weatherproof it and added a corrugated iron roof over the insulated ceiling. stuffed up a bit with the design and couldn't mount the roof on hinges without either checking out a spot for each hinge to sit flush with the frame or leaving a gap where cold air would come in. We decided to flag the hinges and in reality it doesn't need them.


Needless to say we were pretty stoked with the finished product. Not bad for a couple of amateurs.

We picked up Harley this afternoon and she is settling in nicely. I am looking forward to getting into the training - Planning on using her as a deer indicator and family dog. Will be using Paul Michaels' Blueprint as best we can, making compromises around the family aspect in order to keep the peace. Mrs Dorkus won't let Harley sleep in the kennel overnight during winter and insists we walk her with a pink collar, but other than that is happy with the principals Paul suggests following.


Cheers,
Adam