Edzo students building insulated dog houses

Several students at Chief Jimmy Bruneau School have spent the last two weeks constructing insulated houses for dogs in Behchokǫ̀.

Mike Johnston, a teacher in charge of running shop classes at the school in Edzo, said Yellowknife resident Tia Hanna provided materials for the students to work with. Johnston said they received $4,000 worth of lumber.

“We were approached to see if we would be able to put them together. So, we said: ‘Sure, if they supply the materials, we’d be happy to put them together,'” he said.

Johnston said high school students have been busy with prefabbing – or cutting up and assembling the wood. The next step, he said, involves staining the wood.

Although the dog houses aren’t finished yet, Johnston said the project has been a good way for students to gain valuable experience before the semester ends.

“Kids like them. They want to take them home,” Johnston said of the dog houses. “I said, ‘I’m not quite sure about that.’ But definitely by the looks of it, the fact that they’re insulated, the designs are really good.”

Hanna, who previously bought more than 50 bales of straw on New Year’s Day to keep dogs warm at the NWT SPCA in Yellowknife, said she bought the materials for 20 extra large houses from Igloo Building Supplies Group. She said the company offered a big discount.

Hanna said the Tłı̨chǫ Government has also provided $10,000 to help cover the costs of the project.

“They’re going to be insulated dog houses, built properly for sled dogs living outside,” she said.

Hanna is part of the Tłı̨chǫ Animal Care Group, a volunteer group that works to help with dogs in the region. She said the group’s long-term goal is to find funding for the community government in Behchokǫ̀ to build an animal shelter.

Hanna said she believes there is room for improvement when it comes to outdoor housing for dogs in the community.

“I get cold outside and it really bothers me to think about the dogs outside being cold all the time,” she said.

“We’ve gone house to house and there’s so many people that love and adore their dogs and are fed up of seeing all these other dogs suffer. So I know it’s very much an important thing within the community.”