I have been pinning lots of teepees because of this website. Our little Ian-dog has a very similar story to the one linked, he hates to be crated. He’s fine in the crate as long as everyone is visible, but the minute we leave his sight he becomes agitated, destroys things, starts bending the wires of the crate, and can escape. We still aren’t entirely sure how. You’ve seen photos Ian not a big dog, but he is not skinny either. He is just dense & determined. If he doesn’t want to be somewhere he will get out. We think this comes from spending most of the first year of his life fenced in the backyard at his original owner’s.

Are you ready for the cutest thing ever?

We still wanted Ian to have his own place, somewhere he can hang out, to ‘get away from it all’, to relax & ignore us. So I decided to build him a teepee. Sure you can buy one. But that one is HUGE for a 40lb dog, our apartment is super tiny, it’s kind of not very cute, and is A HUNDRED DOLLARS.

So I headed over to Home Depot, picked up five 1-1/8″ wide 48″ long dowel rods for about $3.50 a piece (I should have gotten 6, and I should have gone down a size). We already had a painters tarp, but you can pick them up for about $10.

I followed a lot of the steps here. I drilled holes about 4″ from the top of the dowel rods, strung them together with some ribbon, glued little pieces of a non-slip mat I had to the bottom of each pole because our floors are hardwood and I didn’t want the dog to be able to knock it over with his tail wagging. I folded the painters tarp along the awkward not-quite-in-the-middle-seam which made it almost exactly 4′ long, and trimmed the bottom into a circle much like this tutorial says.

I hammered some 7/8″ grommets into the tarp so we could tie it closed with some ribbon.

Don’t do this on your balcony at 11pm it will be very, very loud. The neighbors won’t like it.

Why This is Almost No-sew

Here is the step that makes it almost no-sew, I sewed a little ‘button holes’ (there’s no button I just made the hole) on each side so we could pull back the front ‘doors’ secure them to the front legs (with some fabric scraps from this skirt). They aren’t really button holes I just did a very close zig-zag stitch in a square and then cut a little hole in the middle, to keep the edges from unraveling to much. We didn’t secure the fabric to any of the other teepee legs, mostly because the tarp is heavy that it’s not going to move far. And also that seemed like to much work for a glorified doggy bed. You can probably avoid this step if you really hate sewing/do not have a machine. The other tutorials I linked have some other suggestions.

It is barely big enough for me to fit into, but perfectly fits Ian and one of his dog beds (ie an old folded up comforter that fit my old Twin bed before Kent moved in). Ian-dog is still a little bit wary of the new space, but will easily be lured in to munch on some snacks. He loved napping on the bed before it had a roof, so we’re pretty sure he’ll be napping in there again in no time.

Break-Down:

• 5 1-1/8″ wide 48″ long dowel rods – $3.50 a piece = $14. (I already owned one because of a Halloween costume)
• Red ribbon – $1.99
• Grommets & Stud Setter – $8
• 1 Painter’s Tarp (Owned)
• Doggy bed (Owned)
• Fabric Scraps (Owned)
• Non-slip mat (Owned)

Total: $23.99

Not bad for an adorable doggy teepee. Except now I need to make a big one for myself as well!

I’m linking up to the Pinterest Challenge over here. Check it out to see a bunch of other people complete cool tutorials.