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.

^^This.^^

Kennel heating pad seems like the solution.

My Chessie is just the opposite. He likes/needs it cold. When the temps drop down in the low single digits I get soft and put him in a crate in the garage for the night. Every time I do, sure a hell, about 2:00 - 3:00 AM he starts barking, isn't happy until I get up, go out, let him loose to take him back out to his (unheated, uninsulated) kennel for the night. He doesn't even go inside, just curls up in the kennel run, happy as a pig in schitt. Every time it gets real cold it's the same thing.

Buy a heating pad, cover with a blanket or towel and hang a towel or old blanket over the entrance, so the wind cant get in.

Mike

Toss it in a plastic bag.





Dave

Thanks for the suggestions all Pretty much all common sense I know, but it helps to see em in writing.

35F, I fed her some more sausage this morning, slipped the dish under the blanket as I usually do when its in the 40's or below and she ate it, was not shivering. That hot rock generates a toy-dog sized warm spot under the blanket. The one I used for the past couple of years (barely broke feezing) broke for some reason while sitting unused over the summer, so I doubt their durability.

A heating pad and the hot rock as a fail-safe for either one going on the fritz sounds doable. The light bulb coffee can idea sounds like an easily-doable stroke of genius, provided I can find an incandescent bulb.

Birdwatcher

I saw a guy take an insulated foam cooler and fit it into a plastic tub with lid. He then cut holes in both for access and put a blanket inside.

Move her inside. LOL

If you can't find a doggie style heating pad, might look at heating pads for farrowing crates. links below. If they can survive an old sow with a litter of piglets, I don't think your Dachie is going to hurt one. Bottom link is small one specifically for piglets. $87 USD.

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=...e=images&as_filetype=&as_rights=

http://www.qcsupply.com/250200-kane...3Pigd35c2QW9PGTaMN2gXscBdAxVqhoC8PLw_wcB

P.S. Got a soft spot for Dachie's. Had several growing up. Hands down smartest dogs I have ever owned...

I've got a coupla' these, they are GREAT in front of a lathe or mill in Winter...my elderly JRT used one in the kennel in his last years, and swore by it.

I did run the cord through some old heavy heater hose, to preclude chewing.

Link: http://www.floormat.com/heated-mats/winter-warmth-mats.html

If you go with the incandescent bulb,...use a standard NEW 1 gallon paint can, mount the ceramic fixture on the lid, and cut the holes top and bottom sides with an old style "Church Key". For my rabbit nesting boxes, I use a clear "vibration proof" 40 watt chandalier fan bulb,...

GTC

I won't have a dog living in the house all the time. When my kid's were little my MIL gave them a small short haired puppy about the size of a Chihuahua. The kids named her Snuggles and I told my kids that as soon as she got grown up she was going outside. I built a doghouse for Snuggles that had a covered front porch with a curtained entrance. The floor, walls and ceiling were insulated. I also glued carpet to the floor and put her dog blanket in so she could make her own bed. Since she was so small I built a room in the back of the doghouse with 2 100w light bulbs wires so that if one bulb burned out there would still be one light burning. The inside wall was made of aluminum so it would get warm and had a 1/4" opening at the top so the heated air could flow into the inside. Snuggles would adjust her location in the doghouse depending on the outside temperature. A lot of the time she would sleep with her head or nose sticking out of the curtain on cold nights. On cold mornings the kids would let her in the house to play and before they went to school they would open the back door and Snuggles would go right back to her doghouse. She loved her doghouse.

I'm using one of these in my water well shelter, ... would have good application for that here discussed. Dittos on redundant bulbs.

Link: http://www.thermocube.com/

GTC

Might check craiglist for a used waterbed heater (it a pad) cover it with the blanket.

One of these insulated doghouses (small size obviously) with the heating pad would be great. They are also nice for keeping the dogs cool in the summer. I have two of the large ones that my pointers stay in during the day (they live in the house the rest of the time).

http://www.asldoghouses.com/

Rather than use the heating pad, I use a 'Hound Heater" in my dog houses, but they are too big to fit in the small size house. The hound heater is a small electric heater with a built in adjustable thermostat that only uses 150 watts, and shuts itself off when it's not needed. When I locked the dogs in their kennels this morning, it was 18 degrees and blowing snow, but the inside of their houses was a nice 70 degrees.

http://shop.houndheater.com/Hound-Heater-Deluxe-HHD1001.htm

Yeah, my hunting dogs are spoiled, but, they are big running dogs that work their guts out for me multiple times per week and I like them better than most of the people I know, so who cares.

Best,

Chet

A good variation on a theme, but you still want the inside flat black, since you are not creating a nightlight, but a heater. The can is the radiator, and needs to convert light into heat as effectively as possible. Also, if you go all metal, make sure it can not short to the can if it gets wet. (Seal your wiring).

Uhhh....this must be about Texas, but anyway....

the only thing your dog needs to stay warm if you actually think the critter is cold (which it isn't, trust me), is to give the dog some pure RAW fat every day to eat. Beef, pig, deer--whatever. They'll take care of themselves just fine so long as you let them get out of the wind somewhere.

BTW--it's negative 5F this morning, and there are dogs all throughout the neighborhood that spent the night outside just fine, including little ones. Don't bring them in the house unless you plan on keeping them there permanently.

I would suggest not. They need the water to prevent them burning out. Never turn one on without a heat sink, if you intend to use it twice.

I used one of those igloo dog houses with the heating pad. Hung and blanket scrap over the door. This was for a cat who hated to be inside. Worked fine.

We also use a heat lamp in the barn about four feet above the floor to keep new calves warm if they are having a problem of some sort. We have some old sheep pens and with hay on the floor and with that heat lamp it is very warm.

Thanks for your tips. I just ordered a heat pad for my old dog; he going to be one happy camper... It was -5 the other night and he wouldn't come into the house!

Thanks for the input all

I will say that reptile hot rock I have works very well on a wool blanket, seems like the wool traps the heat around the rock and the dog curls up around it.

I just ordered a fairly inexpensive ($50) electric kennel heating pad, oughtta do the trick, and that thermocouple doohickee is way cool, just wish they had one turn on and off at 45 or 50F.

Sadly, the days look numbered for this little dog. This past couple of weeks her back legs have been locking up standing straight out and forward like stilts, as if she were sitting down. She pulls herself up on 'em with her front legs and once in a standing position they work fairly well.

Pretty sure this is her last winter.

Birdwatcher

Dog's , the way they worm into our hearts like nothing else!
you are a good man birdwatcher! i think you have it covered.

Mike , FWIW, the TC-3 version of that Thermo-Cube does just that, on at 34*F, off at 45*.

If you know any folks with horses, mebbe try jarring loose a little "Joint Juice" for that old rascal's stiff legs.

GTC

The farm cats have heat lamps out in a couple old buildings.

Lounge on old saddle pads about 18" lower than the bulb.

Low watt version in an enclosed homemade box about the size of a large cooler.