Easy Things to Build for Your Dog

In the last few months, 3 of the Forest 2 Home team members have brought home a FURever friend! With the addition of these 3 pups to the F2H community, the Forest 2 Home team began brainstorming ways they can take the best care of AND spoil their pups through woodworking! Read on for our top DIY pet friendly woodworking projects.

DIY elevated pet food bowl

Elevated pet food bowls are a must have when you have a dog in your home! While these elevated bowls appear to just be lifted off the ground, in actuality, they can have an overwhelmingly positive impact on your pup. The benefits of elevated dog bowls include:

• Better posture
• Comfort while eating, especially for older dogs with back problems, arthritis and joint pain
• Increase ease of eating for various medical conditions
• Helps with swallowing even without impeding medical conditions
• Slows down fast eaters
• Keeps dogs from lying down when eating
• Makes for a cleaner feeding area and helps bowls to stay in place
• Prevents playing in food bowls

Forest 2 Home community member, Jake (otherwise known as @BlackIrishWoodworks on Instagram), created this DIY food bowl. Follow along with project planshere.

Custom-made indoor doghouse

Crate training is a great option for puppies! It assists in potty training and it provides the instinctual need of a den, giving your dog their own space in the home. Unfortunately, crates aren't always the most attractive addition to the interior of your home. With the art of woodworking, you can build a custom indoor wooden dog house or crate for your new best friend!

Whether you choose to do a stationary, built-in doghouse or a portable, custom wooden kennel, these builds elevate your space and truly incorporate your pup into the interior of your home! If you scroll through Pinterest, you can find further custom DIY wood kennel's that also act as side tables, display tables, sofa tables and more! Their dual purpose design constructed in the woodworking shop is a far more attractive alternative to the traditional dog crate.

Dog gate

Whether you have a puppy you want to keep relegated to one area of the house in case of accidents or an older dog who is prone to sneaking into the living room and making play toys out of your decorative pillows, a dog gate may be a great option for you. Dog gates are functional but can also be decorative! Making a custom dog gate in the workshop is a great alternative to buying cheap, breakable, store bought gates that stick out like a sore thumb in your house; creating your own dog gate means you can incorporate elements of your interior design style to your project! Your dog gate can become an integrated, attractive element of your home while helping to contain your pup.

Custom built dog bed

While you may not be able to create a fluffy, foam bed, there are elements you can add to your dogs bed in the woodshop to make it more enjoyable!

Raised dog bed

You can create an elevated stand to put your dogs more comfortable, fluffy bed on top of. Benefits of raised dog beds include:

• For older dogs, it can help alleviate the pain from transitioning between standing, sitting, and lying down. Raised dog beds can make this transition easier as dogs won't have to lower their bodies so far when getting up or laying down.
• Elevated beds lift dogs off the floor, allowing air to circulate beneath them and help your dog maintain a comfortable temperature.

Dog bed frame

If you prefer to keep your pups mattress on the floor, you can make a bed frame for your dog. This will help your dogs bed to stay stationary, as it will be contained to the frame versus wherever it was previously sliding on the floor. Creating a DIY dog bed instead of buying one at the store is another way to incorporate them in your interior design style through custom elements added in the workshop.

Dog ramp

Ramps are great options for puppies and older dogs alike. Whether you want to assist your dog with getting into your bed, onto the couch, or up the front steps outside, ramps are an easy project that can make all the difference. As young and older dogs alike struggle with stairs and significant heights, a custom wooden ramp can improve in your dog's day-to-day mobility (and may be able to alleviate any back pain you're experiencing from picking them up throughout the day and night!)!

Dog toy wooden storage box

If you're anything like the Forest 2 Home team, you have bought the whole aisle of dog toys for your new puppy. That means finding a discarded ball underneath the couch, a rope toy on the bathroom floor and several squeaky toys trailed through the hallway. While these toys your pup has left strewn around are nice, squeaky reminders of their presence, it is not at all ideal to trip over them when you least expect it! Avoid finding your pups toys in every nook and cranny of your home by creating a custom-built toy box or DIY toy storage box!

This custom wooden box will keep all your pups toys together in one spot, saving you clean up time and adding to the décor in your space! If you make a lid for your wooden storage chest, it can even double as a stool or bench to use for additional seating!

Dog leash hook

There is nothing worse than getting to the door with an excited dog who is ready to go on a walk, only to find that their leash is nowhere to be found! By creating a custom-made dog leash holder for your entry way, you will never have this problem again! Whether you add a hook to a piece of scrap wood to hang up or you add a personal touch by cutting the shape of a paw print and painting on your pup's name, a DIY dog leash hook, this addition to your home will make for fantastic functional DIY entry way décor or DIY mudroom décor.

Wooden dog sign

DIY wooden signs are a great way to add a personal touch to any area of your home, especially when you share it with a dog! Whether you make a wooden sign featuring your dogs name to adorn their crate with, create a wood sign featuring a saying like "Dogs welcome, people tolerated" to add to your fireplace mantle or side table as DIY living room décor or are making a wooden sign to add to your fence indicating to close the gate so the dog can't get loose, wood signs are a great way to feature your pup in your space!

Custom wood signs can be created through a variety of woodworking techniques, including painting wood like Katie did here or using a scroll saw, CNC machine or wood burning laser, outside of traditional woodworking tools and methods.

Wood carved dog statue

For wood carvers and dog lovers, making a wood carved dog statue is only natural! These custom wood carvings can make a great DIY gift for any dog lover in your life to display as decoration in their home. Whether a minimalistic whittled statue or made with a more stylized carving style like Scandinavian flat-plane carving, chip carving, or relief carving, a DIY dog portrait or statue would be a well treasured creation!

Wood burned dog portrait

Pyrography is an incredible way to bring images to life, embedded in wood. Done by hand with wood burning pens or created with design software and a laser, pyrography designs can be a fantastic way to use artistic talent to replicate meaningful moments on the face of a piece of hardwood. Creating or gifting a custom wood burned dog portrait is a wonderful, unique way to showcase man's best friend. Pyrography portraits make for amazing DIY gifts and are a perfect decoration piece, with the ability to act as table top art and wall art!

What will you be creating for your FURever friend or the dog lover in your life? Share your projects with us atmarketing@forest2home.com! Happy woodworking!

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Source: https://forest2home.com/blogs/news/top-10-woodworking-projects-to-create-for-dogs-and-dog-lovers

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