DIY dog teepee

I've seen teepee pins around for kids and loved the idea. Since we have no kids yet, I wanted to try making a smaller version of one for my fur baby to enjoy because she loves to hide under coffee tables and small areas. She likes her privacy.

Materials:

• Power drill and 1/8" bit (I started off with a smaller 7/64 bit and moved up to the 1/8 but it's not essential)
• Clamps (to clamp down the dowel to a table while you drill)
• 5 wooden dowels (I used a 3' dowel with a 1/4" diameter. In hindsight I may have gone with 1/2" or 3/4" because my 20lb dog can easily move the dowels around when she gets happy.)
• Sandpaper or sanding block (medium and fine grit)
• Jute rope (mine was from the craft jute and I used a couple of yards)
• Fabric of your choice
• Masking tape

Instructions:

• With a pencil, place a mark approx 4-5" from the top. This is where you will drill your holes.
• Clamp down your dowel to your work surface (I clamped on both ends so the dowels have no chance of moving)
• Using your 1/8" (or in my case the 7/64) bit and drill your hole. I initially used the 7/64 but it was way too small to feed the rope through so I sent back and used the 1/8".
  
  
  
• After you drill the holes, sand all sides with a medium then fine grit sandpaper to smooth it out
  
  
  
• Tape the end of the rope with masking tape to help you feed them through the hole. Try wrapping the tape so it very tight and even where at the end where there is no rope. This makes it easy to thread through and for you to pull hard to get the rope through.
  
  
  
  
• After threading through all of the dowels, pull them together like the picture below then begin spreading them apart to create a neat spiral top.

• Once you have legs spread out to your liking, begin wrapping the rope around the dowels tightly. Make sure to wrap around each dowel, then at the end, around the entire perimeter of the joint.

• Now it should resemble something like the picture below!

  

• I already had white fabric around so I just draped it over the tent to check the size and arbitrarily sewed it to fit. I didn't want to spend an inordinate amount of time in case she didn't like it...but turns out..she loves it! You can see her little head peaking out below!