With this super cold weather, what do those of you do who have a large number of dogs? Are they outside regardless, do you have heated buildings for them or are they brought indoors? Just curious.

I only have 6 dogs who are inside so I can't speak from experience. But I'm sure that breeders who have kennels in areas that routinely have harsh winters have heated kennels. They just have to pay more to heat them--the same as we all do for our homes when it's so cold.

The worst thing you can do is bring them indoors, once they have been acclimated to the cold. My kennel building is heated to 35 degrees, dogs sleep in crates at night , crates are completely covered at night with packing blankets. During the day they can go outside anytime they want, and that is where they always are. No dog gets sick here in the winter, it's springtime when the weather warms up , that the bugs creep in.

When the temps are in the upper 20's and higher the dogs do not want to be in doors. When the temps are really bitter, they have no desire to be out in that, it's dangerous and they are brought in. Kennel is heated to 35-40. For the most part, Labs just LOVE the cold winters

We don't have a kennel, we have a dog room and have crates in there for most of the dogs when we are not home, some are loose. We aren't talking just 20 degrees here, the 6 Labs do play and spend time outside in those temps when we are home and are fine but we are having highs this week at zero or even colder and lows supposed to be minus teens. (our dogs are never left outside if we are not home anyways)

We also have pugs and a couple of rescued am staff terriers -- they are not made to take the cold, Pugs of course can have breathing issues from extreme cold or extreme heat, Am staffs have very short thin coats, little body fat and the wear fleece coats when outside if under 30, if below zero the pugs do, too. They shiver and huddle on the porch as soon as they finish their duty. It is zero out right now and I just took the labs and am staffs for a brief run outside and believe me they were ready to come in after a short time (paws get way too cold and they start limping on them). The only reason they even ran around was I was walking around with them as I knew they needed some exercise after being confined all day.

Even our horses and mini donkeys were not turned out today as high was just above zero but wind chills were minus 30. Our barn is not heated but it stays about 20 degrees above outside temp in winter and of course no wind. Donkeys and horses can get frost bite on their ears in those wind chills even with 3 sided shelters so we choose to keep them in. They will have to go out for a short time though so we can clean stalls later. There are usually only about 5 to 6 days in a winter that they don't go out for the day but looks like it will be 3 or 4 of those days this week and I want to spend as little time outside as possible, too. Let's just say no field or agility training is going on right now sadly.

Mine also are in the house in my "dog room", which is in the lower floor, a partially above ground basement. I have one baseboard heater that keeps it at 50-55 degrees, and a wood burning stove that I fire up if I want to spend time down there - it is also my home office. When I am home, the dogs are usually whereever I am, either upstairs (65 degrees in this cold weather) or down. They don't seem to be bothered by that range of temperatures, and the preferred sleeping places downstairs are on the dog beds near the stove. Upstairs it's the couch- there were five dogs on the couch last night while I worked at the kitchen table nearby.

We went for nice long walks this weekend when it was up close to 20 degrees during the day. I was on snowshoes because the snow is at least a foot deep in spots. Some drifts are above the four foot fence in the field. The dogs were sometimes plowing through deep snow and other times walking on top of the crust. Eventually the oldsters tend to follow in my trail on the way home. But I don't let them out for long in subzero weather, especially if there is a wind chill. What usually happens first is that someone holds up a hurting foot, so I warm that one in my hands and then another one gets cold.

I too wondered what people did with their dogs in the bitter cold. Seems like everyone north of us has had it bad so far this winter. Thank God so far MO has not suffered those bitter temps but it is coming in today, tonight and into Friday. My dogs are kenneled in the basement which stays around 50 when we are at work. When we are home they are house dogs and crated in the dog room at night which is about 65.

I am in lovely Minnesota and it has been -30* here the last couple of nights. I have 5 adults...and they all come in every night regardless of the temp. However yesterday I kept them all in the house until I came home for lunch at noon and then let them out in the kennel until I came home at 5:00 pm. I will do the same until the temp comes up some I am sure they would have done fine as they have raised dog houses in the kennel building that are bedded with straw...and funny thing there is always 2-3 in a dog house.

I have thought about the dogs in this extreme cold also. Mine are in a heated kennel and not up North that far. That cold for days I don't think I could take it. Thinking of you all in this mess.

I recently purchased a Port-A-Hut for in the fenced area. It is made of metal, I put 3/4 inch rubber horse mats down on the grass, then set the Port-A-Hut on top of it. Now before anyone goes postal on me, this is for during the day , while dogs are out for several hours of play time. It simply is for cover from wind/rain that sort of thing. It is in a fenced one acre field, they nap in there, and it just allows me to leave them out when the weather is less than ideal, certainly not designed for over night or during bitter cold. I have ten dogs out together in this area during the day. I'm sure it would pop right up with Google.

We are facing below zero temps as highs this week...yikes! My dogs do have indoor/outdoor runs that open into a fenced excercise yard. The inside portion of the runs have stall mats and in the winter I put pine shavings down on top of this for bedding. In addition to this we have two small heaters that are run in order to maintain a temp of 40 degrees inside the building. Our building is well insulated and has several windows which helps warm it up on sunny days as well.

The dogs love the cold but when it is this cold they have about as much interest as I do being outside. I even have to beg my old retired house ladies to go out for a quick potty in the morning. Usually they about knock me over trying to get out the door to romp in the snow!

Looking forward to spring!!!!!!! Heck I will take temps in the 20's right about now.

TITLE 9--ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS

CHAPTER I--ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE

PART 3_STANDARDS--Table of Contents

Subpart A_Specifications for the Humane Handling, Care, Treatment, and
Transportation of Dogs and Cats 1

Sec. 3.2 Indoor housing facilities.

(a) Heating, cooling, and temperature. Indoor housing facilities for
dogs and cats must be sufficiently heated and cooled when necessary to
protect the dogs and cats from temperature or humidity extremes and to
provide for their health and well-being. When dogs

[[Page 47]]

or cats are present, the ambient temperature in the facility must not
fall below 50 [deg]F (10 [deg]C) for dogs and cats not acclimated to
lower temperatures, for those breeds that cannot tolerate lower
temperatures without stress or discomfort (such as short-haired breeds),
and for sick, aged, young, or infirm dogs and cats, except as approved
by the attending veterinarian. Dry bedding, solid resting boards, or
other methods of conserving body heat must be provided when temperatures
are below 50 [deg]F (10 [deg]C). The ambient temperature must not fall
below 45 [deg]F (7.2 [deg]C) for more than 4 consecutive hours when dogs
or cats are present, and must not rise above 85 [deg]F (29.5 [deg]C) for
more than 4 consecutive hours when dogs or cats are present.

I have been thinking about those kennels that are "heated" to 35. 35 on a sunny day without wind and outside playing is a bit different than 35 on a concrete floor in the dark of night with wind.

Don't you think moving them from your heated house and out into your sub zero "kennel" is bound to make them sick??
They should be acclimated to one temp and those big changes are terrible for them!
I wouldn't wonder why if you end up with sick dogs or dog that become underweight from all the shivering they must do after being inside a warm human house all night!

I have to agree 35 degrees is way to cold for your dogs! Come on turn up the heat if you are able, if not bring your dogs in. We are here in MN and it is VERY COLD -22 with windsheild overnight. I wouldn't think of leaving my dogs out in 35 degree weather!
60 degrees and loving it in our "dog room". We leave the door open between the house and dog room as we all (dogs included) are going between the two all day.

I was mistaken by the weather report, it is actually going to be -40 below with windsheild tonight!

I believe you mean "Wind Chill" unless in MN they measure how cold the wind is by how frosty the windsheild gets on your car.

Either way it is COLD!!!! Amazing how fast they can get things done to get back inside when it is this cold. LOL

We had this kind of weather over the holidays and I couldn't believe how fast our dogs could go outside, do their business and come back in! Take care & be careful with this cold - it's dangerous to everything.

My mistake.

And don't forget your water lines. The pipe from the well to the house, buried four or five feet deep, froze a couple years ago, and I had to wait several days before the plumbers could get to me with their magic heating wire. They (rightly) took care of the dairy farmers first. I left a tap dripping this morning on purpose. My back porch thermometer read -20 this morning. And I don't think Solo ever left the porch- not good! I gave her an extra shot at the outdoors after I got my coat on and before I left the house. She just glared at me like I was torturing her and then lifted a foot up and started limping. I thawed out her foot in my hand, but she was not going to do anything, and I was getting very cold, even out of the wind. So I put her back in the house, got in the very cold car (the heater takes almost as long to put out any heat as it takes me to get to school) and drove to work. I expect a puddle when I get home. Maybe she sneaked off the porch while I wasn't looking? Maybe?

Peggy I doubt you'll be the only one dealing with puddles but I am amazed at how long dogs can hold it if/when necessary!