How to Build a Dog Play Pen

Providing your dog a place to exercise will keep him healthy for years to come.

Exercise is important to the health and well-being of your dogs. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to let your dogs run free in your yard and home. An unsupervised dog can cause a lot of property damage and can get hurt. You can build a playpen for your dog. Your dog has the room it needs to exercise in the playpen, but you have the peace of mind knowing that your dog is not free to roam unsupervised.

Things You'll Need

• PVC pipe
• PVC pipe cutters
• PVC joints

Instructions

1. Cut 24 pieces of PVC pipe to 6 feet in length (make them smaller or larger depending on your space limitations). These will make the four walls of your dog’s playpen.

2. Cut 20 pieces of PVC pipe that measure 2 inches in length. These connection pieces will go between each corner piece from one layer of the pen to the other.

3. Assemble the bottom part of the pen by laying four of the 6-foot long PVC pipes in a square. Connect the pipes together using PVC corner joints that have three sockets. One socket should protrude from the top of the corner piece while the other two sockets should branch at a 90-degree angle from each other. Now you should have a complete square that the corner pieces fasten together. Each corner should have an open socket facing upwards.

4. Assemble the top part of the dog pen the same way you assembled the first. Set it aside for the time being.

5. Insert one 2-inch piece of PVC pipe into each socket that faces upward from the first layer you completed. Leave at least 1 inch of the small pipe sticking out of the open socket.

6. Arrange four 6-foot pieces of PVC pipe into a square and attach them with PVC corner joints. Use a joint that has an extra open socket at the bottom, though.

7. Place the second PVC layer over the first. Position it so that the open sockets that face downward sink onto the small pieces of PVC pipe you inserted into the third socket on each corner of the first layer. The two should now connect to make a solid two-layered square.

8. Insert four more 2-inch pieces of PVC pipe into the upward facing sockets of the second layer. Assemble the third layer in the same fashion you did the second. Continue this until you assemble and connect layer five.

9. Attach the sixth and last layer that you already made. Connect it to the fifth layer using the small 2-inch pieces of PVC pipe that connect every layer of the pen. Now you should have a square pen of PVC pipes that will hold your dog.

Tips & Warnings

• Put a weight in each corner of the pen if you want to contain a larger dog. With determination, a dog would be able to push the PVC pen around without the weights in place.

• For fully-grown dogs, consider building a chain link fence pen that is tall enough to prevent them from jumping out.

References

• Utopia Poodles: Make a Puppy Pen