Featured Dog House 6: K9 Condo Location: NewJersey, USA Builder: Hans     I decided to build my own after having searched the market for anything "different", this proved to be impossible to find. Everything involved chain-linked fence (which I find irritating to the eye), so I started to draw up my own plans. I wanted to make it match the 200+ year old carriage house which my wife and I live in with our two Norwegian Elkhounds, Max & Sammie. The carriage house is part of a (used to be) dairy farm in (a town in) New Jersey. I was very limited in space, and I knew that I wanted to provide a shaded portion within the enclosure, so I decided to elevate the house and put a shaded porch underneath. This seemed to work well and both Max and Sammie mastered the stairs in a day or so. Knowing that elkhounds like to dig "cooling holes" I decided to line the ground just beneath the rock with wire fencing to eliminate possible "cooling/mud holes". This has saved me many headaches, seeing how all they can do is move the rock around. Another feature are the windows in the house. They consist of plexi-glass secured to the frame, and the whole unit is removable. In the summer I have identical frames with wire fencing, instead of plexi-glass, which allows for a nice summer evening breeze to pass through.   Return to Dog House Gallery Entire website © 2000 Mike Strong.