When making or choosing a dog house for your family pet, one of the most important things is to get the size right. But this is also one of the most common mistakes dog-owners make! In this article, I'm going to explain why, and how to get it just right.

It's really easy to get the size of your dog house wrong. The good news is that that's for all the right reasons - we love our dogs, and we want the best for them. The problem is that what suits humans doesn't always suit dogs.

See, for us humans, big is better when it comes to our houses. We all want the biggest house we can get. So we very often make the mistake of thinking that the best way to spoil our dog is to buy him a huge doggy palace.

Actually, the opposite is true. A good dog house is only just big enough for your dog to go in, turn round and lie down.

Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons. One is that dogs naturally like snug spaces. If you think about the way dogs in the wild make beds for themselves, they just turn round a few times to create a nice, snug hollow in whatever's to hand - grass, snow. That feeling of being surrounded feels safe and cozy to them.

The other reason, and the really important one, is temperature. A dog house which is the right size will naturally be warmed up to a comfortable temperature just by your dog's body heat. But with a big dog house, there's too much air for your dog's body heat to be able to keep the house warm. So, small means warm and cozy.

Here's how to tell what size dog house you need:

1. Measure your dog, standing up, from head to floor. The height of your dog house should only be about 25% more than this measurement.


2. Measure the length of your dog, from nose to the end of his body (you don't need to include the tail, as it will be tucked away when he's lying down). The length of the dog house should only be about 25% more than this measurement.

And now you need to work out the door size. Again, you want this to be only just big enough, or it'll let in too much cold air.

1. You don't need to make the height of the door any taller than your dog - and you can make it less if you want, as long as you don't make it less than 75% of the measurement from his shoulder to the floor.


2. The width should be only just wider than he is - just enough for him to be able to get in and out comfortably.

If you're really keen on the idea of having a huge doggy palace, you can always extend the dog house on the outside. You can add porches, gardens, even steps up to a balcony on the roof of his house! Just make sure that the core area is a good fit, so he'll be warm.