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Outdoor dogs

Ari Doran
Ari

June 3, 2020 at 3:07am

What are people thoughts on outdoor dogs and rescues not rehoming if the dog won't be inside?

Savannah Scott
Savannah

June 3, 2020 at 11:17am

I don’t understand what the problem is with outdoor dogs if they are still given attention. In my opinion some dogs do better outside. The only time it’s abusive is when they are forgotten about and get no attention.

Sylvia Macgregor
Sylvia

June 9, 2020 at 4:22am

I think it's usually, but not always, abusive. Personally I've only ever seen...many, many dogs...living as back yard dogs, which have been in abusive situations. Invariably they're eventually forgotten. It's extremely sad to see these animals, who are pack animals, deprived of having a pack and receive virtually no attention once they're not cute puppies anymore. These people will still claim to love their dog, and "attention" to them means they give them food and water. Living in Albuquerque South Valley, I could tell you so many sad stories. My last neighbor "loved" his dog and wouldn't sell him to me even though I said I'd pay anything. This poor pup had no shelter in the freezing cold (I bought him one), often no water. You just don't know what some people think is fine. At least if a person is going to take the time to housetrain, then you know that at minimum the dog will be around others and have that social interaction. Because of this, if I ran a rescue, I'd never home a dog as a back yard dog. 

Mary Bowman
Mary

July 3, 2020 at 9:34pm

The reason that rescues require dogs to live  indoors is because the way the majority of outside only dogs live is not suitable by any means! That's also why it is illegal in many places nowadays. Pretty much the only way I see that being okay is in cases of working farm/livestock/farm guard dogs who have adequate shelter, heat in the cold and air conditioning in the heat. Outdoor kennels are another thing but as far as a family companion dogs go it is not okay for them to live outdoors. Even if they spend the majority of the day outside typically they still need to be able to come inside in extreme weather conditions and to sleep at night. (But dogs do need a certain amount of outdoor time for their physical and mental wellbeing.)

All too often dogs get tied to a dog house or worse, a tree and left to fend for themselves other someone bringing them food and water (hopefully). That's why these rules are necessary. 

Also seeing as most dogs LIVE for their human family naturally they would want to be with you and would of course feel left out and neglected if they were left outside while the rest of the family is indoors! The positive effects of them being inside around people are endless! They require mental and physical stimulation and socialization just living with and being with people that they don't get outside by themselves. 

It seems you must have some interest in dog training to some extent since you're here so from a training standpoint your dog should be in a controlled atmosphere at least some of the time to learn and develope social skills and some good structure among countless other things and when left to their own devices outside they're going to have all the time in the world to decide for themselves how they should conduct themselves in life. They must be consistantly guided in order to learn how they need to act and you won't be able to do that from in the house with them outside.

Learning to be alone should be only a small part of their life. Please keep your pets inside!

Ari Doran
Ari

December 26, 2020 at 9:30am

Thank you all for your replies. I can understand that a lot of outdoor dogs suffer abuse. I suppose I ask because I've been turned down for rescue as my dogs are outdoors.. in saying that I am also outdoors most of the day and spend a lot of my time with my dogs. I am a dog trainer and have dogs in my kennels for training which my dogs participate in the training of.

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