Keeping dogs warm in winter

Snowy Celandine

Snowy Celandine

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How do you keep thin-skinned dogs warm in winter at night? Both my dogs (whippet & chihuahua) sleep in the warm kitchen currently. The whippet is in her basket and the chi sleeps in her bed in her crate. I put housecoats on them both if I think it will get cold overnight. However, this is all set to change soon because we are having building work done and the kitchen will be out of action for about 3 weeks so the dogs will have to sleep in a room that is a lot colder than the kitchen and I'm worried about them getting cold. I don't let my dogs upstairs or on sofas and I don't want them sleeping in a carpeted room because the whippet has a delicate digestion and, well, nuff said I think!

I was wondering about heating pads for them, the ones like mini electric blankets. Neither of them are chewers so I think they would be safe with these but I just wanted to check if anyone uses them and if they are any good or if there are other possibilities?
 
snugglesafe heat pads are awesome and stay warm for hours. I also use a flectabed-my old dog loved it and the cat uses it as well so it must have done something :)
we did buy our old dog an electric heater for some background heat as well (we have a very cold house).
 
My whippet x beddy has an Equafleece jumper which she wears anytime she feels the cold. We have just come back from a few days on our canal boat which can be very cold in the early hours. The jumper keeps her cozy, she soon fusses if she is not warm enough.
 
If our house gets cold (during the day normally as we don't leave the heating on for the dogs!) we put our whippets fleeces on and they're generally fine in that. Our old mongrel, bless her, lost alot of condition towards 'the end', she would eat mountains but was extremely skinny so used to feel the cold. We used to put her in two housecoats in the day and then at night, she slept in a cold room so she got two heat pads and had a bed with tons of blankets in it. The heat pads stayed warm for hours and hours and she was very cozy with them, we used to wrap them in a blanket for her so she wasn't directly on the heat. Most mornings she was still chilling out in bed all snuggled up
 
Can you put a little oil-filled radiator in the room they will be sleeping in near there beds? You can get some nice compact models now and they are a handy thing to have around the home anyway in case the heating breaks down or you need some extra heat. We have one in our other-wise unheated kitchen and whippet puppy seems quite warm enough like that.
 
Thank you everyone. I've got a SnuggleSafe for the rabbits but it's a bit hard for the dogs maybe? The whippet is very bony!! The cat also has a PetNap electric blanket thingy which she seems to like and that's why I was thinking of getting them for the pooches as well.

I am off shopping soon so I will look for portable heaters because that might be a good idea :D I'm also going to put up a curtain pole and put some curtains in front of the doors because that's where most of the cold is coming from I think. The room is at the end of the house, next to the garage and the back door is single glazed and mainly glass. Needs replacing really but that will be expensive :(
 
If you get a couple of small fabric crates (big enough for them obviously, but not huge), cover them with a thick blanket and put a duvet around the inside, they can snuggle in. Add a heat pad and they will toasty warm. My whippety lurcher feels the cold and sleeps in te coldest corner of my cold bedroom, but he loves his little cave - his is much bigger but has an electric heat pad at the back, a duvet around the sides and roof, and bedding on the ground, with a spare blanket that he usually pushed to the front to block the drafts :D The blanket over the whole crate comes down over the door so he can push through and be totally enclosed, he absolutely loves it!
 
blankets! mine buries himself in them. you can also get those terrier-tunnel beds, so they're kind of like a big pocket they can bury themselves in? I would get mine one, but he destroys beds, so he only gets blankets now. the little darling!
 
Hekkie has a plastic igloo bed indoors, he likes the tunnel and that he warms the air. He has it with two layers of Vetbed to snuggle in, plus a jacket, currently a Coolex, but he also has an Equifleece, and a Danish Designs material one.

I would not trust him with anything electric, he is a chewer.
 
PaddyMonty said:
We bought a super kingsize bed to fit me, OH, two whippets and a chihuahua. Dogs sleep under the duvet. Always warm. No problem.
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Thanks everyone :) I'd not thought about blankets/duvets so they could make nests but that sounds like a really good plan!

PaddyMonty, I've tried letting them into the bedroom but they end up competing to see which one can sit on your head and every time you turf them off the chihuahua does a zillion laps of the duvet. I'm a rubbish sleeper at the best of times so I've given up on that one and so they stay downstairs to chase off any burglars, he he.
 
You can get onsie things like the horse ones - i wanted one for my staff but dad put his foot down hahaha. I just got her a normal coat instead and she pranced about showing it off for about 30mins. Loves her coats she does.
 
peanut said:
Heated pads by Petnap come in a dog size and are brilliant. They are also very cheap to run.
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The cat has one of those peanut and she loves it. I am going to try a combination of things suggested I think as there have been some great ideas, some I'd not have thought of. I just want my dogs to be warm once the house starts getting ripped apart. I thought of buying myself a big blanket too so if you can send me some of your dog's shed hair SF I will start knitting, ha ha. Weirdly, my chihuahua, as tiny as she is, sheds loads. OH said the other day that the kitchen floor was half tiles, half dog hair. I've not been allowed to hoover for a few weeks on doctor's orders so at least he now knows what I do all day :o
 
equi said:
You can get onsie things like the horse ones - i wanted one for my staff but dad put his foot down hahaha. I just got her a normal coat instead and she pranced about showing it off for about 30mins. Loves her coats she does.
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I think dogs either love or hate coats don't they? My whippet girl bends her head down whenever hers appears so that I can pop it on but the Chi runs away and hides! She's a little devil for getting her coat off in the night too. She has an equi fleece jumper somewhere but I cant find it so I reckon she's hidden it because she hates it even more than her coat.
 
Snowy Celandine said:
I think dogs either love or hate coats don't they? My whippet girl bends her head down whenever hers appears so that I can pop it on but the Chi runs away and hides! She's a little devil for getting her coat off in the night too. She has an equi fleece jumper somewhere but I cant find it so I reckon she's hidden it because she hates it even more than her coat.
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haha they do. Mine dives into hers and this one is waterproof and fleecy on the inside, so shes the bees knees in it!
 
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