ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. – Degas had his ballerinas, Monet his water lilies. For Stephen Huneck, inspiration comes on four legs – its teeth dug into a stick, or tugging on a piece of rope, or playing on a beach.

The chapel, which never closes, is busy and full of life in summer and fall but quiet and empty on most winter days.

And his Dog Mountain studio and dog chapel, on a picturesque 175-acre hillside farm in rural northern Vermont, have evolved into a kind of doggy Disneyland, drawing animal lovers and their pets from all over, and some to mourn.

To Mr. Huneck, dogs are more than man's best friend.

"I really believe they're the great spirit's special gift to mankind," said Mr. Huneck, 59. "Dogs teach us more than we teach them."

But his first lessons were tough ones.

He was bitten by a German shepherd as a toddler, terrorized by a St. Bernard on his newspaper route as a teenager and left heartbroken when his father bought a puppy for the family but took it back to the pound the next day.

"Through it all, I just loved dogs," he said.

A longtime antiques collector, the Sudbury, Mass., native turned to art professionally in the early 1980s, using chisels, saws and planes to hand-carve his first few canine creations. Much of the basswood, cherry, maple and pine he works with comes from his farm.

His woodcuts – dogs with halos, dogs peeking out from under bedcovers, dogs sniffing each other – brim with the playfulness of a 6-week-old puppy. His sculptures and furniture, meanwhile, range from angel dog statues to coffee tables with sculpted legs that look like dogs, and from night tables with dog head handles to rocking dogs.

Dog lovers hound him for commissioned works. His client list includes actress Sandra Bullock (a dog sculpture wedding present for her husband), television talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw (a drawing of his dog) and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, whose Washington, D.C., office is decorated with Huneck art.

"I think, to describe his work to someone who has never seen it, you simply say, 'You have to see it. I can't describe it to give it the credit it deserves,' " said R. Scudder Smith, publisher of Antiques and the Arts Weekly, in Newtown, Conn.

"It is too full of fun, imagination and talent to put into words."

His books, including Sally Goes to the Beach, Sally Goes to the Farm and the new Sally Gets a Job, feature woodcut prints accompanied by simple, pithy captions that celebrate man's relationship with dogs.

"Like a dog, he has no inhibitions," said Rob Hunter, gallery manager for Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center. "He goes all over the place with his work. He has tapped into that playfulness you get with a dog."

The dog chapel grew out of a bit of inspiration after his 1994 hospitalization with acute respiratory distress syndrome, which nearly killed him. When he came out of it, he says, he had a vision.

"I kept thinking what a great thing it could be, for people not only to mourn the loss of a dog but to celebrate nature and their relationships with their dogs," he said.

Using wood harvested from his property, Mr. Huneck modeled the one-room chapel after 19th-century Vermont churches, with vaulted ceilings, stained-glass windows and wooden pews.

Built at a cost of "several hundred thousand dollars" and completed in 2000, it has stained-glass windows with images of dogs pieced into them.

The wooden pew-style benches in the 30-by-22-foot main room have one-dimensional dog likenesses at either end that are so realistic, Mr. Huneck says, that live dogs sniff them.

Outside, a sign greets all: "Welcome all creeds, all breeds. No dogmas allowed."

"I wanted the dogs to know this is their place," he says.

It's also a place for owners, many still grieving over their losses years later.

The walls are covered in handwritten remembrances and photographs left by owners. It's no accident: Paper and pencils are stocked on a door near the entrance, next to the statue of Artie the angel dog, a black Labrador with golden wings.

"We came with Webster, to remember Boris," reads one. "He passed this week. He was a good dog and we will miss him. Webster will miss him, too. But our visit today will help us all. Thanks. Cambridge, Mass."

Weddings and civil-union ceremonies have been held in it. When someone makes such a request, however, Mr. Huneck and his wife, Gwen, explain that the chapel has to remain open for others while the ceremony is being held.

The chapel, which is unheated and never closes, is busy and full of life in summer and fall but quiet, empty and solemn on most winter days.

"It's just so unique," said Jennifer Goodman, 29, of Boston, who made the three-hour drive in January, accompanied by her boyfriend and her 7-year-old basset hound, Beans.

"My friends were like, 'You're going to Vermont? Are you going to go skiing?'

"I'm like, 'No, we're going to a dog mountain,' and no one quite understands it. We literally just got here, checked into a hotel."

Twice a year, Mr. Huneck and his wife throw outdoor barbecues with food for everyone, two legs or four.

"When dogs pull up in here, they may never have been here before, but it's like they saw the 'Disneyland' sign. They just get so excited, so happy," he said.

Getting there

Dog Mountain

•The gallery, which contains a gift shop that sells Mr. Huneck's books, sculptures and art, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Contact: 143 Parks Road, St. Johnsbury, Vt.; 1-800-449-2580, www.dogmt.com.