Building contest will help provide doghouses

Freedom For Fido event targets growing demand

  • Freedom For Fido crew leader Fritz Gilbert, left, and volunteer Tim Pauley stand with Ally and her new doghouse during a recent fence build. Pauley custom built the doghouse for Ally as she and her family received a free fence from the non-profit group. More doghouses are needed for future builds and there is a way the community can help and possibly win a contest as well.
    Freedom For Fido crew leader Fritz Gilbert, left, and volunteer Tim Pauley stand with Ally and her new doghouse during a recent fence build. Pauley custom built the doghouse for Ally as she and her family received a free fence from the non-profit group. More doghouses are needed for future builds and there is a way the community can help and possibly win a contest as well.

    Handy with a hammer? Skilled with a saw? Wild about wood? If so, Freedom For Fido’s Doghouse Building Contest may be a howling good time.

    Founder Jackie Gilbert and crew leader Fritz Gilbert said the dogs they build free fences for need doghouses, and the volunteer who is currently building the shelters is becoming overloaded since the non-profit group has received more and more requests for help. 

    So the community is being invited to help.

    The Doghouse Building Contest offers some friendly competition, will help meet the demand for doghouses and send winners home with a trophy for bragging rights.

    Folks can enter their doghouse into the professional, amateur or junior classes. Certain specifications must be met:

    •Must be insulated (floor, walls, ceiling).

    •Must have a means to access the interior for cleaning.

    •Interior floor should be covered with linoleum or tile for easy cleaning (it’s lined with straw when placing the doghouse).

    •Exterior floor should be 5/4 PT decking or similar material due to exposure to weather.

    •Must be easily disassembled/reassembled for transport, with markings to make it easy for volunteers to reassemble. Component pieces should not exceed 80 pounds.

    •Should include a door covering which is sufficient to insulate the home from weather. A 4 inch sill should be installed below the door so the straw stays in the house.

    •The enclosed “living quarters” should not exceed 40 inches x 40 inches and should include a partition wall/hallway to create a sheltered “bedroom.”

    •Interior height should not exceed 30 inches.

    •Porch and other creative structures are allowed, but the entire doghouse size cannot exceed 6 feet wide  and 5 feet in length.

    •Exteriors should be finished (painted, stained, log siding).

    Voting will take place October 17 at the Humane Society of Blue Ridge’s Paws in the Park in downtown Blue Ridge. A winner in each category will be chosen by public vote during the event. 

    The doghouses will then be used by Freedom for Fido to meet area needs.

    Fritz Gilbert said with the shelters being judged in October, there was plenty of time for people to work on the doghouses or for students to work on it as a school project.

    Freedom for Fido provides free fences and doghouses to low-income residents in the Blue Ridge area who are screened for acceptance into the program.

    Contact Freedom For Fido via email at freedomforfido@yahoo.com or call 440-679-1627 with any questions. Visit http://freedomforfido.com/doghouse/ to learn more or to enter.