My wife and I are trying to figure out if we should do anything with our Rottweiler Rufus. The temperatures have been down in the mid 20's the past few nights and it is predicted to be in the teens the next few nights. Rufus lives outside and gerenally only comes in for part of the evening to hang out with us. He has a kennel and insulated dog house that he sleeps in, but since the temperatures have dropped he's been sleeping in the kennel OUTSIDE of the dog house. From what I can see the cold doesn't bother him, but I'd feel better if he would at least go inside the dog house at night. Last night my wife brought him in the house and let him sleep on the rug while she slept on the couch to make sure he was "good" since it was a new thing for him. We're considering sending him to the kennel country club for a few days since we don't want him to get used to sleeping inside and we're worried about the temperatures. His water freezes in a couple of hours when filled with warm water so I know it's cold.
Any thoughts?
My neighbor pretty much told me not to worry about my dog.
he said his rule with his labs was that he brought them in at 0*. Dogs are pretty self preserving, if its cold, they'll go inside. If he's got an insulated doghouse, it may actually get too hot for him, because of the body heat a large lab generates. Even in my dog's space under my desk, when I first set it up as it is now (with the curtain) a week or so ago, I put him outside at 9pm, and let him back in the house at 11pm. I went out and stuck my head in his "nest" space, and it was warm in there. If your dog gets cold, he'll go inside. I know my dog doesn't stay in bed all the time, so that was my mild concern. Obviously he turned out just fine, so I was curious what other people did with their dogs, hence the reason for this thread.
