DIY Underground Dog House

There are a bunch of good reasons to build your dog a homemade underground dog house. The main one is temperature. An underground dog house is naturally insulated and will be much cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

This gives your dogs much needed protection and relief from the elements.

There are two basic ways to achieve an underground dog house – the hillside method or sunken. What you choose is up to you and how much work you want to put in.

Underground Dog House for Big Dogs

If you need an XL underground dog house because you have a breed like a lab or standard poodle, then the hillside method will almost always work better for you.

There are a couple of approaches to this.

The Easier Way

The easier way is to take a standard Dog Igloo (you can find one on Amazon) and cover it with dirt and grass so that it makes a little hill over the dog house. This will really help to regulate the temperature far beyond what the igloo can do on it’s own.

You can see how to do this in the video below.

The More DIY Way

You can also build an extra large underground dog house with a more DIY approach. You will see a beautiful den created here complete with a stone framed opening.

Here’s video 1 of the build process:

And here’s video 2:

If you already have a hill, then you can borrow into the side of the hill instead of building over it.

Of course, you can always use these techniques for smaller dogs as well. If you do that, then size down the dog igloo or the original supplies for the dog den.

Underground Dog House for Small Dogs

Both of the above techniques will work well for building out an insulated underground dog house for both big and small dogs. But if you want something that is about as instant as you can get there is another solution for small dogs.

It’s called the DogeDen (you can find it on Amazon by clicking here) and it’s meant to be buried.

You can see how it works here:

For dogs up to 60 lbs, this is probably the easiest option. But I still like the hillside dens better as they are easier to clean.

Do Underground Doghouses Work?

Yes. They do. They can keep your dog cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter because of the natural insulating ability of the ground.

It’s important that you keep the opening wide enough to get into it to clean it. Dog’s normally keep their dens pretty clean on their own, but in case of an accident you will want access.