I am wanting to see some pictures of your guy's hunting dog boxes. I am looking for some ideas on building a new two dog box. I am not setup to weld aluminum or I would just go with diamond plate. I am leaning towards 5/8'' OSB and then applying about 4 coats of polyurethane to protect it from the weather and getting beat to shreds. I was thinking about putting a storage area on top to put shells and maybe some gun racks but don't know how lawful that is in Illinois. if anybody has some tips please let me know.

It will be ready in two months, but here is what it will look like:

i would buy oneif i were you. i have went through 2 wooden dog boxes in 5 years of hard hunting withhounds,and this year i finally went and bought a dimond plated owens dog box. it will last me a life time and it was only 500. thats with top storage and all.insulated etc.. it will cost nearly that much fora wooden dogbox pluss time.
what kind of dogs do you have. where ya from in illinois?
there are alot of used dogboxes for 150+/- on ukcdogs.com. id check them out. you will be much happier with one. i priomise ya.

I'd also recommend buying a diamond plated aluminum one. I have an Owens and love it. I've had 2 wooded boxes and a UWS before this and the wooden ones were HEAVY!!! I would def. not use OSB if I were to make one, use plywood if anything.