Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[atahoekid]

So although you may not be real proud of this dog house, you may have inadvertently answered a question that's been hanging about. People have asked about using an alternative material to canvas and t-shirt material has been proposed but as far as I know, nobody experimented with it. Now you have and we know the results.

Next it will be time for you to build a foamie of your very own. Make sure you leave bed space for the dog. It turns out to be a bigger space than you think. For my 45 lb. lab/beagle/pit bull mix, it's a space about 2 ft x 2 ft x 2 ft. My wife's 6 lb poodle just sleeps on the bed.

Thanks for adding to our collective body of knowledge

[eaglesdare]

Wow Eagle! Simba's got a few more than my old girl (at nearly 7)!

Some other fun and easy ones: "Turn around" + "Other way", "Sit Pretty", "Crawl", "Bow", oh and my favorite "Smile!".

you know i would love to teach those cute tricks, but i have no idea how to do those. so far the ones i have taught, i kow how to do them. guess i could do a search on the puter for help. i was actually trying now to come up with another command, but i am running out of the ones i know.
and he slept ALL the way thru the night last night. yippee, did not get up til after 6am. gotta love that one.
oh he also knows some of these commands by voice and by hand signal without voice. gotta love the trainablilty of a collie breed.

[eaglesdare]

OK I don't have a picture, but a cute golden lab mix
stray moved in with us. Yep--she chose us. I think
she is a doll and I am crazy about her. Any way,
the weather is getting colder and she insists on sleeping
by the front door, not in the barn, where it is warm,
but right by the door or under the deck. So I decided
to try a foamie dog house. It is not finished and is so
far-- ugly as heck but it will keep her dry and and warm.
It does have a wooden frame and metal roof(all left over
from house build). The foam was also left over from when
we built our house and was really dirty and scared up. I
had to brush it up and clean it up quite a bit. Finally I used
some old tee shirts, cut out all the seams and hems, etc
dipped them in left over exterior paint (from our doors)
and spread them on the sides. The problem with tee shirt
fabric is it stretches and the ends roll, so I just could not
get it to smooth out. But Millie isn't fussy. I'll Try to get
some pictures this week end, (don't expect much) I may
not get to work on it again until then, but at least she
knows it is there and she has a warm bed in it. I will
say that this method covers a multitude of sins as i
had to patch and cover many divets and gouges.
Well, this post is way too long but foam is, I think a
great, cheap solution for many situations.

i think that is a wonderful use of foam and t-shirts! as long as it works that is all that matters. can't wait to see some pics.

[GPW]

A Foam coffee cup buried in a landfill is supposed to be good for a thousand years ... Likely our Foamies will outlive us ... Hundred years from now , there’ll be all these antique Foamie trailers on E Bay ...

[eaglesdare]

oh my, can you just imagine that one.

[DJT]

Eagle,
Most of them are modifiers of other, simpler commands.

"Turn Around". Start with "Sit", holding a treat in your hand, move your hand slowly around the puppies head clockwise at her eye level. Travel slow enough that puppy can watch/smell it as it goes around. She'll naturally spin around. Once you get all the way around, you got it! Eventually you can speed it up as well and shorten the movement. "Other Way" is counter-clockwise but the same idea.

"Sit Pretty": Start at "Sit", show the treat at eye level; slowly raise it up and back over her head and she should ease back onto her haunches. Be careful to not lift the treat to high to avoid jumping.

"Crawl" will require a good "Down". As soon as her front elbows touch (before she can flop over on a hip) pull your hand (with treat) along the floor back away from the puppy. Stop moving and gently correct if she tries to lift her shoulders.

"Bow" start from standing; holding a treat at eye level move it down and towards the puppies front feet (you may have to experiment a little, our first dog didn't catch on till we moved the treat down and away with a "Stay" with the other hand).

"Smile" is probably the hardest to teach. I call it an 'incidental'. When Simba is out playing and is hot/panting ask for a "Sit" and then reward her when she has the tongue out grin. After steady rewards she will begin to recognize that a certain face associated with "Smile" gets rewarded. This one took a long time, but my girl will sometimes come over and Smile at ne when she thinks I'm feeling down. Priceless!

Keep up the pictures!

[GPW]

Yep, gone to the Dogs ....

[eaglesdare]

ok ok gpw.

[DJT]

GPW,

What else are we supposed to talk about? :)

[bonnie]

How to build windows? Especially ones that are fused between two pieces of foam? Mostly kidding, but it is a question I have.

[mikeschn]

"Smile" is probably the hardest to teach. I call it an 'incidental'. When Simba is out playing and is hot/panting ask for a "Sit" and then reward her when she has the tongue out grin. After steady rewards she will begin to recognize that a certain face associated with "Smile" gets rewarded. This one took a long time, but my girl will sometimes come over and Smile at ne when she thinks I'm feeling down. Priceless!

Keep up the pictures!

I need to see a picture of "Smile".

Mike...

[Tiredoldwhiteman]

How to build windows?

And speaking of glass (in an obtuse sort of way)...

While I'm certain safety glass is the likely best/only path, how's about tempered glass? I have access to an abundance of tempered glass (ne: glass shelving) in a large variety of sizes and would hate not to take advantage of yet another "...act of frugality." The "...large variety of sizes..." is a good thing as tempered glass can supposedly only be cut once it has been "de-tempered"; whatever that means ).

Anyone with experience along these lines? Sage wisdom/advice?

I also have a large bundle of 2+" oak flooring that ought to make quite attractive window frames, tempered glass or not.

BTW: Cute pups...Happy, happy, joy, joy...

[DJT]

I need to see a picture of "Smile".

Mike...

For sure Mike!

Here she is (sorry for the cell pic!):


And here's one when I caught her chewing through her rope while we were working in the driveway (she is most definately not a rope dog, but in the spring the flowerbeds are just WAY to tempting!).


And last but not least, a Chessie hamming for the camera on her 5th birthday!

[eaglesdare]

see gpw, even mike doesn't mind dog chatter.

[GPW]

Hey, I LOVE Dogs !!! ... Cats too, a little ... And I always have to bring them along ... But we did just bark past two window questions ...