Fig. 187.
A good kennel (Fig. 187) for a small dog can be made very much as you would make a box (see Box-making, page 219). If for a very small dog the ends, sides, floor, and sides of the roof can each be made of one piece, but ordinarily these parts will each be made of two or more pieces. Matched boards are suitable. First get out the bottom, then the sides and ends. If you use boards with square edges you must of course use pieces of different widths, so that the cracks between them will not meet at the corners, or put posts at the corners. This is the best way to do with matched boards, if the house is at all large. Nail these parts together. It will be easiest to cut the slant at the top of each end—the gable—so that the sides of the roof will meet in a right angle. This looks well and saves the need of bevelling the edges of the roof-boards. An opening for the doorway should be cut in one of the ends before the roof is nailed on. If you do not use matched boards, a strip should be nailed on the inside at each side of the doorway, to keep the boards together. The roof-boards for one side should be as much longer than those for the other as the thickness of the stock. The same applies to the width of the saddle-boards which cover the extreme top. If the roof is not made of matched boards, battens should be nailed over the cracks as shown in Part III.
Fig. 188.
For a large dog a kennel should be built more like a real house and not so much like a box. A structure with a frame (Fig. 188) can be built of any size suitable for a kennel, and will be more durable than the preceding form.
For the frame, small joists, or strips of plank of any size from 1½" × 2" to 2" × 3" can be used. First get out the sills or bottom pieces of the framework, nailing them together at the corners to form a rectangular frame, as shown in Fig. 189.
