Dog Den - Shape?

I'm fixin to build myself a cadillac of an above ground pen. I've built one that's a sure enough good son of a gun. However, I'm going to take what I learned on that one and class it up a bit using cedar and designing a house that will withstand any elements.

My question is this. What would a natural "nest" look like? You know, if the dog herself were to make a nest to whelp in, what would it look like? Round? Square like most houses - I don't thing so. I found a Wild Hog's nest once. Had 6 babies in it and they couldn't be 24 hours old. You could tell by their umbilical cord. It look just like an eagle's nest. Round and concave with the piglets in the middle. I figure it would be more like that if a dog were to build her own.

I'd love to hear different thoughts about it before I get started. I'm buying myself a digikal Kamara fo Christmas, so I'll be sho to post some pictures when finished.

look at other candids dens like wolves, dingo's, fox although fox dens are deeper. they are just holes in the ground with a round shape to it. small, dark and hidden.

Yes Sir! That's my thought as well. I will be designing a whelping pen/dog house, exactly like that. I see a lot of whelping boxes, square or rectanglular in shape. Then we have to worry about them laying on one aganst the wall. If there were a true round/oval shape to the nest and plenty of nesting material, the pups would always roll down hill, to the center of the nest.

I'm going to start on this thing pretty soon. I'll try to post photos to share here on the board.

Thanks for chiming in Black Hand

nature cant go to Home Depot, Id just build something functional and efficent

I found a litter of dingos the bitch had just dug a oval shape indenet in the dirt like a dog does for a bed under your car if you leave it out long enough

Exactly Pig Mad.
1. I think it would be more efficient in terms of staying warm b/c of less wasted space and
2. I think it's more natural and better for puppy safety in the first week if it was a more natural shape than the typical dog house.

When it comes to the whelping area or the sleeping quarters just remember the better they are built the harder they are to clean. If you got all out lengths to make it like nature, then you will have a hard time with access to it for cleanup. I will say dogs in the wild have dogs on the ground /on the dirt, but they are not enclosed and shit two to three feet away. Dogs enclosed or chained track shit regardless of how many times it is cleaned daily or how small the turds are. They track that to the whelping area so ease of cleaning has to be factored in to the design. This is from personal experience. I built one once for beagles. It was a normal run but to get to the whelping area, the dog went thru the door, made a left and then another left. It was warm and secluded and I was quite proud of the build. But it was tough to keep clean. Nothing wrong going all out on a project for the dogs but keep in mind the time it takes to keep them up. best of luck. EWO

No problem.....I'm like a Master Carpenter from way back. Matter of fact, there was a time, no shit, I think around 1990, I build the cabinets that went into the home of HOF Defensive Tackle Randy White of the Dallas Cowboys. Get this......Day the house is finished, wife divorces him, splits the 2.5 Mil the got from the home and he moved from there, McKinny Texas to right outside Celina Texas. Bought a quaint farm house, painted everything white with Dallas Cowboy blue on the trim and calls it the "Fourth Quarter Ranch".........got off topic there, but it's a neat story. It was when he was fairly newly removed from playing, so he was still one big son of a bitch. Saw him a couple years later in a restuarant up that way and he was all shrivled up.....you know, down to normal people size.

Back to the project. I wont' be going crazy. It will simply be a house with an inside that has a natural shape.....that's all. BUT, I do appreciate the heads up and I will definitely, now b/c of your post, take into consideration the process of cleaning.

I won't be goind with cedar though. Went and priced it yesterday..............SHIT! Damn stuff is 3x the cost of treated. I expected a hike in price, but not that much. So it won't be a cadillac.....but more like a real nice used chevrolet.

No problem. Like I said, I went all out on the beagle brood pen. I thought it was the Cadillac of brood pens. It was nice. Then it came time to clean it. I built it to access the puppies by hand but not enough room to clean it like it needed. I got real simple on the next one. Best of luck with the build. And coming along, Randy White was one of my favorites, with Too Tall, Harvey Martin, Henderson, Waters, and crew. Not to mention Roger Dodger. Those were the days for me. EWO

Thanks Ewo......to mention them Cowboys. I grew up in a real small town in Tx in the 80's. Our football team was the winningest football team at any level for the entire 80's. I think we were 111-11-3....or something like that, two state titles. At our football banquet, we had Bill Bates speak (who owns a ranch in Celina now just like Randy White) and we had Terry Bradshow one year (one of his MANY wives was from the same small town as I was and I actually got to fish with Brandshaw one afternoon as a kid b/c he cooked hotdogs for the little league team that his new wife's nephew played on - pretty cool). Both White and Bradshaw were some real big dudes.....Bates looks like a regular Joe. Great guy though. It's always neet to meet folks like that.