I am the owner of a 4 Alaskan Malamute dogs, and I live in northern New Hampshire. I grew up with these dogs in my life, and now have the pack I do now that live with my family and I. My question is this:
With summer going on up here recently, I keep the pack inside, where they usually sleep in a big heap together in the kitchen. With winter coming up though, I am preparing for their usual coat transformation once the days get colder. Normally, as in last year and for most of my life, the dogs spend the winter months sleeping outdoors. It is VERY cold here of course, but they will literally drag their feet when I try to bring them in from outside, followed by a lot of singing. (If you have a Mal, you know what I mean!) until they are let out. In short, it makes it almost impossible to sleep.
My daughter though (who is 17), and even now a few of my family members, were commenting to me recently that I should not "subject" them to that this year. The conflict I guess is that, to my knowledge, my dogs were bred for this kind of weather, and in fact almost require their winter fat and coat expansion for the other winter activities we do with them. (Sledding, Skijoring, etc) So, is there a way to "train" my dogs to tolerate being indoors? Will this lead to them losing their winter adaptations? Is there a way to explain this to someone? Please and thank you to all respondents....
With summer going on up here recently, I keep the pack inside, where they usually sleep in a big heap together in the kitchen. With winter coming up though, I am preparing for their usual coat transformation once the days get colder. Normally, as in last year and for most of my life, the dogs spend the winter months sleeping outdoors. It is VERY cold here of course, but they will literally drag their feet when I try to bring them in from outside, followed by a lot of singing. (If you have a Mal, you know what I mean!) until they are let out. In short, it makes it almost impossible to sleep.
My daughter though (who is 17), and even now a few of my family members, were commenting to me recently that I should not "subject" them to that this year. The conflict I guess is that, to my knowledge, my dogs were bred for this kind of weather, and in fact almost require their winter fat and coat expansion for the other winter activities we do with them. (Sledding, Skijoring, etc) So, is there a way to "train" my dogs to tolerate being indoors? Will this lead to them losing their winter adaptations? Is there a way to explain this to someone? Please and thank you to all respondents....