I have a 13 year old female husky that's in great shape. I run 2 miles with her every morning, rain, snow, never miss a morning. I have to leave her home alone 3 or 4 days a week for about 5 hours. I have a kennel in my basement and one in my garage, she prefers the garage but this time of year it is only 35 degrees. Should I let her stay in the garage where she wants to be or make her stay in the basement? Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

I am a spoiler of my dog. If she wants to be out in -10 I let her out there until she wants back in, but I personally wouldn't go away and leave an animal crated in cold places, even one that's designed to handle negative degree weather, simply because they don't have the space to run and keep their body heat up. Kenzi likes to be out in cold weather but she's moving while she's out there. I know there's people on here that have spent a lot more time learning the thresholds of these dogs than I and they will give you more sound info, but I personally would keep her in the basement. You never know when temps might drop a lot lower than 35.

I have a 15 mo old male who is a completely outside dog except from late evening to morning when he goes into an outbuilding.  He has a crate with the bottom lined with an inch of newspaper, topped by cardboard and finally a movers blanket folded into quarters.  The crate is covered with a sleeping bag.  On really cold nights I also put a flap of folded flannel sheet over most of the front a lean scrap pieces of osb around the crate (I'm talking low teens or below.)  I wash and dry the moving blanket about 1/week to keep up the loft (or when its wet.)  He is out of the wind, he gets a large kong partially filled with kibble as a bedtime snack to give him some calories overnight.  He has developed a terrifically thick, dense winter coat and seems to be thriving (except when we have unexpected winter temps in the 50's).  IO have never seen him curled up in crate - only stretched out so I interpret that as he is plenty warm.  The only frustration I have is we built him a roomy, warm doghouse for outside with his choice of bedding and I've only seen him use it a couple times when the temps were single digit, the wind was howling and it was snowing or when I toss a kibble laden kong inside.  Otherwise, he seems to prefer to laying under the pines.  Does not know enough to come out of the rain.

That being said - your dog is older and is she acclimated to the cold?  Do you feed her extra food when it gets colder?  I would not take a dog kept at 70° most of the time and put them out for extended periods.  However - your dog seems to be voicing her opinion...(Also, I had a husky 40 years ago that was an indoor dog.  In winter, should could not wait to get outside and just sink into the snow - it was like a sigh of relief, like "thank you, thank you, thank you.)

partsman430 wrote:

I have a 13 year old female husky that's in great shape. I run 2 miles with her every morning, rain, snow, never miss a morning. I have to leave her home alone 3 or 4 days a week for about 5 hours. I have a kennel in my basement and one in my garage, she prefers the garage but this time of year it is only 35 degrees. Should I let her stay in the garage where she wants to be or make her stay in the basement? Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

We just lost our old girl in Oct, 2 days after she turned 16 and even last winter, she really loved being outside. She lived with my parents in the mountains and they had a wood stove. Even at 14, she couldn't wait to get outside on her tie out. She would just lay in the snow and watch the world go by all day. The live in Fraser, CO, one of the coldest places in the state, and she really enjoyed being out. Even when it was in the single digits. She only lost her desire to be outside when her sight started to go. We think that she just didn't feel comfortable being out since she couldn't see. As the others said, if your pup is used to it, it shouldn't be a problem.

I agree. If she is in good health for her age and is used to the cold, I bet she would love it. We sleep with a window fan in our room at night and it gets freezing for the dogs (below 35), but its the only way they are comfertable and like to sleep through the night, so she probbaly likes the crate in the garage because of the cold. I say leave a blanket (if she doesn't eat them in her crate) and if she gets cold she can buddle herself in that or something. But I think she would be fine.

Thank you everyone, I'll give her a few extra blankets tomorrow and I think she'll be happy.Thanks again.