[Munchmonster]

My very pampered pooches (two black labs) are in the home most of the time except on a Thursday (9-4) and Friday morning when I go out to work. During the summer they have been happy to mooch around their very large dog run or go inside the kennel which is a proper outdoor type, complete with draught exclusion, raised beds etc. However, I am concerned that with the colder weather coming they will get cold. Obviously the kennel is water tight and has lots of blankets etc., but should I get them some sort of heated pad to use? Does anyone use these sorts of things and are they any good?

Or, am I just being daft and will they be fine?

 

[Topseyt]

I don't have any need for these myself as I don't house the dogs outdoors, but I know you can get snugglesafe heat pads which you warm in the microwave. I don't know if those are what you had in mind.

I know some people have outdoor kennels that can have electric heating, but I guess yours is not one of those.

I guess labs will only need this sort of thing in particularly cold weather though. Most of them have very thick undercoats as well as topcoats that are more or less water resistant. They were originally bred for helping to retrieve fishing nets from the icy North Atlantic, after all. :wink:

 

[...]

I think the problem with them being partly Innie and partly Outie, is they will not have a chance to acclimatise to the cold properly. So yes, permanently kennelled dogs are ok, as they grow sufficient undercoat to deal with cold, but yours probably won't and as such, on the coldest days, may get chilly.

You could use a heat lamp in the kennel area for the coldest days, as at least then they can choose to warm up if they need to, or perhaps invest in a couple of thick kennel coats. Without any form of heating you would have to feed them more anyway, as they will burn off fuel keeping warm.

 

[Zensmum]

We have used the snuggle safe heat pads with an elderly outside cat which had his own heated bed in our shed ( he was a feral but friendly that adopted us !). It worked really well for him but they are a bit small and not sure that it would be all that effective for kenneled labs.

If your run is covered why not use equafleece jumpers they are brill , we use them when the dogs sleep overnight in the van when we are trialing away from home. We call them there pj's. The travel lodge receptionists often watch us puting pj's on the dogs at night. They watch us on the security monitors and I think they think we are quite mad ( which is very true in my case :wink: ) they always comment on it :lol: . The good thing is that they then take an interest and keep an eye on the van for us so I can sleep thinking the dogs are warm and safe too .