Dogs have been kept since about 5000 BC when they were used by the ancient Egyptians for hunting as well as being kept as pets. A dog kennel for one of these dogs would have been made from mud bricks and they had professional dog carers to look after them. Dogs were also kept by the Greeks, Romans and Chinese and were often seen as a bit of a status symbol with the dog living in its owners home with him.
By the middle ages hunting had become a popular sport and packs of dogs were kept in large dog kennels on the grounds of the nobility while a dog house for a dog owned by a peasant was usually nothing more than the front porch!
From the 1800’s onwards dog breeding became popular with the Victorians starting the trend for wooden dog kennels with pitched roofs and during WW2 dogs that were used to sniff out mines or as trackers were kept in dog pens.
Historically dog houses were made out of any materials which could be found lying around but since the second world war they have started to be mass produced for the commercial market. This has led to a huge increase in the production of kennels which can be made by machines. The plastic dog kennel being the best example of this as they can be produced in a mold with very little human effort required.
Though plastic and metal kennels have become increasingly popular, the traditional wooden kennels made commonplace by the Victorians are still seen as being the most aesthetically pleasing and are still used by millions of dogs around the world.
Another reason for the continued popularity of wood is that the internet has huge numbers of dog house plans available on it for people to use and so people often make their own dog kennels. Wood is still also relatively cheap and has good insulating properties which are important in kennel construction.
