Ami is spending more time in the house these days but still sleeps in his house at night (well, supposed to sleep in his house - he seems to prefer his hollow in the roots of the pine tree  ). This past winter, from midnight to 7-8-ish, he was crated in an outbuilding. This winter, he will be on patrol for Bambi...how much time can he spend inside without compromising his coat development to cope with upstate NY winters? Generally, now, he comes in for breakfast, we're supposed to wait 30 minutes after eating before walking, but my big boy starts climbing on me and wooing at me about 10 minutes after eating until I give up and take him on his walk. Then he frequently comes in for the hot part of the day though not always then out for his dinner and romping. Again in for early evening, he has a bone, we have dinner, we share dinner  .., then its out for walk before he is out for the night. I don't want to kick him out abruptly once the cold weather comes so I'm wondering how much house time he can have and still grow a good thick coat.

How cold do you keep your house? Kenzi spends her days in the air conditioning and wears a nearly full winter coat year round, but we keep our house pretty cool all the time.

TwisterII wrote:

How cold do you keep your house? Kenzi spends her days in the air conditioning and wears a nearly full winter coat year round, but we keep our house pretty cool all the time.

Summer - no air conditioning but with shades, closing windows once the outside temp approaches the inside temp and then opening windows in early evening, house stays about 10° cooler in summer.  Winter - we heat with wood.  The kitchen area can be really warm by late afternoon, but downright frigid (52 ish) on the coldest mornings of the winter (outside temps 10-20 below)

Ami has probably lost 2 dogs worth of coat since March. By January last year, I was beginning to think there was a mistake and he was malamute and also, that I was feeding him too much - turns out - it was all fur! Lost 2 inches in height and continues to lose girth as he is shedding coat. So now, I'm waiting until end of July before I determine if he is truly a woolly or not - at the moment, his coat looks about like Bodhi or Mishka and he has a definite waist and tuck up. And he's still blowing coat - fistfulls of pants, tail and feathers are coming out! Of course - this past winter was brutal - we had weeks of single digit days and below 0° nights - usually that kind of weather only lasts 2-3 days and only once or twice a season. Froze our hoo hoots off this year  Thank goodness for electric blankets  

Our hunting dogs that never put on much coat were never allowed inside for more than 10 minutes at a time if there was much difference between inside and outside. If it's that cool in the kitchen in the morning then you should be fine for longer. The further the temperature difference, the less he should be in.

TwisterII wrote:

Our hunting dogs that never put on much coat were never allowed inside for more than 10 minutes at a time if there was much difference between inside and outside. If it's that cool in the kitchen in the morning then you should be fine for longer. The further the temperature difference, the less he should be in.

So are your dogs outdoor dogs, too?

Kenzi and Keno are not, though Keno is partially, but we keep bird dogs and hounds for hunting at my parents house that are. We also have a couple mutts that serve as guard dogs since we have several cars and live in a rural area where things are more easily stolen. The guard dogs and hounds never come inside but the bird dogs have split time indoors and out.

TwisterII wrote:

Kenzi and Keno are not, though Keno is partially, but we keep bird dogs and hounds for hunting at my parents house that are. We also have a couple mutts that serve as guard dogs since we have several cars and live in a rural area where things are more easily stolen. The guard dogs and hounds never come inside but the bird dogs have split time indoors and out.

Do your outdoor dogs sleep in a dog house or kennel? Drives me crazy - Ami has 3 different houses, 2 he likes, 1 he only went in under horrific wind and blowing snow. He really likes his "Adirondack Cottage". But, since weather warmed up, he will occasionally go in if sun is on him but otherwise, Nada. Sleeps all night in a dirt depression he made between the roots of the pine trees. With the dew.

They each have an insulated dog house that is equipped with a heat lamp should the weather get more than they can handle. Having very little hair anything close to freezing or lower we switch on the heat lamp but only when the lamp won't make it so warm they might acclimate. The mutt guard dog still prefers to sleep on the ground under the porch, which is fine by us as no one knows he's there until it's too late. He too has a hole in the dirt there next to a vent in the foundation. My parents also heat with wood and leave this one vent in the foundation open all year around so when he does insist on being under there at least there is a mild heat, or in summer, cool, source.

We used to have a dog house for Kenzi when she used to be outside when we were gone during the day. She never used it once. There were large pits dug under the back porch where she would lay all day, which I guess made more sense than the dog house as at least the pits in the ground might get a breeze through every once in a while. She slept outside by herself the first part of the winter before we moved. Inside all day and out at night which was what she preferred. She packed on a huge winter coat and when she blew it off this spring she put it right back on and we haven't left her out at night since we moved. When she was sleeping outside the lows were only in the upper 30s. After we moved we got hammered and it didn't get above 0 for over a week so we made her stay in. The ice bothered her feet more than the frigid temps ever did.