by Seattle DogSpot

Dog Houses Aren’t Adequate in Freezing Weather

Last Friday I put up a post about a Yakima man and his family who were kicked out of their apartment because he reported to animal control that his landlord’s 14-year-old boxer had frozen to death.

The dog’s body had been laying outside its dog house and covered in snow for about 5 days.

The landlord kept the boxer outside on a short chain connected to its dog house 24/7. The temperature in Yakima stayed below freezing for about 10 days before the dog’s death. It was often below zero at night.

Since then I’ve seen a few discussions about whether or not dog’s should live outside, especially in the winter. Several people said that hay and blankets in the boxer’s dog house should keep it warm.

Not Biologically Adapted 

Veterinarian Ernie Ford recently posted a video examining how cold it gets in a dog house by staying in one for 4 hours.

At the beginning of the video the temperature outside the dog house is is 14 degrees. The temperature in the dog house is 25 degrees.

After an hour the temperature in the dog house drops to 21 degrees. After 4 hours the temperature in the dog house is 17 degrees and 8 degrees outside.

Dr. Becker notes that it’s a calm night, but on windy nights the wind chill would lower the temperature even more. Note also that he’s in a well-built dog house with no cracks or openings that could let cold air inside.

After spending 4 hours in the dog house, Dr. Ford said, “No dog is biologically adapted to handle this type of cold.”

He also said dogs left outside in extremely cold weather suffer immensely, especially dogs with health problems and older dogs.

This video dispels the notion that dog houses adequately protect against the cold..  It may be a few degrees warmer than the temperature outside, but in subfreezing weather, the temperature in the dog house will still be unbearable for any length of time.

What do you think?