Rebel has been coming inside at night for two reasons:

1. He is severely underweight and it’s been getting cold at night: down in the 20’s.  He is a pure Husky and has the thick fur of a Husky, and loves being outside in the cold, but with absolutely no fat in his skin I fear it would be bad for his health.
2. He gets lonely when he’s out in a kennel by himself, and his two kennel-mates (who are NOT Huskies) INSIST on going to their inside crates at night because of the cold.  I can’t crate Rebel inside with them because we’re feeding him a TON of food and he needs to go outside during the night to defecate.  When he gets lonely, he howls and yaps in what I call his Rebel Yell.

I’ve been crating him indoors.  Most of the time he does okay in a crate, as long as I am in view.  If I leave the room, he fusses loudly.  I tried crating him in the bedroom with the rest of us at night, but the crate that fits in there is too small and he kicked and thrashed against it all night long.  So we moved to the living room where he can sleep in a large crate (we borrowed Callie’s crate and swapped out the bedding) while I sleep on the sofa.  That was better but he tended to get too hot and would paw the crate wanting out.  Often.

Last night we compromised. I fastened a long leash to the leg of the sofa where I was going to sleep. This kept him close enough I could monitor (and away from other dogs so they could sleep in other rooms — Rebel tends to want to trot through the house constantly) and he was near me so he could get skritchies and be told what a good boy he is as needed. He could choose from his open-door crate (rejected), two dog beds (tried each, rejected) or a blanket (liked this much of the time), or the bare floor (when he needed cooling off).

We only had to get up three times last night (it was twice that the night before) to let him out for a breather. One time Blondie and Josephine went out with him and they all investigated something up in the woods. The yard is fenced so they cannot GO into the woods, but can see up there.  It got them excited, but they didn’t bark much. Bless their hearts: it was 2:30 AM, and the neighbors appreciated their self control, I’m sure! They all got along fine. Time for breakfast now as we launch into a new day.

Go to Rebel’s Summary Page