The Haunted Dog House
(Renovated for 2006!)

Starting with the dog house we used last year (with creepy eyes inside) we decided to take it up a notch this year.

This year the dog house becomes much more interesting!

Starting with a EFX-TEK PROP1 controller as the "brains", a "box pusher" pneumatic cylinder and solenoid for some "action", and finally adding a EFX-TEK AP-8 for some loud amplified sound and an external speaker disguised as a rock, we came up with a prop that's sure to startle.

Here's the dog house as it appeared last year:

We gave the doghouse a new paint job - something more in tune with the season! You can see the new inhabitant through the front door below.

Here's a close-up of the PROP1, AP-8, and solenoid mounted on a short pole which we later placed inside the doghouse. The PROP1 is the "brains", controlling the sequence and hooked up to a motion detector to trigger the prop. The solenoid on the bottom is what switches the airflow in the box-pusher cylinder, from open (out) to closed (retracted). The AP-8 is a mono sound device; we located a good sound clip of dog barking, and downloaded it onto the card. The card has a built-in amplifier which will power the 4-ohm external rock-speaker (seen above) LOUDLY.

Here's where we started fitting all the mechanisms into the doghouse. The box pusher has a PVC pipe bolted to it, which in turn is bolted to a second log PVC pipe which extends forward a few inches (to hold the head) and straight back through a hole in the back of the doghouse. The end result is that the cylinder acts as a lever, moving the long PVC pipe forward and out the front of the doghouse when triggered. When it retracts, the pole gets slid backward, staying level thanks to the hole in the back which it slides out of. You can see the pipe sticking out the back in the pictures above, along with the power cord and air line.

On the front end of the PVC pipe is a Styrofoam wig head. The mask simply slides over the wig head. Here's a shot of all the mechanisms mounted inside:

Click here to see a short video of the dog house in action

The doghouse in its final resting place - at least for this season!