Questions about keeping a dog outside

[GwendolineMaryLacey]

First off, I'm not a dog lover (sorry!) but this has made me a bit and, because I'm not au fait with dogs, I don't know whether I'm just being judgy.

Next door is a house that is divided into 2 flats, one upstairs, one downstairs. Each flat has a minuscule back 'garden' for want of a better word. I'm rubbish with sizes but if you parked 2 small cars side by side that'd be your garden size.

DH was chatting to the owners of the upstairs flat yesterday and it got on to dogs. The chap said that they had a dog. Turns out it is a 10 month old rottweiler. Oh, says DH (who grew up with dogs), it's going to get a bit cramped the more he grows. No, says the man, he doesn't live in the flat, he lives in a kennel in the garden. We've just finished it. And points to it.

Now I haven't seen it, no idea how big it is as I'm too short to see over the fence and it's blocked from upstairs by downstairs flat's gazebo (which takes up all their garden). But, is it really ok for a dog that will be big, may be big now, to live outside in a tiny garden in a kennel?

We have outside dogs in the family but they're farm dogs, have loads of space and more like an outhouse (heated in cool weather) than a kennel. This house next door is on a tiny plot.

Am I right to be a bit or is that ok?

[QuietTiger]

You're right to be a bit about it. Unless they are working dogs/farm dogs with a job and living in properly constructed out-door kenneling, then a dog should really live inside.

The question has to be asked, what is the point of having the dog if they live in an upstairs flat and the dog is relegated to the garden? It will have a pretty miserable existence. :(

[Cheria]

Poor dog