Went a different direction with winter doghouse

I made a post a bit ago about building a solar heated doghouse.  After figuring out the money, and more importantly, the time, I decided to go a different direction.  I have a warm weather shelter in the dog kennel area already.  The top is 8 feet long, and it's roughly 4' high and 4'wide.  It has 3 sides so inside is a nice shady spot where my LDG spends much of the day in summer, and the Presa Canario mostly stays on the roof.  Rather than build an entirely new shelter for winter, I surrounded the existing shelter with straw bales on the top and all sides, save an opening for them to get to the inside.  To keep the straw dry and break the wind further, I enclosed the entire thing in a cheap Harbor Freight carport.  This house should stay very warm and it's very pleasant inside.  It smells like clean straw and the dogs seem to like it.  The Presa still prefers to stay on top right now because the weather has been warm the last couple days, but it is going to be much colder this week.  Forecast is for -8 F one night this week.  The dogs sleep inside the house when it's very cold, but I don't like them to have to be locked inside all day, so I'm optimistic this house will work well for them.

In the picture with the LGD inside, you can see light coming in the back of the shelter.  I left spaces between the siding boards with an opening at the top for good air flow in the summer.  I took the picture with the bales covering that backside removed so there was enough light to see the dog inside.  All sides and the top are enclosed in the finished product.

Different livestock, but I built a fort sort of like that out of hay bales and a sheet of plywood for my granddaughter a couple years ago. It was a big hit. :)

Christopher Weeks wrote:Different livestock, but I built a fort sort of like that out of hay bales and a sheet of plywood for my granddaughter a couple years ago. It was a big hit. :)

I can believe that.  It really is very pleasant inside.  I crawled in with the dogs and I think a person could stay nice and warm in there in subzero temperatures with one dog for additional body heat :)   I have a remote temp sensor I may install in there to see how warm it gets if both dogs are inside.

Sometimes the easiest solutions are the best. That looks like a nice warm dog house.

I forgot to mention, The roof that is 8' long includes approx 1' overhangs on either end of the shelter, so the enclosed area that the dogs are in is about 4'x6'.  They don't need to try to heat an entire 8' shelter with body heat.

I need to go inside and measure rather than relying on memory.

What a lucky dog! ... dogs!

I love recommending hay/straw bales for insulation.

With the carport to break the wind, it'll be very pleasant inside. I snoozed inside winter bale forts like that when I was a kid.

Next step is to create simple wooden frame around the end of the carport that the door is on.  I'll cover it with greenhouse plastic and build a dog door into it.  The door opening faces almost directly south, so I should get some nice solar gain coming in that door.  The biggest concern is that it will get too warm on really sunny days.  I can always open it up further if that happens.  I will need to frame in a "people door" anyway, for simple upkeep reasons.