Check with a local dairy. We use the teat dip barrels for dog houses. Ours are white, not blue. My dogs are perfectly happy in them. And while I might be able to afford paying $80 at the local building supply for a pretty dog house, I prefer to recycle and use the free ones.
I bought some for $5 or so each from the local car wash to use as feed cans and rain barrels. You will have to give them a very good cleaning since the soap and wax that come in them is very concentrated. You may even wish to wash and wax your cars from the first rinse water from the barrels. :haha:
Dale (DH of mary,tx)
Ive used blue barrels for years for dog houses -- mostly got them used in the paper -- they are great - easy to clean, and easy to keep the bedding in one spot.
We are in AZ. Did you use them for your border collies? Thanks for the tips. We will try Pepsi, the dairy or the car wash. A neighbor had them for his hunting dogs. He makes lots of money in the investment field; don't know why he has them but makes sense to me to reuse plastic whenever possible.
We are in AZ. Did you use them for your border collies? Thanks for the tips. We will try Pepsi, the dairy or the car wash. A neighbor had them for his hunting dogs. He makes lots of money in the investment field; don't know why he has them but makes sense to me to reuse plastic whenever possible.
hank--why is it that someone seems to rain on parades? scavenge all you can--spend your money on what is important to You. (the dogs will LOVE a chic blue house :haha: )
I currently have 2 barrels that were given to me that I will convert to rain barrels for the chickens, (tho I could just afford tap water since I can afford to keep chickens. :no: )
All right enough bashing already! I was going to let mikell's comment slide because of the fact hes from Mich and it gets to cold up here for just a plastic barrel to be a valid option for most breeds. (Exept maybe for my wolf who has an R-15 insulated house but chooses to sleep in the snow with her tail over her nose.) But after the comment from doohap Im inclined to belive good people that who we are dealing with are not of like mind to most of us here. Rather in my opinion these folks are indeed the proverbial Jones's in disguise. So my advice to you Hank-Narita is if your climate is such that just a barrel is sufficient housing go for it and not let negative opinions influence yours if they are not justified.
Well durn Hank-Narita....I would have loved to hand this one over so you could use it. I will confess that my Cattle Dogs are both house dogs and I used the barrel(complete with a nice little swinging door and filled with hay)for housing 'possums before release.
I know shipping it would be silly. If you are ever up this way(southern tip of the Willamette Valley right off of I-5)feel free to pick it up and take it home.
Most feed stores have the barrels in AZ for $5-10 each. I use food grade barrels (mine had pickles in them) for water storage for when the well goes out or the power goes out.
for those of you worried about barrels in the cold - here is your solution
cut a hole in one end on the side instead of using the open end for a door. Leave the lid on. This allows the dog to walk in and move to the side to avoid direct wind contact. Also, take square straw bales and stack them 2 high like walls around the house. open the front bales at a 30 degree angle like a door. This acts as a wind block and extra insulation. I have done this with very short hair dogs for years in zone 5, and never have had any sort of complications due to being too cold or freezing.
Our two aged beagles had a metal barrel on its side on the patio. We chocked it so it wouldn't roll, put a piece of plywood on the the bottom for a floor, topped the plywood with a carpet remnant. In the winter, we flung an old sleeping back over it to insulate and slipped a heating pad between the carpet and the plywood. They loved it.
Just want to add my .02 Many sled dog keepers use plastic barrels with straw for dog housing here in Alaska. Of course these are northern breeds that have alwys been in the cold. The dogs spend more time snoozing on top of them than actually inside.
You could probably find tons of them real cheap or maybe even free in Oklahoma right now. The cockfighters used them for housing their roosters. That's illegal now and many have turned their roosters loose and stacked the barrels up in the corner of their acreages.
You could probably find tons of them real cheap or maybe even free in Oklahoma right now. The cockfighters used them for housing their roosters. That's illegal now and many have turned their roosters loose and stacked the barrels up in the corner of their acreages.
Well that should make for continued interesting reading.
Years ago my short-haired terrier/ lab Loved his wooden pickle barrel with straw in it. All winter. In Minnesota.
I didn't. When it was down to 5 degrees or colder I would lock him in the barn with the cattle. Had the whole barn to run in, lots of space, areas away from the cattle.
He hated me for it. Did not want to go in the barn. Wanted his barrel.
I won most of the arguments & he went in the barn in real cold. You couldn't put a house-dog out in those conditions, but if they are always outdoors, they seem to do quite well if you keep the wind off of them.
A soda pop bottler or other food vendor that deals in large orders often has these barrels for sale for $2-6. I think 'free' was the difficult part of the first message. The free ones often have a bit more chemically type stuff in them, and of course you don't want that for your critters.
--->Paul
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