We have Two High Energy Dogs in a Tiny House

The dogs and I have been absent for a few months because I have been writing a book about our recent (3 years ago) lifestyle change. Brian and I sold our big house in Connecticut, toured around the Southwest and finally built a ‘tiny house’. We have one full-sized piano, one parrot and two dogs in a tiny house.

Two Dogs in a Tiny House versus Small House

When I first started this blog, Trooper and I were living in Manchester, Connecticut in a 1500 square foot home. We had a 3 acre yard and led happy lives. I experienced a change of heart while attending graduate school and decided that I wanted to change my life. Brian and I decided we wanted to stop dedicating our lives to working full-time jobs as a way to fund our house; and instead create a debt-free home that would be our platform to freedom.

We explored the existing tiny house companies to determine if they could work for us and our pets. While some families have made it work, the available models did not seem to invite the idea of two dogs in a tiny house. Especially when you add our piano and parrot to the equation. So instead, we custom designed a small house (450 square feet) that would accommodate our specific needs, be doable with the funds made available by the sale of our house and provide us with the freedom we were seeking to have more adventure in life.

Velcro Dogs in a Small House

Most readers who visit my blog are understandably ‘parents’ of Australian Shepherds. And as such, you probably experience dogs that are always with you, aka ‘velcro dogs’. Despite losing space to theoretically roam, our dogs did not experience any kind of demotion in lifestyle when we moved into the small house. They are not constantly being stepped on or hollered at. As always, Trooper is usually within 2 inches of me and Sydney sits a little beyond him. They follow me into the bathroom, lay near the shower and try to get on my yoga mat when I’m on the ground.

The only thing that has changed is we go on more adventures. Our living expenses are now very low and we no longer have to work as many hours. I’d estimate we work 40-60 hours between the two of us; as opposed to 80+ hours that we used to work. That means when one of us is working, the other can be taking care of domestic responsibilities. When we are both free, we load up the dogs and go on adventures.

If you are considering reducing your overhead and moving into or building a small house (or tiny house), I would encourage you not to worry about your pups too much. As long as you live in a place where you have access to the outdoors, life will only improve.

Big to Tiny to Small

We wrote our book to help guide and inspire anybody considering a similar lifestyle change. It begins with our lives before discovering the concept of tiny, our research into building materials and floor plans, how we selected a city to live in and the process of buying land. We plan to cover the actual build process in our second book.

While the book is not explicitly about our dogs, they are part of our family, were an essential consideration in our design decisions and are included in the story where appropriate. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to check out the book here. It will be on sale from now through June 11th.