Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Suggestions requested for keeping little old dog warm.

I've posted before on account of there's a timber wolf or coyote masquerading as a 16yo mini-wiener dog on our porch.

This was my BIL's dog until they moved and became unable to keep it. Up until coming here three years back she had lived her whole life as an outside dog in the country, sleeping on cold nights under a blanket next to their house. In her prime she used to kill rats and such and still bears the scars, now she's just an ancient dog, nearly blind and deaf, hardly any teeth left, who keeps on ticking year after year. She doesn't leave the yard but if she becomes aware of my approach she will take off running, such as she can. Not skittish, just wild.

She ain't at all housebroke and in the house picks fights with my heelers.

She spends most of her time sleeping under a light blanket in her crate, I keep her water topped up and feed her every night. In view of her dental issues I soften the food up with milk, seen here with added grated cheese

Here's the problem; most of the time the issue down here is heat, for that I set up a floor fan blowing a steady breeze into the crate and on hot days she'll just crash out on top of her blankets, the breeze seems to make it tougher for skeeters to get to her too.

Down to freezing for the first time tonight, we might actually get a winter this year. To get under blankets the dog noses its way and tosses the blanket up with her head, this only works with the loft of light sleeping bags or quilts, serious blankets like that old wool blanket in the pics are too heavy and too flat in profile for her to get her nose under.

The wool blanket she sleeps on.



...and the light blanket in place, she throw it out like that herself from underneath. Its weighted in back so she can't throw it all out



The crate is covered and it is well-sheltered from the wind,so wind chill isn't an issue.

Right now the source of heat is a reptile hot hock under the blanket. This gets just slightly warm to the touch, perfect for creating a slightly warm spot she can curl up on or next to (ya I know, the manufacturers expressly warn against such uses). But the light blankets that are the only ones she can get under don't insulate on top of her as well as I would like.

On the plus side, when I checked her tonight (37F) under her blanket she wasn't shivering, ie not cold, but I dunno if this would still be true if it dropped down into the 20's for a prolonged period of time.

Looking for suggestions I haven't thought of. Heat lamps are a possibility but they do get hot, and its possible she could throw up a blanket against it. I looked at electric blankets but they all have timers, 3hrs or 10hrs. I am often gone for longer than that.

Prob'ly the best option would be some sort of serious heating pad to lay underneath that I could turn on in the coldest weather, I just can't find anything like that in the local stores.

Bringing her inside in a cage is an obvious suggestion, but there already three other dogs indoors in cold weather, having her outside is just easier on me, and her.

Anybody got any ideas?

Tks,

Birdwatcher

cover crate with a blanket & cut a slit or flap in that she can push open / through to get inside??

tighter box like a dog house with a flap door??

light bulb inside the crate to help warm it??

Southern States carries a great heating pad for just this type of situation. My Pit Bull rescue is laying on one right now. Just put a couple towels or a good thick blanket around it. It is a real difference maker. Ever thought of putting a sweater on the dog?

I've got a soft spot for Dachshunds, as that's all my folks have had for 40+ years. No way I'd leave her out in that weather. They like to be warm, almost hot.

An older heating pad might work, but most of the new ones have timers that time out. Might check the pet stores for heating blankets of some sort. I know my electric blanket will go for 8hrs before shutting itself off.

Hope you find something for her, I hate seeing that..

Hang an incubator lamp over the area, adjusting height for the desired result.

A lot of stores carry heated pet pads.Try searching on Amazon, Petco, Petsmart.
I don't have that problem.I have an electric blanket on my side of the bed.My wife and dog, a pretty good sized black lab cross, goes to bed earlier than I do.Most nights it's a fight to get my share of the bed when I do go to bed.

Dangit, Birdwatcher. You are a good man.

Thanks to the rest of you good men for the sound advice.

Birdie,something like this for your friend ????


www.chewy.com/kh-pet-products-original-lectro/dp/54425

What concerns me is her catching a claw in one when I ain't home.

The heating pad suggestion is just what I was looking for, tks.

http://www.gundogsupply.com/kane-poly-pet-dog-heating-mats.html

They use these for Vizsla's that are outside dogs up in Iowa..

Gundog supply is your friend.

Extra fat in her diet on cold days will naturally help her keep warm.

To put things in context, the dog has lived its whole long life about like this, except without the hot rock. When I reach under the blanket where she is curled up if she's not shivering I figure she ain't actually suffering.

Last night and tonight I fed her a whole friggin' sausage as long as she is, shredded up so she could eat it. 23% fat.

for our outside dog, we used a ceramic light fixture for an incandescent bulb, a 5-pound metal coffee can, piece of three quarter inch plywood little more than a foot Square, ( to be used as the base) coat the inside of the metal can with flat black paint. drill about a hundred 1/8 inch holes in the can. Mount Your ceramic fixture at the center of the board, wiring it Through the Wood. invert the can, Center it on the light fixture, and secure it to the wood with a small hinge on one side and a hook and eye closure on the other. 4 pan head screws on the underside act as levelers.
the size of the bulb determines the amount of a heat output. 60-100wt was plenty for an Ohio winter. ( used in the normal wood dog house)

Probably doesn't work with Obama-bulbs.

I bought a kennel heating pad ,when our female was fixing to have a litter.
planning on bringing it out again, now that they are getting on in years,has a thermostat ,and wire guard,fleece cover.
works so good,they wont sleep on it,just on the edge of it.
just have to turn down the thermostat some more.
IIRC,it was about 100 degrees warm just plugged in, without the external thermostat

https://www.amazon.com/Manufacturin...p;ie=UTF8&qid=1481282211&sr=1-10

Kennel heating pad

Then be smart enough not to use Obama bulbs. incandescent bulbs will always exist no matter what he says, because he's not a master of physics. ( he's like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, all heart no brain (" I have a pen and a phone") all replacement bulbs melt in the oven.

They also make heating mats for putting under things growing in a green house, that are pretty cheap. would warm a bed some, and not shut off. miles

My wife put together this several winters back for an old neighborhood stray cat she kind of took a liking to and kept feed and watered. No reason why something like it wouldn't work for a up to medium size outside kept dog too.

Ordinary plastic storage bin of the right size w/lid, usually costs $10 or less,... cut a hole of the right size as a entry/exit door in one of the sides,... line the inside with something with insulating properties (IIRC she used crumpled news paper between cardboard 'walls'),... old blankets and old terry cloth bath towels for bedding.

Snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain, bitter cold, the cat used it so I guess it helped. You could probably still use the heat rock or pet heating pad too.

Eliminating wind - it's good if you can make a box so that wind doesn't swirl around the sleeping chamber.

If you are using a kennel that's harder, we used to build dog houses so that the entrance was on one side as a hallway, and the entrance to the place the sleep was at the back wall to cut down the wind effect.