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Author Topic: Where does your dog stay during the winter?  (Read 6334 times)

Offline KFhunter

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #15 on: November 19, 2017, 09:22:03 PM »
Mine stays in a fenced electrified yard and insulated dog house stuffed with hay.   I don't like hunting indoor dogs, they're either too cold or too hot with soft feet.

Offline Smokepole

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #16 on: November 20, 2017, 05:53:16 AM »
Mine stays in a fenced electrified yard and insulated dog house stuffed with hay.   I don't like hunting indoor dogs, they're either too cold or too hot with soft feet.

Good topic.  KFH, when it gets below zero, does your dog do o.k. or do you let him in at night?  What kind of dog do you have?  I'm asking because our labs always sleep by the wood stove at night, and they are big babies when the weather gets cold.  Maybe I should build an insulated house.

Offline KFhunter

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #17 on: November 20, 2017, 10:59:44 AM »
I have a female Brittany, and unless it's -15 or 20 below she stays outside.  I feed her more in the winter and check her weight frequently, if it's a super cold snap she comes in at night but then she's panting from the heat.  Another thing I'll do is put her in the shop where it's warmer (insulated shop, stays above freezing)  but not tongue hanging out panting warm. 

I do not use a heating pad or dog house heater just keep it full of hay.  I did build a custom dog house that's well insulated top, bottom and all sides with a small entry hole and it's stuffed with hay.  She's warm in there, I never see shivering when she comes out to greet me.


Had lot's of labs growing up and none of them ever came inside the house ever, labs are even more tolerant of cold than Brittany's are with their hollow haired fur but whoa in the spring holy shed monsters.  We always had hay barns and they nested in the warm hay when it got down really cold.

Offline Special T

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #18 on: November 20, 2017, 11:00:16 AM »
I've kept my hunting dogs outside at night in a fenced yard. Now that my dog is older I bring him in on exceptionally rainy nights since he will no longer go in his dog house and just lays at the back door. I also have a heating pad in his out door bed to supplement some heat. I don't bath him during duck season the wife hates the Skagit mud so I take him for a swim in clean fresh water before bringing him home. 

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Offline JDHasty

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #19 on: November 20, 2017, 11:19:02 AM »
You can put straw in the kennel and they will nest in that. Another option is a heat lamp, especially since you have it enclosed. I have two black labs and a dog run like yours, but they stay inside during the winter. Luckily I work about 5 minutes from my house and since they sleep inside at night year around, they already have their designated pillows that they stay on.

I prefer alfalfa hay to wheat straw.  Heat lamps are good.  Our doghouse has 2x6 insulated walls and thermopane windows.  It is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. 
« Last Edit: November 20, 2017, 11:31:47 AM by JDHasty »

Offline Skyvalhunter

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #20 on: November 20, 2017, 11:29:23 AM »
Both cool and warm in the winter huh?
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Offline KFhunter

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #21 on: November 20, 2017, 11:35:12 AM »
I've kept my hunting dogs outside at night in a fenced yard. Now that my dog is older I bring him in on exceptionally rainy nights since he will no longer go in his dog house and just lays at the back door. I also have a heating pad in his out door bed to supplement some heat. I don't bath him during duck season the wife hates the Skagit mud so I take him for a swim in clean fresh water before bringing him home. 

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When she's old I'll bring her in too, nothing wrong with giving a retired old dog an extra winter or two inside  :tup:

Offline gaddy

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #22 on: November 20, 2017, 11:46:05 AM »
Mine stay outside all the time. I have two large dog houses on the deck butted against the house and next to the privacy wall on the deck. An 8' picnic table lengthwise in front of the houses. The whole works is wrapped with a tarp that used to cover train cars (really thick and heavy) with an opening at the end just big enough for them to go through. The houses are stuffed with straw.
When it snows it turns into a giant snow cave. Very warm and protected from the wind, yet cool in high temps. I went in last year when it got to freezing thinking about a heat lamp but with both dogs in there it is plenty warm.

Offline Smokepole

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #23 on: November 20, 2017, 04:51:26 PM »
I've kept my hunting dogs outside at night in a fenced yard. Now that my dog is older I bring him in on exceptionally rainy nights since he will no longer go in his dog house and just lays at the back door. I also have a heating pad in his out door bed to supplement some heat. I don't bath him during duck season the wife hates the Skagit mud so I take him for a swim in clean fresh water before bringing him home. 

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When she's old I'll bring her in too, nothing wrong with giving a retired old dog an extra winter or two inside  :tup:

Thanks for the info KFH.  Got a lab pup now.  Might make her an insulated house for the porch. 

BTW... I had an 8 year old retired lab.  Brought her in by the wood stove and she didn't die until she was 17.  There was so much shed hair you could have knitted a sweater.   :chuckle:

Offline Stein

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #24 on: November 20, 2017, 05:00:57 PM »
Our lab sleeps on my son's bed.  It isn't the best way to get a winter coat on her, but she's actually a pet before a waterfowl dog.  I would rather have to fetch a few myself than tell my son the dog has to sleep outside.

Offline jetjockey

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #25 on: November 20, 2017, 07:10:02 PM »
My female brit sleeps under the covers and steals the couch.  She has extremely tough feet and can run in the cold or the heat, just like her owners who sleep in the bed with her. 

Offline KFhunter

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #26 on: November 20, 2017, 07:34:37 PM »
My female brit sleeps under the covers and steals the couch.  She has extremely tough feet and can run in the cold or the heat, just like her owners who sleep in the bed with her.


 :tup:



Offline fish vacuum

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #27 on: November 21, 2017, 12:38:40 AM »


how do you keep the pups warm as the temperature falls?

Easy. I just put more wood in the stove.

Offline AWS

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #28 on: November 21, 2017, 08:54:47 PM »
When I lived up in northern MN, my pointers lived in insulated dog houses filled with marsh hay, they'd just burrow into it.  Here in the NW they come in the house, just too damp and wet.  He won't sleep in the bedrooms, seems like he wants to be able to see outside all the time.

« Last Edit: November 21, 2017, 09:00:09 PM by AWS »
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Offline WapitiTalk1

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Re: Where does your dog stay during the winter?
« Reply #29 on: November 21, 2017, 09:00:05 PM »
Well.......he's a bit spoiled I spose.
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