Recommend A Dog House For Online Purchase (please read)

Hellow!

I am currently “caretaking” a family-owned property in my home town. The neighbor has a young dog that does not appear to be well taken care of overall. However the focus of this thread is totally limited to online doghouses, nothing more.

Currently this young dog has no external shelter that I can see in the back yard. I have been out early in the morning when it is 40-45 degrees and the dog is curled up in the elements. It is only going to get colder. In addition, the single resident and owner of the dog has started either working at night or spending the night elsewhere.

I need one or more solid recommendations based on actual purchase and use for a medium sized dog house which can be purchased online from a reputable retailer. I can browse around as well as anyone so please do not recommend something for which you have no actual experience buying and using yourself. Yes I have checked local sites and nothing is available now for whatever reason. I do have Petsmart and Petco here but I went to both this week and they did not have any doghouses, only expensive crates which were not meant for chilly outdoor weather in my opinion. They may restock but who knows. So for now I am moving forward with purchasing something recommended from an online retailer.

While in the past I would have weighed advice and pulled the trigger on buying it myself, the last year or so has been rough to say the least. Therefore I will be creating a charity classifieds thread to raise enough money to purchase the doghouse. All of the money from that thread will go towards what I decide to purchase. If I do not sell enough to cover the entire amount in a short time period then I’ll cover the rest out of pocket on my own.

So time is a bit important here. I will watch this thread for about three days. After that I will decide what I’m buying and start the classified ad(s). Look for something with “doghouse” in the thread title LOL. After about three more days I’m ordering the doghouse.

There are some elements of this that I’m purposely leaving out, including my attempts to discuss this matter with the homeowner. This is not an attempt to speak poorly of someone else, but to try and do something for the poor dog. Period.

If you wish to recommend something copy and paste the URL. I won’t be posting anything else here until I have made a decision, but will PM you if needed.

Thanks!

 

Good God, that's heartbreaking--and infuriating. Good on you for trying to do something. Dogs in nature live in packs and find protected places; and most importantly share body warmth with one another when they sleep and rest. Leaving a lone dog outdoors in cold weather ought to be illegal and punishable.

That said, the typical dog houses do little to protect a dog against the elements. (Obviously they protect against rain and somewhat against wind.) You can add tremendously to their usefulness by introducing blankets and/or straw which when properly banked (usually by the dog) do help them to retain a bit of body warmth.

I'm continually dismayed at how many people don't know or don't care how to take care of their animals.
Worked in a public shelter for awhile and it doesn't enhance one's view of humanity. I'll stop here.

 

As an aside, I have considered making a simple A frame, using Tyvek for the wind blocking & covering it with an outer layer of fiberboard. I don’t wish to create something that winds up falling apart and like hurting the dog, though.

 

Chris, perhaps you should PM a Gort, or Steve, and ask that this thread be moved into the Off Topic Forum for better and possibly more responses.

 

Real quick...the dog is now at least being taken inside at night from what I've observed. Crisis deflated hopefully. Thanks!

 

Good news
Keep researching and thanks for your good work from me and the pack of 6

 

Wind break is important, but the primary thing is to get the dog up off the ground and have some sort of bedding. The temp inside the doghouse is not going to be that different than the outside. Same with any tent, for humans or otherwise. It's insulation from the ground that does the work.

(I see you are from Fort Worth. We lived there almost 20 years. Lots of stray dogs and wild dogs. We re-homed many and kept one.)