Hi, do your dogs live in or out?

Is it ok for dogs to live outdoors if they have suitable kennel etc..  ?

Wellybob

My dogs live indoors, but mostly sleep outside at night in a double kennel, benefiting from the fresh air and lack of central heating.

Hi, Yes, i have heard that central heating is really bad for dogs, and that they are better off living outdoors, (given plenty of exercise and attention etc)...Do they grow extra warm coats compared to dogs who live in?  My choc lab is moulting a lot right now and this seems odd as winter approaches.

wellybob

>My choc lab is moulting a lot right now and this seems odd as winter approaches.<

All part of Nature's miracle; most dogs "change" their coats twice a year, it's not a case of topping up the coat for the colder weather. The winter coat is replaced with a summer coat, and in the same way the summer coat has to moult to be replaced by a warm winter coat. The coat is not just getting thicker or thinner. ;-) Horses are the same - mine are getting woolly, but the summer coat is shedding at the same time. It looks as if the heavy coat is shedding but it's not, it's the light summer coat that is coming out as the wonter woollies grow.
OOps - winter woollies

All my 9 are indoors. :)

Mine are also in when I'm around, but when I'm not, they are in the passageway, unheated in good warm beds.  My last dog used to have a kennel, lined with a double hollow fibre quilt, and I think some nights she was warmer than I was......

My Vet says another advantage for dogs living outside is they can pee and poop whenever they want, something that might become more even important as they age.  And a Conservation Officer (fish cop, game warden) friend who had a detector dog partner was required to keep the dog outside.  Apparently the inside warmth, particularly in winter, might have adversely affected her sniffing abilities and she was always on call at a moments notice.  Of course she had a warm kennel but my friend was always in dread that somebody he'd charged for hunting out of season or being over the limit, would find out where he lived and poison the dog.

We had troubles with kids teasing our outside dog, throwing stones at him.  One little boy was even in our yard beating our dog with a shovel.  Our current Lab is a house dog.

That wouldn't really work unless you are in secluded place. 

Four of my girls are shut in their kennels at night, but I brought the oldest into the kitchen as I had found she had had to soil the floor a couple of times (which I know would have distressed her). She had even climbed up onto the full length sleeping bench under which the dog beds are and peed on the bedding and paper on there.

I know she would have whined in the night, but I didn't hear her, but have more chance of hearing her in the kitchen, and if not there is slightly more room, and if she pees the floor so what, whereas in the five foot square kennel, with half the floor space taken up with two dog beds, not only was it distressing for her but her daughter who often prefered to sleep on the floor than in her basket.

Only started getting this issue once she was over 12 years old, and don't often have a problem unless it is wet out last thing before bed and despite makeing ehr fo out she doesn't have a last wee.

Mine are all inside,they would be mortified if i locked them outside,nobody would get any sleep as they would be whining,barking and scratching at the door until i let them in

Ah but the Kennels are the girls bedroom so they take themselves off to bed and I just shut the pop homes up, there just isn't enough room for five dog beds in the kitchen, there is a crate and two beds there for teh day, so they either have to share (they never do) or two of them lie on the floor, if I am out. 

I prefer the space they have in a proper kennel than having them sleep in crates for example, even though they spend all night curled up on either the sleeping benches, tehri baskets or the floor depending on their taste and the weather.

As well as the windows the kennels have shutters that can be removed so that the dogs are contained behind weldmesh but have more ventilation in hot weather and floor level, a boon this summer.

It also depends on the breed, wellybob.  Some breeds, like spaniels and labs, seem to be fine living outdoors.  But other breeds, like our breed, need to be inside because they are very much a 'people' dog and always want to be part of anything happening.  If you tried to keep them outside they would howl or bark or generally get depressed. 

Cavaliers are definitely not kennel dogs(although there are breeders & owners who do kennel theirs) Some GSDs & BCs are happy in kennels my puppy BC was living in kennels until he came to me. My friend with Great Danes always says most Danes don't make good kennel dogs(even though hers have state of the art kennels only the girls go in them when in season during the day & the boys have a huge crate for the nights so the girls can come indoors.

Depends on the individual dog & the breed IMHO

My spaniels live out.  They are usually inside when we are in, but come nighttime, they happily trot off down the garden for bed.

Mine get quite uncomfortable if I leave them in and don't like being too warm; they will even ask to go out in the winter if we have the log fire lit.

Their kennel (or bedroom to them) is spacious, they have raised draught free beds and plenty of vetbed, but no heating.  I do have a heat lamp but hardly ever use it.

I do have a baby monitor which I can use if I think I might need to be alerted to anything but it tends to pick up our neighbours baby and other noises from their house!!!!!

On chilly mornings I often wonder if they are warm enough only to watch them jump into an icy cattle trough!!

PS their coats are different to their indoor living counterparts and seem to do the trick effectively.

Someone suggested I have my Yankee living outside because it might help his coat grow longer and thicker, but I'm too much of a softie!! As for my Cavs - living outside?? It's all I can do to stop them taking over the bedroom and putting me in the dog basket!! :-D

There is a difference between living outside and sleeping there :D  My lot only go outside to pee, as far as they are concerned they can wait for their walks to play or act like naughty kids bouncing off the sofa and round the table indoors, they never play outdoors at home.

They spend 16 hours pf the day (except for walks) indoors and just the night time from11pm to 7am in their bedroom/kennel.

Mine sleep in the kitchen - unheated :)  I wouldn't sleep if they were outside (not safe enough ;) ) and they aren't really dogs that appreciate kennels (at least mine aren't) tho some breeders keep them outside.  I also like to know that I'd hear them if there was a problem :D

During the day they're free to go out in the garden or stay in, if its raining they prefer to stay in :)  but get dragged out for walks - I'm very cruel :)

Mine sleep inside. If they slept out in the garden I'd be too worried that they would make too much noise :D We only have neighbours on one side, but we have lots of foxes around which come in the garden and are very noisy - my dogs would go potty :D Also, as we have fields on two sides, one of the points of having noisy dogs is to deter burglars/prowlers in the house, which they wouldn't do if they were shut out in kennels (unless someone came in the garden) :D :D My dogs can come and go into the garden in fine weather during the day, if someone is home. Tara likes lying in the bushes, Bramble prefers people company and goes where we go :)

As with all things, each to their own - all dogs and owners are different :)

Daisy

Mine are definatly indoors.  I got them as my pets and my companions which they can't be if they are out there and I'm in here.

Bev

Mine is a pet too, but he sleeps outside....he is inside all day if he wants to be in:)

Can't see that as I don't want to sleep with all five of them, so them sleeping in their kennel sited right out by the kitchen isn't going to stop them being my pets and cuddling up with me all day and evening :D They have their bedroom and I have mine.  If I had the money then the wooden kennel would be an extension to my kitchen.

A lot seems to depend on breed or lifestyle - some dogs simply aren't "outdoor types". My dogs have always slept in the kitchen and spent a deal of time outside playing because we live in the middle of nowhere with the sort of big middle of nowhere sort of garden you get out in the country. But certainly, my cocker wouldn't have been overly impressed with sleeping outside and I doubt I'd have been overly impressed by the constant distractions provided by pheasants. Especially since it was only when he heard or saw a pheasant that his breed conditioning clicked in!!

My JR pup spends a good part of each day having supervised "mad puppy" play in the garden and he comes from a long line of good working as well as pet JR stock - his grandmother reigns supreme from the the back of one of the local farmers Land Rovers when she's not ratting - but none of the workers have been outside sleepers and I think terriers are probably best indoors overnight. Not least because of their supreme digging skills!!!!  As for mine, the little blighter is still coming to terms with the absolute fact that in this house pups are forced to sleep in their nice bed on a nice warm rug in the kitchen rather than on my pillow!  If I put him outdoors nobody in a two mile radius would get a wink of sleep!! :)

The other factor to be taken into account is that often pups have always slept outside.  Three of mine were raised outside as pups - although not outside in the open air, just in a purpose built environment not within the house.  Outside is a bit of misnomer really, they are hardly out under the stars.

My five sleep in our house, they would be mortified if we made them sleep in a kennel! We have two downstairs in the kitchen, and the rest upstairs with us. The puppy sleeps downstairs in his cage, and our oldest dog sleeps in a bed next to his cage, she guards him!

Rachel