TRIXIE Large natura Classic Outdoor Dog House, Weatherproof Finish, Elevated Floor, Brown 45.5 x 31 x 32.25 inch

I love this dog house. I actually bought it for a chicken house and my chickens love it. I bought 2And once put together they are pretty sturdy.Only took about 20 minutes to put together by myself.It is so good I am buying 2 more for the 2 new chicken pens I just built.

I just needed something quick, simple, and high quality for my pup and this actually delivered. The instructions were a bit hard to parse and the advice they give for assembly didn't work for me. What worked best was to just put the house upside down on top of the roof (without the floor), mark all the screw holes, and then assemble the hinge that way instead of doing it the strange way the instructions tell you to. Then put the floor in last, since the roof opens and you can just drop the floor in. Once we figured out how to put it together the easiest way, it was smooth sailing. It took maybe an hour to throw it together and my dog seems to like it. It's very sturdy and it's got a nice pine smell that should deter bugs. It comes stained and with a proper shingle roof. It looks nice on the porch and seems like it'll last for quite a few years, plus the top is only slightly angled and can be used as a table if you have a small space and need your furniture to multi-task. The 40.75x26.75x28.25 is the perfect size for my 60lb Blue Heeler mix and her favorite Ikea outdoor mat. She'll get a lot of use out of it in the fall and I'll get her a heated outdoor mat. (We don't make her stay outside, she just wants to.)

Instruction was a nightmare, where you gotta figure out the spots to screw the bolts on, or the alignment/ orientation of the pieces. I’m a 42yo small female and it probably took me 45 mins doing it alone. Having someone to help you would help a lot, but I didn’t have anyone so I propped the pieces on walls in order to get correct alignments. Must have basic tools like drill/ hammer imo, which I had and used. Wood’s really rough and found several chips here and there, and I fixed them using wood filler. Very heavy for me - especially the roof, so I think it will withstand the Texan storm. My mini schnauzers loved it immediately, so that’s what matters the most! Oh and it smells strongly of cedar, which I like, and I’d imagined would create some kind of natural bug repellent - plus point!

I purchased this dog house to convert into a duck house. I did make some improvements, however for the price i got a really good start.*Upon unboxing, i noticed the piece with hinges was broken in half. The box it shipped in was in great condition so unsure how it happened but i used some wood glue to fix it. Problem solved.*Assembly took me less than an hour. It was very straightforward, all my holes lined up evenly enough. I assembled it alone. The wood had several gaps throughout ( Sides,bottom,corners) I used paintable white caulking meant for exterior windows to plug all gaps. I caulked each board on the bottom both top and bottom and also the sides. This made it extremely sturdy, at this point i was able to use a hand truck to move it around*I wanted to make it completely waterproof so i used some black truck bed liner on the inside. i did several coats*i needed to make ventilation so i added a 2" round plastic vent on each side and caulked it in, then painted the entire outside roof includedi have had it outside for four months at this point, it is holding up extremely well. I added a small piece of wood to trap the bedding inside because they kept spilling out the bedding and that seemed to fix the problem. one of the hinges broke almost immediately, i removed it and have been using just the right side , it still functions the same. i do anticipate having to replace the hinges at some point but thats a very menial taskI would recommend this dog house, however you just need to add a little tlc to improve it. Our ducks and geese use it every night (we have three cayuga ducks and three brown chinese geese and they fit very snugly with the male geese at the entrance protecting the others)