Get your dog one of those doggie jackets. They work well in Alaskan winters for our dog.

Why not install a good wood stove for the house?

 

Right now I can't afford a wood stove, that's the plan the coming spring when I can set some money aside for it.

 

my dog sleeps with me.

 

It works for motorcycles too:

 

I know you didn't want to hear "She's just your dog"... but she is.
Same as mine. I have a service dog. (she sleeps on our bed)
So, along that line of thinking... She's in the house with the rest of the family right? Most dog owners (the good ones anyway) treat their dogs as members of their families, so to me, it's not all that hard. Whatever you do for your family, you do for her. You go inside because it's cold out... so does she. Extra blanket for you... extra one for her. Heater for the bedroom at night, put her kennel in the bedroom. Most dogs don't get as cold as us humans because they have fur. They do, however, get overheated easily. I'd worry more about keeping her in the A/C in the summer. just treat her like the family she is, and she'll be OK.
They're not high maintenance... like in-laws.

BTW, you do have dog food in your preps right?

 

I know you didn't want to hear "She's just your dog"... but she is.
Same as mine. I have a service dog. (she sleeps on our bed)
So, along that line of thinking... She's in the house with the rest of the family right? Most dog owners (the good ones anyway) treat their dogs as members of their families, so to me, it's not all that hard. Whatever you do for your family, you do for her. You go inside because it's cold out... so does she. Extra blanket for you... extra one for her. Heater for the bedroom at night, put her kennel in the bedroom. Most dogs don't get as cold as us humans because they have fur. They do, however, get overheated easily. I'd worry more about keeping her in the A/C in the summer. just treat her like the family she is, and she'll be OK.

BTW, you do have dog food in your preps right?

Hi,

That was pretty much what I was thinking. She does have a winter coat that she wears when we go out on our lomng walks. Yup, we have dog food in our preps as well as heart worm and flea and tick preventatives and lots of Bag Balm for her paw pads stored. I love her to death and there is nothing I would not do for her. Our previous dog a GSD/Collie mix lived with us from the time she was eight weeks old to the day we had to euthanize her at home at the age of 18 years old. My heart is still broken over the loss.

Yeah, the summers really do concern me. We don't have central AC so we use window units. I have two window units in the living room where her crate is. One runs and the other is a backup unit in the event that the primary unit fails and I am not home.

 

I think it's adorable that you're worried about your dog (who has a natural winter fur coat) in an event that would obviously affect the people in your home. Anyhow, one solution is an electric space heater or blanket.

 

It's just a dog. 😅
But really though, if it's freezing cold and your lab is outside her fur keeps her warm enough to be fine. She'll assume the "dang, it's cold" position where she's kinda rolled up in a ball and her tail is on or near her nose. Kinda like this fella


That'll keep your lab warm enough to be just fine even in temps down to about -15 degrees OUTSIDE. After that she'll get a little less comfortable since she's built for warmer climates. But your baby is inside, meaning she'll be comfy through much colder temps
HOWEVER, if you want her warm, toasty, and comfortable you can buy her a heated blanket to lay on and she'll be happy as a lark and you'll be happy you helped out your little girl.

 

Layers just like for people. T-shirt, sweater, fleece onesie, waterproof snow suit, boots if you can get your dog to wear them. In full body garments, make sure there is a separating zipper up the back for step in ease. You can easily make leg warmers and a cowl from human socks. Instructions on Pinterest and YouTube. For the crate slip a couple chemical handwarmers in there to heat it up but remove them before she gets in.

 

Erm... ever hear of "three dog night"?
It isn't just a rock band.
All you need is two more dogs.

 

dupe

 

If it gets that cold in my house my dog will sleep with me to keep both of us warm!

 

I wish, our girl will only sleep in her crate. She has been used to sleeping in there since she was 8 weeks old and it's her little own den so she feels ultra safe in there. I may have to squeeze in with her.

 

Went through this in February in North Texas with an aging pibble and an 8 week old puppy. Things were fine. Blankets and letting them sleep with me at night and they were perfectly fine with zero heating options (generator failed) and -15 wind chills.

 

i heat with wood, my dogs decide where to sleep anywhere from the untemperature controlled living room on the couch to the floor in the sun, dog bed by the stove , on the bed to under the bedding with me if it's cold enough they decide where they're cmfortable.

when i was a kid we had a St. Bernard red setter mix he had a 8x8 chicken coop that had 3 feet of loose straw on the floor. and a heat lamp. it was warm enough we played in it. he slept in the snow he slept through a blizzard buried him so deep i though he took off till he stood up and shook the dry snow off. they'll let you know if they need more.

 

I'm not sure if it's an actual mylar blanket or not, but when our electrical system started to fail we had to stop using things like heating pads. We got a cat bed that has crinkly stuff in it that looks like Reflectix. They lay on it with the shiny side toward them and it reflects their body heat. If the bed is made of something fluffy and fairly dense (best would be wool) it will hold the heat also and help keep the pet warm. We have a pure wool throw I bought from a shepherdess and the cat has taken it completely. I have one draft dodger that's a kitchen garbage bag stuffed with dryer lint with a pretty cover slipstitched shut so the bag can be taken out and the cover washed; something like that might make a lower cost dog bed or quilt.

We used to put 2 liter bottles of hot water in our husky's bed when our dad would say "dog lives outside" and it was below freezing. She loved it (though probably didn't need it to survive) and if they were wrapped in flannel inside the well insulated doghouse they lasted most of the night. You realize how deep your bond with your dog is in when you put your slippers and robe on and risk the wrath of Parent to go make sure the dog is still warm. Dog was worth a lot more IMHO; the animals I had as a child taught me what I know about real love.

I'd make sure my pets were warm too. They're family, not livestock.

 

I was an engineer with a gas company in the south for 40 years. We never cut residential customers off when there were shortages. Only if someone cut a gas main. What we did was have a list of ALL commercial and industrial customers who had alternative fuel. We cut them off first. They got a cheaper rate IF they had propane, diesel, or other alternative fuel. However, they were subject to being cut off in extremely cold weather. They actually were about 1/3 of our total gas sales. Large laundries, almost all manufacturing, etc. Unless this winter is extremely cold, there shouldn't be any interruptions to residential customers. POWER which uses natural gas however, is subject to being cut off, especially if they can use coal, fuel oil, propane, or such. Since about 30-35% of power produced in the US today is from natural gas, these large power plants will be cut before residential gas is. They will have to fire up their old coal fired boilers.

The government today is stupid to cut drilling for oil and natural gas UNTIL alternatives such as wind and solar are FIRST put into place. This has to be phased in, not forced in.

 

I was an engineer with a gas company in the south for 40 years. We never cut residential customers off when there were shortages. Only if someone cut a gas main. What we did was have a list of ALL commercial and industrial customers who had alternative fuel. We cut them off first. They got a cheaper rate IF they had propane, diesel, or other alternative fuel. However, they were subject to being cut off in extremely cold weather. They actually were about 1/3 of our total gas sales. Large laundries, almost all manufacturing, etc. Unless this winter is extremely cold, there shouldn't be any interruptions to residential customers. POWER which uses natural gas however, is subject to being cut off, especially if they can use coal, fuel oil, propane, or such. Since about 30-35% of power produced in the US today is from natural gas, these large power plants will be cut before residential gas is. They will have to fire up their old coal fired boilers.

The government today is stupid to cut drilling for oil and natural gas UNTIL alternatives such as wind and solar are FIRST put into place. This has to be phased in, not forced in.

Dixie_Dude, I'm in the PNW. I'm pretty sure there's a fine for saying "coal powered boiler" in public here. We got notices with our last electric bill that prices were going up. They included a flyer on how to keep warm when the power goes out (in past years it said "If you have a power outage.") I think it's a nasty combination of increased demand as people move into the area, aging infrastructure, and lack of trained employees to keep things running.

Nearly everyone here in an apartment has electric heat, and only the richer places have a gas fireplace. I live in a house right now and there's a gas line going down our street but not a single house uses it. You're making me want to move to the south where there seem to be alternatives to electricity still left. We have propane, usually the 20 pound bottles, but so many people couldn't afford the last electric increase that the cost is increasing and there are shortages at times. I walk a lot around the neighborhood and in three square mile area I only know of one 100-lb propane tank that was approved.

Totally agree with you on the phasing in alternative energy. Except for hydropower, that's not "the way we've always done it" so alternatives haven't taken off well despite huge pressure from environmentalists and people who like their power bill to be less than their mortgage payment each month. Rather than use the alternatives side by side with traditional energy sources so there's some backup, they've put all their money on above ground electric. I think that's about to come back to bite us this winter and possibly the next.

 

I have fleece blankets, 1 nice wool blanket, 2 sleeping bags, and 3 good quality down comforters. Oh yeah, if we have electricity I also have a heated mattress pad (fake sheepskin on top). My dog sleeps and eats with me. If I survive, he survives. I've got plenty of his dogfood and plenty of my food. If I had to, he'd eat what I eat.

I've heard that it's common in South Korea for folks to make a tent over their bed, or even to set up an actual tent inside for sleeping.

 

It's so funny, you read my mind. I have a four person tent and was thinking about using it indoors if need be.

 

My dogs keep me warm, between the two bed hogs I figure I have about a 500 watt direct contact heater

 

^^^this. Also, make sure you have plenty of food, food makes heat. Our dogs are also like our kids and stay in the house…on everything…lol…but I have also been beside every one of my labs in very cold weather and watched them work…they are amazing and will tell you when they have had enough. Nothing like watching a good retriever work in the am and he gets out of the water and immediately turns to steam sitting in the sun…all of my labs you could tell when they had enough…if their tale didn’t immediately start wagging the second they came out of he water that was it. Always had a dry blanket next to a heater and ipthat was it for the day. After about 8 years old we tried not to bring them when it was that cold…my wife hated it as the first one would sleep next to my cased gun and if I told him to stay he would “cry” all day until I returned.

When I met my wife she had a beagle pup…total house dog. When she moved in, he became a self taught rabbit dog as we are out in the country, and a good one at that. One really bad night he wanted out so she let him…it was snowing and blowing and he didn’t come back…she expected him to go potty and come right back. Needless to say, she was inconsolable…I did go out and look for him for quite awhile with no luck as all tracks were gone in minutes. Told her all we could from there was hope he had the instincts of a hound…he did. The next morning I went out looking and started driving around calling for him…got close to the neighbors barn and here he came bouncing thru 3-4 foot snow drifts like nothing happened. He obviously got to where he couldn’t see the house and found the first somewhat warm place to get out of the wind….I had walked by him twice that night yelling his name…obviously the wind drowned out my voice.

 

Hi all. A little background on where I live and our house. We live in North Eastern, New Jersey and our house was built in 1945. It has steam heat with radiators which I love and a fireplace which is literally useless unless your into the making babies stage. I am concerned about this coming winter due to the natural gas shortage and that there may be disruptions in natural gas flow.

I have two generators so as long a I have gasoline I can keep the power on and our steam boiler working. However, if there is a natural gas disruption due to supply issues and we loose our supply for even a day during a cold snap how do I keep our dog warm ?

She is a two year old Labrador Retriever and a family member so none of this "well it's just a dog stuff". We love her just as she was one of us. The good part is she loves her crate so we can put blankets around and over it to help retain her body heat but that only goes so far. Any ideas would be fully welcomed.

Thank you...

As long as you are warm enough she should be fine, if she needs to be outdoors then Straw or hay will keep her plenty warm, her natural coat should also help too, biggest thing is keeping the wind off the Dog, wind chills can be deadly! our Elk Hounds never wanted in, they would rather stay outside in their houses with straw and we have seen -12 here at times and they still wouldn't stay inside but they were bread for it, the Beagles were a different story though when they came to the door you just knew the temp had just dipped to 30 and boom right on in the door and next to or behind the woodstove they went if they snuck in the bed you knew the stove needed wood

 

Yeah, I get it. Our dogs, up to seven at one time, are a part of our family. We were on a camping trip in our jacked up off road van and got caught in a cold snap at about midnite. I know that van was insulated very well on all sides, top and bottom because I built it. We were freezing inside our summer weight sleeping bag under a couple of blankets and I could hear my dogs whimpering. They were on and under and all huddled into a pile under several blankets inside the van too. They were really cold.

I knew they were cold but I did it anyway. I took their blankets away from them to throw over my wife and I. As I spread them out over us, I told my wife to "quit staring at me and protect yourself. We're about to get hit". All of our dogs landed on us at pretty much the same time. By the time they got done growling at each other and us and squirming around under the covers like some kind of pack of hundred pound of demented moles, we were warming up. We had dogs mashed up against us all around.

Now on the other hand, if you're talking about keeping your dog warm while you're away at work, etc, try this: When I was a kid living in a little village in Germany, we had a heating furnace in the basement but it only blew up into the house thru one vent in the kitchen. My bedroom up on the second floor got cold at night! So I would lay bricks on the top of the furnace (where there was a place built just for that purpose) and then take them to bed at night! (Wrapped in towels)

They'd stay warm all night even if it got really cold. I know they make bricks made to hold heat. Maybe get a few of them to lay under his favorite doggy bed. You could heat them in the fireplace or use some kind of electric heater. Placed under his bed, the heat will seep up. If it's really cold, put a sweater on him. Trust him. If he gets to warm on his doggy bed with both the sweater and the hot bricks, he'll get up and move.

 

Yeah, my dogs are an integral part of my emergency heat plan. The only bad part of that is that I finally got them trained to sleep on dog beds instead of people beds, but if it gets bad enough, they'll be right back with me. I'm in the deep South though, so maybe a "two-dog night" will be the worst we get.

 

Warm and well protected

dog1

• ImStillHere
• Mar 24, 2012

 

Ever heard of the group three dog Night?

Sent from my SM-T860 using Tapatalk

 

My dog (lab/border collie mix) has spent many a night with me in a tent in the Coastal Ranges of California. I know California doesn’t sound cold, but it’s pretty normal for it to get down below zero in the mountains, even as early as September.

I did a lot of camping out there all year, and my dog came with me. My solution was a wool blanket, which she would curl up on and pull over her.

 

I would be more concerned about your own body temp. Dog will be fine. Animals rarely freeze to death or die of heat. Years of evolution and such. Unless you live in Nome an just have own a chihuahua, or live in Tucson and insist on having a husky. Humans have a knack for sticking animals outside their comfort zone.

 

My Lab would often wade through snow and break ice to go swimming so I wasn’t overly concerned about him staying warm in the house! He was a great foot warmer and kept the wife warm many a night at the foot of the bed.

We would study under blankets in our minimally heated cabin and he'd snuggle under the blankets, but he mostly just wanted to be with his family as he didn’t tend to get cold!

He will survive things you will not so plan to keep the people alive and as long as he’s with his people he should be fine! He will eat what you eat and sleep beside you and be warmer than you are!

SD

 

Your dog will be fine, she has fur. Our dogs ( we have 4) are fine in the cold, even the shorthaired one. We have 2 that are livestock guardians and they like to lay outside in the snow, even if they could go in the barn.