Dog won't stay indoors

[coughdrops]

Looking for a bit of advice re the cold weather.

Background- We adopted a collie X at the end of September, he's about 1 yr old. He was always an outside (ex-farm) dog. He has a kennel for sleeping in. When we got him first, he wouldn't come into our house at all. He gradually became happy to wander in and out, if we left our back door open, but really didn't like being closed in. He'd tolerate it for approx 10-20 mins, before wanting back out again. When the weather got v stormy in early Dec, we took him inside to sleep at night, we've a back hallway. He didn't bark/whine or come across as distressed, but afterwards he regressed to not coming indoors at all, and it has taken us about 3 weeks to get him back to letting us close the door for a (very) short amount of time.

So, the last few days it has turned colder. He still won't come in. I sat all day today with our back door open, and he wandered in and out, but showed no interest in staying inside. If I moved to close the door, he'd run out past me. At 6.50 every night, he puts himself to bed in his kennel. If you go out and call him in, he'll come out of his kennel, have a look around, and go back into it again. My DH is away this week with work, and earlier on the phone I was saying I'd make the dog sleep inside, but now I can't get him in. He seems more comfortable outside in his kennel, (which is sheltered, and I put extra fleece blanket into tonight).

I just feel cruel, like the poor pup should be inside during a cold snap, but on other hand I realise that some dogs never sleep in a house.

Would you force him in? When I go out to him in the morning time, he is always warm and dry coming out of his kennel. I have a feeling that by the morning, he'll have fecked his blankets out too! Is it wrong to leave him outside if that's what he's used to?

I just knew from the title that this would be a collie Mine are the same- they would sit out in the rain rather than indoors in the warm.

Personally I would want him indoors for lots of reasons, security, safety etc.

How big is his kennel - is it possible to bring that into the house?

If not get him a similar type of den indoors - only take him outside on a lead and treat him every time he comes indoors. Feed him in the new den and regularly drop treats into the indoor den.

Kennel is too big to fit through our door, but we might be able to get it into the garage. That'll take a bit of organising (note to DH- clear the garage). It's an idea though, I'll chat to DH. He has blankets and a bed indoors, the bed was a disaster- he refuses to set foot inside it. I got into it myself, tried to get him to sit beside me, and he had no interest! His blanket, he will lie on, but only for a few minutes. He's outside all day normally, he plays in the garden (I work from home). I am not too concerned about security, in the sense of him wandering off or being taken, because we live in a safe area, and the garden is closed in, but I take your point (and I realise you never really know!)

I wouldn't force him in. I grew up in New England and all of our dogs were outdoor dogs. You couldn't drag them indoors, even during blizzards- my father used to go out in the middle of the night to haul them in and they would either hide under the porch or look at him as though he were mad and say, "but we've dug snow holes, we're quite comfy". On the odd occasion when he did manage to get them in we'd all have a sleepless night as they howled to get back out.

If he's settled in a kennel I wouldn't worry about the cold.

Oh and we had a family of 8 feral cats as well. They never came inside!

Thanks :-)

I'm feeling happier about it now. We'll look at moving the kennel into the garage, and as long as he seems happy we'll keep doing what we're doing