Dog House Lights And Cool Yard Lighting Effects

There you are hanging out with your furry family in the yard.  The evening air is crisp and the sun is going down. And that dog house light is casting a warm glow across the back corner of the yard.

It’s great to be out with your pooch relaxing and taking in the evening.  As the sun goes down you look and see that your dog house is totally black inside. You can’t even see if your dog is still lying inside the dog house.  Some dog house lights would be just what you and your dog need.

As dogs’ age, one of the common characteristics is for a dog’s sight to go.  Dogs get that milky look in their eyes and often lose a portion or all of their sight in their twilight years.  Helping your dog navigate around can be a challenge, especially in the dark. I’ve researched the best dog house light systems and dog house lights to aid your aging dog or even just to bring a bit of flair to your existing dog house.  Let’s jump on in and take a look at your options.

DOGS SIGHT – LIGHT SPECTRUM BEST FOR DOGS

I wrote an article all about how dogs’ five senses work.  When I was researching that article, I discovered that dogs see a slightly different spectrum than we humans do.  Take a look at my article on Dog Communication and Senses here.  Assuming you can’t be bothered jumping on over to my other article to find out, I’ll give you the short notes version.

Dogs see yellow and blue.  The high end of the blue leads into ultra-violet but dogs can basically just see to the edge of blue, approximately anyway.

There have been multiple studies that have stipulated that blue light can mess with some vertebrates.  It tends to mess with our circadian rhythm, in humans anyway. There have also been studies done that suggested that sudden changes in the spectrum could evoke a physical response from the zebrafish.  However, I don’t think that necessarily applies to dogs.

With dogs only really being able to see yellows, blues and possibly shades of grey, their perception of the world is obviously different from ours.  Dogs have a difficult time distinguishing between green and red and therefore must see these colors like shades of grey. They also don’t seem to be affected by the brightness of color, rather their vision is more chromatically focused.  

Taking into consideration the colors you should choose for lighting the interior of the dog house would be perhaps a soft yellow.  I would stay away from the blue range for the interior of the dog house to avoid any possible issues with disturbing the dogs sleeping patterns.  For the exterior, I don’t think it matters that much but remember that greens or reds won’t be seen by the dog, like yellows and blues. I think yellow or blue lights are best if you want the dog to be able to see when it is dark out.  

POWER SUPPLY FOR DOG HOUSE LIGHTING

The first thing that I think of when it comes to lighting for my dog house is ‘How am I going to power my dog house lights?’.  Well, truth be told, there are really only 3 ways you might power your dog house lighting. These 3 methods of powering the dog house light provide several different options as well as their own complications.

1. Solar Power 
2. Battery Power
3. Corded Power

I mean, you might have an ingenious way of using wind energy to wind a coil spring that acts as a mechanical means of storing energy and… Not likely, right?  So, I believe it is safe to make the deduction that we are going to utilize one of the aforementioned methodologies.

SOLAR POWER

This is, as I think would be obvious, my favorite method of generating electricity.  The fact of the matter is that the sun gives us more power every day than we have any idea what to do with.  And we ignore this fact, for the most part. Only recently has civilization started to wise up, and it’s only out of fear and necessity, not that we as a species had a good idea or anything.  But I digress. Don’t get me started. (insert suitable emoji here). Getting back to point…

Solar power is typically put together with a few components.  First, you have the solar cell which ‘catches’ the sun’s rays and converts to electricity.  But you aren’t going to wire this directly to your lighting because it would only provide power during the daytime.  We need something to store that power. And enter stage left, the battery! And with it comes a small charger circuit (typically anyway).

The solar cell transforms the sun’s rays into electricity, the circuit changes the voltage/amperage and so on as required to charge the battery and charges it.  The battery, in turn, provides power to the dog house lights. Therefore you have a complete solar lighting circuit. Now I’m not necessarily suggesting you take it upon yourself to build the said solar circuit.  I just wanted to explain the basic principles behind its construction.

RECHARGEABLE BATTERY

The second alternative to solar would be to use a pure battery-powered or rechargeable battery-powered light.  Now if you’re using solar, you are likely using a rechargeable battery already. I don’t recommend using a battery-powered light unless it happens to be rechargeable.  And of course, I will definitely always recommend solar over all else.

CORDED DOG HOUSE LIGHT POWER SUPPLY

This is an alternative source of power if you have a nearby outdoor source and intend to run an extension cord.  If you have an air-conditioned or heated dog house, then likely you will opt for a corded option in which case, the sky is the limit.

INTERIOR DOG HOUSE LIGHTING

Again, as I noted previously, I recommend using solar as your power source.  Now when it comes to lighting for the inside of the dog house, there are two methodologies.  

1. Functional – the light provided is for the benefit of the dog.  It helps the dog be able to see inside the dog house. This is a good idea if the dog is elderly and/or having issues seeing.
2. Aesthetic – the light provided is for the benefit of appearance to you.  Maybe you want a cool colored light to be coming out from the dog house in the yard.  Now if it were me, I’d want to pick blue, but that could, as we’ve learned, affect the sleep cycle of the dog.  I think a nice green or red would be good as long as it isn’t too bright. Remember that dogs can’t distinguish between red and green, thus they would see a shade of grey instead.  And with that in mind, it is feasible to assume that a green or red light would be less irritating to the dog who may want to sleep without being flooded with light.

SOLAR DOG HOUSE LIGHT IDEAS

I’ve outlined a few well-rated lighting options I found at Amazon.  I’ve got a bunch of lights in my yard from Amazon and haven’t been disappointed yet.  Take a look at some of these, the prices are decent, the ratings and reviews are good and delivery is great as always from our friends at Amazon.

LED – Naturally, this is all I recommend.  That is unless you intend to use lights as a source of warmth inside the dog house.

Incandescent – this is your standard bulb type of old.  Readily accessible and standardized across North America

Florescent – not recommended due to heat created by the required transformer. 

EXTERIOR DOG HOUSE LIGHTING

Here are some really great lights I’ve used.  The best place to get them is of course right here via Amazon.  I’ve seen some very cool lighting concepts when it comes to landscaping and yard lighting.  When it comes to lighting our dog houses, that is, adding dog house lights to the yard, exterior lights heighten the appearance of any dog house.  And we all know how neighbors can be about our dogs. With cool lighting effects, your neighbors can be jealous of your stylish dog house.

COOL YARD LIGHTING EFFECTS

When I was looking at the different ideas for lighting, I came across some really neat outdoor lights.  These add some really cool lighting effects to your yard. And when combined with a well-placed dog house, the look of some neat lighting effects mixed into your yard’s landscaping will make your yard the talk of the town. 

Having really cool yard lighting is great and all, but how can we REALLY make it stand out?  So, let’s look at some of our options. First, we have your standard colored lights. I didn’t bother putting any of the normal, everyday solar patio lights on here because well hey, you can find those everywhere right?  I went looking for something different. You know, I wanted to find cool lighting effects, at a decent price point, with GOOD REVIEWS. And I don’t order anything off amazon or anywhere else unless I read what appears to be genuine reviews.  Are you with me on that?

Here are a few of the not-so-normal patio lights I found that meet our criteria:  

DIFFERENT YARD LIGHTING IDEAS

Let’s look at some different types of cool yard lighting.  I think the best way to tackle this is to break it down into some typical yard decor which you will likely have some of in your yard.  Here are a few:

WALL/FENCE LIGHTING

There are a lot of neat things you can do for lighting up a fence and or a wall in a decorative way.  I’ve got some LED lights mounted on each of my fence posts that I think look really cool. That combined with the fact that the battery is able to keep the light on all night, really makes this a stellar idea.  

But let’s not stop there, no!  Let’s take this thing further. I’ve always liked the lights that project onto your house for Christmas time decorating.  And I’ve seen these done for Halloween as well. You can easily do this year-round.  

Solar-powered spotlights are my light of choice for lighting up a fence or wall.  

TREE LIGHTING

With lighting trees, depending on the size and type of tree, there will be many options.  Let’s take a look at a few options.

HANGING LIGHTS. 

This option is a good one if you have larger trees with decent sized branches extending out at height.  That way you can hang patio lantern or any other style of hanging light which you like.

I’m a fan of the round, globe-shaped, soft and warm yellow to white light.  I’m also a big fan of using solar, but if its a big, healthy tree, you may need to run corded as the tree will be shading where the lights are so the solar won’t work so good.

STRING LIGHTS

These are an absolute necessity around Christmas time where I live.  Everyone here has their trees strung with lights during the holidays.  The festive feeling in the air is contagious. And you can do a lot in the offseason with string lights too.

Again, I am a fan of the soft yellowish-white lights.  I like them due to the fact that they are great to use year-round and can stay up for the holidays or after.  If you’re using red and green lights, this really isn’t the case if you’re going to follow the unspoken rules of yard decoration.  

Another color I’m a huge fan of is blue.  I’ve read that blue light has a way of messing with our sleep rhythms but I like the color.  I’m a fan, what can I say? That being said, I will always endorse the use of blue decorative lighting – year-round I say!

SHRUB/BUSH LIGHTING

Shrubs and bushes look best with string lights, in my opinion.  However, I’ve seen some nice lighting situations where the property has spotlights shining on specific flower beds and bushes.  This effect can look really cool if you use the right shade and/or color of the lightbulb.  

PATHWAY LIGHTING

Most people use patio stake-in-the-ground lights when lighting walkways.  I say step outside that comfort zone and try something new. I really like the idea of the string LED lights along the edges of a path.  The trick is finding a way not to step on and break them.  

One clever trick is to dig a tiny trench right along the edge of your path or walkway which is just deep enough to fit the lights in.  But I would also consider putting a micro fence along the sides of the path to protect the lights from being accidentally trampled.

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