Registered: Feb 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 200

Who heats them in the winter? I always have but thinken bout not doin it this year. Do they need heated dog houses or is a good insulated house full of straw good enuf? What do you think bout this?

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Registered: Jan 2012
Location: Goshen,Ohio
Posts: 2679

How cold does it get where you live?I ant never had a heated dog house.Just an insulated dog house full of straw.A towel or flap over the door keeps in ALOT of heat.Dogs are tough.JMO

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Registered: Feb 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 200

Its been above 0. I usually turn on the heating pads when it gets below 0 but talked to alot of people that say you dont even have to do that. Just curious what everyones thoughts were on it. How cold does it get where youre at?

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Registered: Apr 2006
Location:
Posts: 6548

i dont understand how do you keep them from tearing the
pad up

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Registered: Jan 2012
Location: Goshen,Ohio
Posts: 2679

Low 20s tonight high in the 30s.I think keepin them outta the wind is the man thing.I also have above ground kennels which keeps there straw from gettin wet and muddy.

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Registered: Jun 2012
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 148

I believe protection from the wind, a good bed and plenty of food is all they need.

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location:
Posts: 574

I live in Mn also! I don't heat them but I should for the old dogs I think

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Registered: Jun 2012
Location: SE MN
Posts: 412

My buddy built insulated boxes and bought heating pads and ripped the guts out of them. I placed them on the floor of each box and poured an quickcrete / epoxy type stuff over them creating a smooth hard surface floor. All the wiring was ran outside the boxes into a conduit. Basically in-floor heat in each box. Works great. No bedding needed but maybe an old towel or something. Everything stays dry like a heated garage floor. Boxes are placed on the outside of the kennel so dogs can't chew into them. Best thing I've ever seen.

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location:
Posts: 574

that does sound like the ticket Brogy, i might do something like that, a guy could buy the elec in floor heat stuff for bathrooms, that would work slick also, hmmmm i'm gonna look into this, was easier and slicker than the lights etc..

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Registered: Sep 2003
Location:
Posts: 2785

It would still be cold on em' when they get up to go potty , better get some nice doggie sweaters for em' too ...

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Registered: Apr 2006
Location:
Posts: 6548

quote:

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Originally posted by brogy
My buddy built insulated boxes and bought heating pads and ripped the guts out of them. I placed them on the floor of each box and poured an quickcrete / epoxy type stuff over them creating a smooth hard surface floor. All the wiring was ran outside the boxes into a conduit. Basically in-floor heat in each box. Works great. No bedding needed but maybe an old towel or something. Everything stays dry like a heated garage floor. Boxes are placed on the outside of the kennel so dogs can't chew into them. Best thing I've ever seen.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Central Michigan
Posts: 6544

Animals are different than people. Their metabolism is much greater than ours.

People should not try to make animals fit our ideas regarding human comfort. It is much harder on an animal's metabolism to go from one temperature extreme to another.

I have told this story on here easily a hundred times. In past years when our temperatures dipped down to the -40 and below, my father would wake me up in the middle of the night to check on our outside dogs. Never once were those dogs not warmer than I was before I woke up.

The greatest threat to dogs in the winter is the lack of water.

If they have good clean water, lots of bedding, a good premium dog food, and can get out of the wind our dogs will not only be fine, but they will thrive.

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

i heat my dogs houses. i use a small elec. box heater, enclosed in plywood. the piece on the back i cut three- 3" holes and run three lengths of 3" flex. duct to each house. i put a thermosate in one barrell. they don't need it. they'd survive without it. i know they like it. one piece of duct fell off of one barrel and i notice they were fussing about getting into two barrels and not the third. also, they get into the sun to get warmer in the fall becausse they like it more than being in the shade. i don't have to do it. i want to do it because i want my dogs to be comfortable.

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Registered: Apr 2006
Location:
Posts: 6548

quote:

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Originally posted by croatankid
i heat my dogs houses. i use a small elec. box heater, enclosed in plywood. the piece on the back i cut three- 3" holes and run three lengths of 3" flex. duct to each house. i put a thermosate in one barrell. they don't need it. they'd survive without it. i know they like it. one piece of duct fell off of one barrel and i notice they were fussing about getting into two barrels and not the third. also, they get into the sun to get warmer in the fall becausse they like it more than being in the shade. i don't have to do it. i want to do it because i want my dogs to be comfortable.

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Registered: May 2007
Location: Alberta
Posts: 21

Installed an electric heater in my kennel and was glad to have it as it got to -30c ish last night. it's an oil filled 120v heater and i have it isolated from the box with a wire mesh guard. covered it with a plywood box, coated with reflective foil,there is access to the control from outside of the box. Also installed a remote temperature sensor near the doorway to monitor their comfort from the house. has heated water too and AC for the summer. box is insulated,6" off the ground and bedded with cedar and a granular dry bedding material that resist mildew.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Anchorage,Ak
Posts: 1727

As Larry said its all about good food/water and keeping them out of the wind. Here's my girls and their house its big but they both sleep in there. The darker one spent most of her life in Lousiana and the other came from SC. They both do fine up here and we have regular temps down to -20 with 30-40 MPH winds.
crap I can't ge photobucket to work will put pics up later.

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Registered: Feb 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 200

quote:

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Originally posted by chadf
As Larry said its all about good food/water and keeping them out of the wind. Here's my girls and their house its big but they both sleep in there. The darker one spent most of her life in Lousiana and the other came from SC. They both do fine up here and we have regular temps down to -20 with 30-40 MPH winds.
crap I can't ge photobucket to work will put pics up later.

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Registered: Feb 2012
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 200

top

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Registered: Oct 2005
Location: SC
Posts: 3709

I worry too much about ours at just 30 degrees! Its the older ones that really concern me.

I agree with Larry. I have 2 inside doxies that will shiver some when we take them out on a cold morning. But its funny how they seem so much purkier in the cold!

I know.....we don't have cold compared to y'all. But its still cold to me!

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Registered: Feb 2008
Location: northern Mn
Posts: 117

I am with Larry and Chad on this one, I hunt my hounds more in the winter then any other time of the year. I want my hounds to be acclimated to the temps that they hunt in, give them plenty of straw or grass hay in a good house with a flap on it and they do just fine. As they said also make sure that they get fresh water and good quality feed, I feed a lot of meat to my hounds in the winter months as well. I have hunted them in temps down to -38 when we started out in the morning with it warming up to -20 during the day, I do not think a hound that has been in a heated house would perform for me in those kind of conditions, I do not choose to hunt in them temps but am more so forced to when I have paying clients expecting me and my hounds to do our jobs that we were hired for.

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Registered: Nov 2009
Location: Michigan
Posts: 80

Larry, I'd say you hit the nail on the head. When it comes to these hounds sometimes simple is better and more effective. It can get pretty cold here at times and growing up and now I've always found that a good dog box stuffed with plenty of straw is more than enough for our hounds to have a comfertable place to get out of the cold. Note that I said good dog box. By that I don't mean heated but just well sealed up, possibly insulated, and not so big that the dog can't properly warm it up with there own body heat. Also, lack of water is very much as detrimental in the winter as in the summer. Some people don't seem to understand that, but the dry winter weather combined with the fact that they need that water to properly digest and utilize the nutrients in there food make them need it as much as ever.

In a nutshell, a dry, properly bedded box out of the wind and plenty of food and water is all our hounds need to be happy and healthy in all but the coldest of temps.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Anchorage,Ak
Posts: 1727

here's the pics

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location: jacksonville, nc
Posts: 2856

that house is more than adequate. i like the picture of the two blues keeping watch. wish we could a couple of inches of snow here.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Anchorage,Ak
Posts: 1727

don't you remember the snow back in 89? People looked like pinballs going across the bridges from Swansboro to Cedar Point.

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Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Edgar, Wis
Posts: 132

I built a kennel a couple of years ago that is 25' long by 32' wide. The back portion was 10'wide and 32' long. I had the dog boxes back there and was completely protected from the elements. It worked good, but if you had an older dog or one that was run down, the elements could really have an effect on them. Last year I was getting a beagle pup and we were having -20 weeks. Well that pup couldn't go out there and had to stay in the house. Well my father in law and myself finished off that back portion and put a wood stove in this year. To me it makes a big difference to the dogs. I especially see it in the beagles, because they are the main ones running right now. Hunting in those single digit days doesn't have an effect on them and I think they are performing better than years past. Another nice thing, all my hunting and dog stuff is in there, were I want it and were I know were it is! It is nice to bring everything in and thaw it out were the wife isn't mad were you put it! lol

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