When Rebel arrived here, he stayed in Kennel #1 and had Hudson and Sable as neighbors to keep him company.  That was okay with him as he is accustomed to being an outside dog.  Being a Husky, he LIKES cool, even cold, weather and being in the house makes him uncomfortably warm — according to his former Mom.

But he was exceedingly thin: 45 pounds where he should be around 70 pounds.  As the weather got cold I was not comfortable leaving him outside.  He has a plush coat of Husky fur but absolutely NO fat in his skin.  Plus he is weakened by his starved condition making him more susceptible to infection.  So I started bringing him inside the house at night and in bad weather.

The other two are being crated indoors at night because they don’t like the cold.  Hudson is a lanky hound with short fur that offers little insulation, and he refuses to use the dog house I provide him.  Even when we got a bigger one, he will not go into it.  Sable is a blonde German Shepherd mix and has thick fur, but she’s accustomed to being indoors and does NOT like being out in the cold and will tell me about it.  All night long if necessary.  So they both get crated in another building that is kept heated, but minimally so (50°), to reduce temperature shock when they go back outside in the day.

Rebel can’t be crated in there because his potty habits demand that he go outside every 2 to 3 hours.  Or, so he says.  So I crated him in the den of our house, where I could hear when he needs to go out and accommodate him.  I opened a window a crack and closed the door to let him have a cooler environment than the rest of us.  He liked that for a couple of nights, then decided he was lonely.  Rebel can be quite vocal when he wants something.  He’s a Husky, they do that.

In the past, when we had a needy dog I’d sleep on the floor next to their crate in the den.    But that tends to seriously mess up my back and hips: I’m getting to old to “camp”.  So I moved his crate into the living room where I could sleep on the sofa near him.  That worked for a couple of nights, then he started getting antsy and wanting out of the crate every hour and a half.

I did try crating him in he bedroom with the rest of us, but the largest crate that fits in there is too small for him and he spent the whole night kicking and thrashing about because he could not stretch out.  That plan was quickly abandoned.  Back to the living room.

I don’t trust him to be left loose to wander, but crating him doesn’t really work either, so I tied our longest leash to the foot of the sofa and made that up for sleeping.  I put a blanket down for cush, but he pushes that out of the way, preferring the coolness of the floor.

He tucks in right next to the sofa to sleep.  Before he lays down he sits beside me and rests his head on my shoulder and chest for some pets.  When he’s satisfied he settles in and sleeps until the need to go out wakes him.  I am NOT opening a window while I am sleeping in the same room, but the heat is turned down to a minimal setting (62°).  Any colder than that is too cold for me to be able to sleep, especially on the sofa.  In bed with a quilt and blankets maybe, not on the sofa with a throw.

Rebel gets me up every two to three hours to let him out.  He wanders the play yard freshening his markings for about 10 minutes then comes back inside.  We repeat the settling in routine, then get a little more sleep.

The first night all the other dogs came and slept on beds and in crates (open doors) with us.  Since then, they have returned to the cushy comfort of the bedroom dogs beds — and avoiding the frequent fuss and bother of night time potty runs.  Josephine generally joins Rebel on his @ 2:00 AM run, but the rest stay hunkered into their snuggle beds all night.

Right now Rebel is eating a TON of food to get his weight up.  Hopefully as we taper that off his need to go out so frequently will taper off as well.  Once he learns his house manners, he can sleep in the bedroom with the rest of us and we’ll both abandon the living room.

Go to Rebel’s Summary Page