Bear with me as I explain the situation fully.
Many years ago I had a husky mix dog and her son. She was old (10) and had never ever been by herself. Her son passed away suddenly due to uncontrollable seizures. My old female was heartbroken and overcome with grief. She began trying to escape her pen and I was terribly afraid that she would run off and be lost, I can only assume looking for her long lost son. The best solution at that time for the dog (not me) was to get her a friend and quickly. My parents had rescued a pup which showed up on their doorstep and so he came to live with us (temporarily supposedly). At the time I had young children, a long commute, and other things on my plate leaving me very little time to properly train the pup. He did well in his pen as an outside dog with his stall, heated bed, friend and lots of space to run. Fast forward several years and my old female passed away (at 17). Now after living solo (with my daughters small inside dog sharing a fence line) and lots of attention from my son, for 3 or 4 years, he has suddenly begun to show signs of loneliness. He is now close to 12 years old and I want to give him the greatest quality of life. I cannot bring him inside as he is not cat friendly and I have my elderly aunt's cats which I took in when she could no longer care for them. The small dog is too small to handle the winters outside. They get along well with a fence between them but my dog (Scrounge) had a habit of grabbing my other dog (a yellow dog we had for a little while) by the neck. He never drew blood but sometimes his play was a little rough. He never grabbed my old female husky by the neck. I don't want to risk him hurting my daughter's dog (25lbs) since he is considerably bigger (80lbs). Eventually I want to get another dog but I want to take the time to train it up properly to get along with cats, chickens, kids and other dogs. As a teacher, summers offer more time to train up a pup.
I have a couple of options.
1. build him a dog house which can sit underneath my window (where he sleeps all summer when the weather is not cold or wet) so that he can sleep closer to us even in bad weather. He currently sleeps in a huge stall in my barn which is about 100 feet from the house. (with heated bed, fan, and all the comforts of any spoiled dog)
2. Get another outside dog (theoretically to also warn me if something is into my chickens. Which was Scrounge's job before he decided he was retired about a year ago). This dog would spend nights and days with Scrounge but would come inside often enough to become comfortable with being inside, cats, etc. With the idea that when Scrounge crosses Rainbow bridge the new dog can then move inside.
3. Get an inside dog which is just big enough to also spend time with him, meaning this dog would be with him during the day and then inside at night. (will he be okay nights solo, when this has been part of the problem which leads me to believe he is lonely)
4. Try to train this old (12 year old) dog to accept small critters such as cats as well as be able to play with my daughters small dog under supervision.
I might add that I am experienced dog owner but that my situation is that I don't have huge amounts of time to train (30 min daily tops, longer on some weekends but not every weekend). Also if I do get another dog, What suggestions for breeds, breed types? My biggest concern for a puppy is that during the school year, we are gone for up to 9 hours a day. They would have access to a stall and a huge fenced yard (or a screened in porch with a heated bed for winter and a fan during summer and a huge yard) depending on which current dog she lives with, while we are gone and lots of love and attention in the evenings. My children are older 12 and 16 so I don't have to worry about young kids but we do have 4 old cats.
Any input that would help me make an educated decision would help. I do NOT want to get back in a vicious cycle of only being able to keep the dog outside or to have to worry if a cat accidentally gets into the pen, etc.
Thanks for the input,
Many years ago I had a husky mix dog and her son. She was old (10) and had never ever been by herself. Her son passed away suddenly due to uncontrollable seizures. My old female was heartbroken and overcome with grief. She began trying to escape her pen and I was terribly afraid that she would run off and be lost, I can only assume looking for her long lost son. The best solution at that time for the dog (not me) was to get her a friend and quickly. My parents had rescued a pup which showed up on their doorstep and so he came to live with us (temporarily supposedly). At the time I had young children, a long commute, and other things on my plate leaving me very little time to properly train the pup. He did well in his pen as an outside dog with his stall, heated bed, friend and lots of space to run. Fast forward several years and my old female passed away (at 17). Now after living solo (with my daughters small inside dog sharing a fence line) and lots of attention from my son, for 3 or 4 years, he has suddenly begun to show signs of loneliness. He is now close to 12 years old and I want to give him the greatest quality of life. I cannot bring him inside as he is not cat friendly and I have my elderly aunt's cats which I took in when she could no longer care for them. The small dog is too small to handle the winters outside. They get along well with a fence between them but my dog (Scrounge) had a habit of grabbing my other dog (a yellow dog we had for a little while) by the neck. He never drew blood but sometimes his play was a little rough. He never grabbed my old female husky by the neck. I don't want to risk him hurting my daughter's dog (25lbs) since he is considerably bigger (80lbs). Eventually I want to get another dog but I want to take the time to train it up properly to get along with cats, chickens, kids and other dogs. As a teacher, summers offer more time to train up a pup.
I have a couple of options.
1. build him a dog house which can sit underneath my window (where he sleeps all summer when the weather is not cold or wet) so that he can sleep closer to us even in bad weather. He currently sleeps in a huge stall in my barn which is about 100 feet from the house. (with heated bed, fan, and all the comforts of any spoiled dog)
2. Get another outside dog (theoretically to also warn me if something is into my chickens. Which was Scrounge's job before he decided he was retired about a year ago). This dog would spend nights and days with Scrounge but would come inside often enough to become comfortable with being inside, cats, etc. With the idea that when Scrounge crosses Rainbow bridge the new dog can then move inside.
3. Get an inside dog which is just big enough to also spend time with him, meaning this dog would be with him during the day and then inside at night. (will he be okay nights solo, when this has been part of the problem which leads me to believe he is lonely)
4. Try to train this old (12 year old) dog to accept small critters such as cats as well as be able to play with my daughters small dog under supervision.
I might add that I am experienced dog owner but that my situation is that I don't have huge amounts of time to train (30 min daily tops, longer on some weekends but not every weekend). Also if I do get another dog, What suggestions for breeds, breed types? My biggest concern for a puppy is that during the school year, we are gone for up to 9 hours a day. They would have access to a stall and a huge fenced yard (or a screened in porch with a heated bed for winter and a fan during summer and a huge yard) depending on which current dog she lives with, while we are gone and lots of love and attention in the evenings. My children are older 12 and 16 so I don't have to worry about young kids but we do have 4 old cats.
Any input that would help me make an educated decision would help. I do NOT want to get back in a vicious cycle of only being able to keep the dog outside or to have to worry if a cat accidentally gets into the pen, etc.
Thanks for the input,