A diggin’ dirt box for a dog named Yussel

One of the things that I love about what I do for a living is completing fun and unique projects for clients.  The treehouse I built for a client last summer being the best example of that (to the extreme).  This was another fun and unique “1 day” project I completed for friends and clients in the fall of ’22 – building a “doggy dirt digging box” for their new puppy, Yussel.

My wife and I have close friends who we met about a decade ago through dog/cat circles – we first got to know them when they fostered the last 2 cats that have graced our home, the sweetest boy named Clifford (who passed in 2019) and our beautiful cat Lucia.  These were some of the first clients to hire me when I started my business in 2018, when they asked me to replace their kitchen floor with new, click-lock plank flooring and new baseboards.  In May of 21’ they asked me to build custom stairs for their senior pooch Levi, to make it easier for him to get onto the bed.  Levi passed earlier this year, but the steps helped him in in his final year to easily get onto and down from the bed.  I will try to do another blog post about “Levi’s steps” this winter – I love doing “projects for pets”.  Levi was the best boy ❤️

Anyway, fast forward to this fall when our friends got a new golden retriever puppy named Yussel.  In 2020, one year after we got our current pandemic greyhound crosses Shae & Barley, our hounds decided to start digging a hole in our backyard.  I decided that, instead of fighting it, this was a perfect spot for our hounds to dig in the dirt so I built a “doggy digging dirt box” to contain the digging dirt mayhem.

Our friends asked if they could bring the puppy Yussel over for a visit in October and, during the visit, our sweet hound Shae showed Yussel how to use the “doggy digging dirt box”.   See the first video for the precious dirt box tutorial that Shae gave Yussel.

I was asked if I could build a “doggy digging dirt box” for Yussel and I said “sure!”  My one regret with the dirt box I built for our hounds is that it isn’t tall enough to contain all of the “excavated” dirt that an 80# greyhound cross with long legs can move.  So I built Yussel’s doggy digging dirt box tall enough to contain the dirt that an eventual 70# golden retriever will excavate. 

I used “cedartone” lumber to build Yussel’s dirt box in order to assure that it would last for decades, and to keep the cost of the lumber down while avoiding the need to give the lumber a clear stain every year in order to last.

Yussel will be happily digging in the dirt for years to come – how can I help your pets with their home?