One of the major stereotypes evoked whenever you think of a dog is that of the pooch sitting in a dog house. They pop up all the time in popular media involving dogs, often with the dog chained up somewhere near the dog house so they can crawl in and sleep. I've also met plenty of people who have enclosures outdoors for their dogs. That said, I also read recently that dog houses are not a good idea, and the reason why made sense: because dogs are communal animals. They grow up in packs in the wild, and don't handle being alone very well. That's why a lot of new dog owners have trouble with their dogs ripping up their furniture, because the dog gets anxious from being alone for so long. What's your view on dog houses and outdoor enclosures? Are they a good idea? Or are they just a source of anxiety for your dog?
We have 3 dogs and 2 of them are loose in the house. The pug is in a cage because it is unruly, so hyperactive that it tends to destroy things and even hurt itself. That's why we bought a cage. The pet shop was having a sale of buy 1 and take 1 for 50% discount. So we bought 2 cages, 1 of which will be a spare. However, our pug is already 3 years old and the cage is still okay. Here is the photo of our pug inside that cage...
I used to use an invisible fence for my dog. It probably wasn't as expensive as building a traditional fence, but it did require some maintenance with buying batteries, and the electricity to run it. I think it was one of the things that gave me peace of mind but I paid for it. I think it is better than allowing your dog to run out into the road however.
I think the fences are the best thing for a dog. They're not necessary but dogs do need outdoor time and space to roam. You're most likely not going to have much space for your dog in the house. It's not necessary because that's where walking them on the leash comes in but it is ideal since the leash can only go so far. I think as long as your dog is secure while at the same time free to roam and you come out to give the dog attention a few times a day it is okay to have them in the outdoor enclosure. It does depend on the breed of the dog though. Some seem to need more attention than others.
Oh that poor pug, it looks so sad! LOL. I bet if you let it out more often and let it sit on your lap and pet it frequently it would calm down. Perhaps let it sit on the couch with you and watch TV together? We had a poodle when I was very young, and tried keeping it as an outdoor dog, since it was pretty wild once it grew out of it's puppy stage. We had a fenced in garden at the time, and within that, my parent's built a rather nice dog house which was fairly spacious and had a dog bed in it and screens and windows and it was uplifted off the ground so it wouldn't get flooded or wet inside. Unfortunately the neighbor kids used to tease her all the time and throw rocks and tree fruit at her, which made her really anxious and aggressive. When we tried to bring her indoors she would tear up the place. So ultimately my folks gave her away to a friend of my dads, who had several acres of fenced in land for her to run around and get rid of her aggression. All of our other three dogs though had full run of the house. They sat on the couches, sat at the kitchen tables, slept with us in our beds at night - they were completely part of the family. We could never put any of them in cages from the day we got them, because they all bonded with us and were at our sides from day one. In fact, our coonhound I personally rescued from the shelter and got her out of her cage, so I swore I would never put her back in one of those again.
I think some people have no choice but to build an enclosure to keep their dogs in especially if they are really aggressive. But who am I to judge? I lock up my dogs in a kennels during the day so they won't cause any trouble and let them loose at night so they can have some fun. So though I keep them locked up daytimes they get 12 hours of untethered freedom and they like it to. They've got conditioned to it. Even if I don't lead them to their kennels, they'll be there.
