# HUNTING DOGS OUTSIDE??



## DAKOTAKID (Oct 20, 2002)

THINKING OF GETTING A PHEASANT DOG. BUT IT HAS TOO STAY OUTSIDE ALL YEAR LONG.THINKING OF A POINTER. ANY SUGGESTIONS ON A GOOD DOG HOUSE AND WHAT KIND OF DOG SHOULD I GET? ANY OTHER TIPS FOR A DOG IN WINTER?


----------



## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

GWP .....PM me your email address and I'll send you plans for the house in the sticky above

your dog will be a better dog if it lives inside with you IMO


----------



## jkolson (Mar 22, 2006)

Love my lab for pheasants, and have a buddy with a great pointing lab (gonna try that next, best of both worlds) but I won't leave her out in her kennel when it's below -10 even though she has an insulate, heated dog house. IMO (and many pro trainers) dogs should be part of the family, pheasant season is less than 3 months long the rest of the time they're part of the family. Is there no place in the house to kennel it in the winter when it's NoDak cold? Will it be allowed in the house when you're home or not at all? I don't mean to be rude but dogs are a social animals and Bobm is right he/she will hunt better if it is allowed in the house and is a part of the family. Your post was kind of short, could you please expand on your requirements? I'm sure everyone here would love to help you.


----------



## verg (Aug 21, 2006)

on the other side of this, dogs living inside or out makes no matter what kind of dog it will be as far as temperament or hunting. Not stirring pot at all but have heard others say that dogs inside are better dogs and that is not true. All dogs are different-some are some aren't. If I didn't have allergies to dander mine would be in too. However, they are outside and have excellent houses with bedding. I have a rule that at -10 I bring them in the garage where I put them in their porters with straw and covered by their kennel covers. They come out of those with steam coming off. My vet just told me the other day that dogs are fine if they have adequate shelter and bedding and an extra feeding. Now a -30 night like we had here in SD is a little overboard but a few degrees below is fine with great shelter. Make sure to feed extra and water is super important.

oh, vet also said dogs that may have problems are the ones that are inside majority of the time then get pushed out. They are often not acclimated to the cold and change. Same with mine the other way. Bring them in to dink around once in awhile and they get hot and pant quite a bit. They actually go to door wanting out.


----------



## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

Bobm said:


> GWP .....PM me your email address and I'll send you plans for the house in the sticky above
> 
> your dog will be a better dog if it lives inside with you IMO


Spot on!!!!!


----------



## FoldEmXtreme (Jan 3, 2010)

Bobm said:


> your dog will be a better dog if it lives inside with you IMO


Agreed!


----------



## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

Most gundog experts consider a quality Field-Bred English Springer to be the ultimate pheasant dog... If pheasants are your primary target, non better than a Springer. They make great family companions/housedogs but will also do well kenneled outside if that is your preference. Larry Mueller wrote a series of articles on this topic in Outdoor Life several years ago.
His analogy was that using Labs to hunt pheasants (as many people do) instead of Springers is like a football coach putting his starting lineup on the bench and playing his subs.

If you have a well insulated, well built doghouse (such as the one there are plans for in the sticky notes) with proper bedding your dog will not suffer living outside. Like others have said, the dogs that suffer are the ones that sleep/live indoors and then are stuck outside in a kennel when people go to work, etc... We hit -37 here a couple of weeks ago (that's without the windchill)... When I got up I looked out the window and two of my dogs were sitting on top of their doghouse watching the sun come up!!! They'll go inside their doghouse when the wind blows if it's cold, but more often than not they'll be laying on top of their doghouse. When I take them out for exercise the first thing they dog is pile into the snowdrifts... You can't freeze a dog to death if they are acclimated to the cold, but the heat will get them. Heat is much harder on a dog than the cold. If dogs couldn't acclimate to the cold, there would be no wolves, coyotes, foxes, etc. in the northern climates.

In the winter my dogs will eat 3 times the amount of food that they eat in the summer. High quality dog food and fresh water is extremely important.


----------

