Inside vs outside dog - Page 7

there is no right or wrong answer only preference....
all dogs are versatile....dog has to fit your life style...so do what works for you and your dog will adapt...if you are happy, it will reflect on your dog, on your mood, etc...

if requirement of the breed was to keep it inside at all times, i would have never owned a dog simply because it does not work for me...

do what makes sense to you, what makes you happy...

As some people here said, does not matter where the dog is, all that matters is the time spent with him, training done, socialization and above all else exercise he has.  But my breeder has brought them up outdoors so am confused....

Pending on how many dogs he breeds, its simply a legal requirement to keep them in an outdoor kennel, it doesn't mean such is an ideal methodology.

To kishorem19, I would strongly advise that you take the input from vtgsd and Hundmutter very seriously.  I feel they have given the BEST reasons WHY you would want to keep a GSD 100% outdoors vs indoors, in my experience I have seen success keeping a dog 100% outside under the SPECIFIC circumstances they have described.  I am specifically noting Hundmutter's statement that sometimes a dog is too high energy or too much of a chewer to live inside comfortably and vtgsd's statement that many "kennel dogs" mental abilities for free thinking and problem solving is almost non-existent, while having also having a seriously lack of personalty/flat.  I would toss out as the rest as "wives tales" based on "training myths passed on from generation-to-generation".  We're not making moon-shine here or paying 1960's era Football Americano.

I agree with the statement vtgsd because I have seen this occur with hunting dogs.  I'll try to give a very quick example. The hunting dogs I have seen are terrified of their handlers in a lot cases (not all) and have no idea what many household objects are.  They are TERRIFIED of things that are not encountered in the "field" or their "kennel" they spook very easily at the unknown which could be something as simple as a basketball.  The dogs aren't stupid and they train relatively fast, but when compared to a dog that has lived closely with people (usually indoors) the indoor dogs seem to have a much clearer understanding of their owners wishes.  Also these kennel hunting dogs seem to be a health risk to themselves when unsupervised or not crated, eating basketball is one example a hunting friend of mine experienced.  To make a long story short a friend at work who is an avid hunter, brought me out to meet with guys from his hunting club who train their "gun dogs" together, my shepherd whom has no instinct for "running blinds" and no prior training, picked up a number of things in significantly less repetition and no e-collar use in a just a single day of practicing with their group.  The reason wasn't because the GSD was smarter (the others had labs), it was because my dog could RELIABLY read my expressions and body language BETTER than the others whom only spent a few hours a day with their owners (and even then only when training, feeding etc).  These kennel dogs had ZERO, non-training, day-to-day experience with their owners and it showed.  Sure a kennel dog can learn this stuff too, but theree is no way they will learn it as fast as the dog who spend an extra 3-6 hours with their owners in a passive learning situation inside the home.

Now I will address samael28's comments:

Vets see anyone. This means better than 90% of there practice is based upon people whom dont have a clue and quite frankly shouldnt own dogs in the 1st place.

Everything you have stated comes from a negligible owner not because a dog is inside or outside. Once again its simply the type of person whom throws there dog out and doesnt give a shit about it. Which unfortunately is a lot of people in rural environments.  Not the person whom has dogs outside that knows and takes care of them.

I did not clarify this detail, you are making assumptions about the make-up his clientele.  I did say he had rural, suburban, urban, high income and low income clients.  I HOWEVER gave NO details on the handler knowledge of those dog owners, nor the percentage of which were rural, suburban, urban, high or low income.  "Rural" in my area means horse ranches or micro farms with goats, not shanty towns with portable homes and no running water.

the owner that works there dog and has them with them and checks on them multiple times daily doesnt have an issue. as far as bloat do some research like a responsible person and feed things that dont lead to bloat and manage your dogs intake and excercise!

This is pure ignorance on your part and should be disregarded outright, your statements about bloat WILL cause the death of a dog somewhere simply because someone stumbled on this public post and believed your falsehood.  SHAME ON YOU!

any working dog gets nicks and cuts. However its up to the owner to provide adequate living arrangements for the dog that are safe. You build a kennel correctly and check it frequently and you want have an issue with anything you listed.

What exactly are you telling people to build? A bunker? Nothing you can build will stop Snakes, skunks or brown recluse's.  Depends entirely on the area and the wildlife that inhabits it.

and I do not agree with putting a dog inside because of "extreme temps". Im complete opposite (within reason). Living in the mountains with huge difference in seasons i prefer my dogs to acclimate to the difference in temps. This is why so many dogs show up to the field on a hot summer day and cant handle it. Because they are inside dogs that arent out enough to properly acclimate to the conditions.

Its all about HOW condition the dog, you sound like a football coach from the 1960's saying "take a salt pill".  Back to my hunting dog example above, the hunting dogs I was training around that day were 100% kennel dogs supposedly "acclimated to the weather" due to thier 100% outdoor livin'.  Well guess what?  My mostly indoor GSD ran circles around them, they tired and lost concentration long before mine.  Why?  Because I actually work my dogs in real outdoor heat daily, so what if they sleep and eat in climate controlled house.  Its basically the same idea that allowed the real Spartacus to hold his own against the Roman "rank & file" soldiers during the Third Servile War.  The Gladiator army was better trained, better fed and in better shape than the average line solder who was constantly doing drill marching, eating lower grade food and trained only to the "necessary level".  Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with training your dogs with the "rank & file soldier" system it works, just don't be surprised when a dog trained by with a "gladiator regimen" comes along and hands you your butt in competition. 

I'm not claiming I'm the best trainer in the world, nor am I claiming my knows everything, but there are better ways to keep dogs in top PHYSICAL condition, other than just letting them get used to the heat within the stagnant environment inside their kennels.  So unless you are training working dogs intended for law enforcement or the military where they are REQUIRED to endure such, as Hired Dog has pointed out above, the dog really doesn't NEED to get used such a regimen to be in top shape, there are better ways to accomplish the same thing.  You're living in the past and perhaps a few of your dogs have suffered for it, without you being even the slightest bit aware.

Also, let me clear up one last thing, I never said once said a dog should be 100% indoors.  I meant sleep inside, while spending time regularly indoors while the owner is home, with some way to access the outdoors if they want.  In my experience this is NOT the life of a kennel hunting dog. I also assumed that dogs working in law enforcement and the military was not part of the discussion.

If the dog is not being used for work, is a pet and you only have one dog, do you really think it wants to spend all its days look at you through the window all day waiting for that one special hour or two together with its owner.  A dog is a lot smarter and of higher emotional intelligence than something like a rabbit which would okay with such.

Never found a dog dead in its kennel, either.  Normally if
 concerned that a dog is showing signs of being unwell,
we would have it inside the house, en route to or following
a veterinary visit ?  In some cases this might be 'inside' only
in the sense of an indoor dog kitchen or grooming room etc,
rather than in front of one's own TV / fireplace.  Most causes
of death are not anywhere near 'instant';  and I have caught
a case of Bloat in time to have it operated on successfully
when a dog was 'out at work' at night, simply because we
religiously went round the various gardens and checked on
them every mid-evening.  Not saying it cannot happen but
you'd have to be unlucky, or negligent, to have this occur,
especially more than once.  With my mentor, her showdogs
were kennelled in sight of the house, and again, as they would
be fed and picked up after in the evenings, chances were that
any problem would get spotted, and that dog brought inside.

Well, I hope none of you ever have to see one of  your kennel dogs alive and happy and eating a treat at 10 PM and dead at 6 AM.

Blitzen, these folks want to gamble based on "intuition" and "wives tales" because they think bloat is entirely a food & exercise thing and not genetic.

As it turned out my dog had a litter mate that also bloated 2 times.

Glad you caught your dog in time, Hundmutter. I didn't. My kennels were very near my house too.

Blitzen, Momo:  interestingly I have dealt with two cases of
Bloat;  the first was as described (and I lean towards the need to
educate oneself to 'spot the signs', as nothing would have
saved that dog if his symptoms weren't recognised).
The second was early this year, when my old boy Taz
also had a GD&V.  It took about the same length of time
to spot what was happening and to get him into the ​Vet
for surgery as it had with the 'Shiloh' a few years earlier.
Taz is entirely a house dog.

@Hundmutter and others, there is something else call intestinal twisting.  The symptoms can be similar to bloat, but not always.  My e-vet says he sees it with GSD, but not as often as bloat.  He checks for intestinal twisting by doing an ultrasound, if a vet doesn't have an ultrasound its exploratory surgery time.  This is a different vet than the one I mentioned in this thread.  I lean towards bloat being genetic and NOT only a feeding issue.

Hundmutter, I think you were lucky with your kennel dog.. Had he bloated hours or maybe even minutes after your last night check, you may well have found him dead too.