Inside vs outside dog - Page 8

Some vets will try to pass a stomach tube if they aren't sure if the stomach was twisted.

Personally I am convinced that some dogs are genetically predisposed to gastric torsion. Food, exercise, height of feeding bowls, etc.... makes no difference. Raw feds dogs bloat the same as dogs that eat commercial diets.  I've seen maybe 20 dogs with torsion at the vet clinic where I worked. The common thread was every one had a full stomach when presented but not all had eaten within a few hours.

You know Guys this question has been up before In Fact it is a really pointless thread? Not the People who keep there dogs inside or the ones who keep them outside are going to change anything. So all this talk is for nothing the first few Answers would have been enough for the OP to because what he or she is going to do now 4 pages and i bet it will go on and on. Now no one is going to convince me i am doing the wrong thing by my dogs after 65 years of keeping them Fit and Healthy outdoors? Only idiots change a good system. I can see logic for some of you Guys who live in places where there are hazards for the dogs that i understand and if i lived there i may have thought differently 65 years ago? Where i live my Garden has a 5ft Fence around it then a thick hedge of Golden Leyandi right round some 7ft high the Gate area is 7;ft 6, high and beyond that the Front is fenced in by a iron railing fence. So very well protected for the Dogs. We over here have up to now no problems with bloat Not to say it cannot happen but we only have to be aware that you do not feed a Dog when it is dehydyated and hot meaning been working hard or running a lot. Why i say this is I used to practise the Martial Arts when younger as some know Undefeated in fact in 33 contests but those years seem light years away.However this has always stayed with me to the present day  one day after working hard all day i went straight to the Gym did 30 minutes work, home washed a light tea on the motor bike to my lesson with an old Master of the arts two hours work then i drank a cold glass of water in one go i hit the floor and was unconcious. When he bought me round my stomach was on fire it took me over an hour to gain stenghth to go home. So what i am saying is this when a Dog works hard its inside is like a car which has lost its water and over heated just as it had happened to me. So wait until the dog has cooled down before giving it any water or food then let it eat slowly i put the food in one handful at a time and wait in between then let the dog have a little water You will find this will pay off if the Dog is over heated plus of course putting a wet cloth on its head will help. Not a lot of trouble to do it but it may save a lot bigger problems for the dog; I am not saying this is the cause of Bloat in a Dog but it can contrbute towards it, Will have to watch and be a little bit on the cuff as they say over here
Steve1

kishore,
the whole purpose of being outside is fresh air, sunshine, room to move, things to see and hear, smell, a place to crap where the dog doesn't have to walk in it lay next to it, room, space, to know the world it lives in, the sights and sounds of life.
Or you could subscribe to DOG TV and leave snacks on the coffee table along with rubber toys.
A shed is nothing more than a large dog house, at least in winter large is not good for keeping warm.
If the dog has free access to enter or exit a building fine, but to shut one in is not, an outer fence would be required to enclose a building, turning it into a kennel.

Sunsilver,
(Yes, some GSDs are too hyper to settle in the house, and need to be kenneled for the owner's peace of mind, but they are the exception)
I disagree with exception, I think it is the norm.
Need to be kenneled for the owners peace of mind................... and what of the dogs peace of mind, much less everything else it needs to live a happy full life.
A Labrador Retriever is not a GSD and have completely different needs, also an outside dog by standards.
I know a man who keeps an adult Cougar in his basement, is that the correct way to keep and care for such an animal, of course not.
There are plenty of breeds that make excellent house pets, there's also an abundance of couch potatoes out there with issues evident here on the forums.

The qualities that make a GSD an outside dog begin here with drive, intelligence, an active dog is not hyper, like a race horse behind a plow, out of it's element.
It's very simple, what is a GSD?
Besides demanding.

Blitz,
I remember the puppy winter thing, they all did very well that winter and did come in during single digit temps.
Makes em strong along with other benefits.
Sorry about the bloat and your loss, but it's not a valid reason to turn a working dog into a house pet.

Something feels familiar about this thread and I'm already getting a sad feeling about things.
Without being specific, we've been here and done this many times before.


kishore,
you read up on the German Shepherd Dog before you take the pup.
Some place other than Dogbreedinfo.com please.


Moons.



 

Momo, I don't want to divert the thred off topic too much, but
a) I agree, there may well be a genetic predisposition to dogs
who bloat.  There certainly seems to be a corrolation between
deep chested dogs / breeds and the illness, although 'everyone'
knows cases where non-deep dogs have bloated.
b)  whether or not it is what, when & how they are fed that makes
the difference, the jury is still out on;  there was a time when all
vets were recommending raised feeding bowls to avoid bloat, now
most are saying the opposite ...  I have never fed immediately
before or immediately after exercise, always made sure at least
1/2 hour either side (some recommend as much as two hours).
A recent survey said: timing between eating and exercise didn't make
any difference to the dogs they were studying.  ??
c)  yes, you can get the 'volvulus' without the 'dilation',  but as the
result and the cure are generally the same, all I can see is different
is it would be slightly less easy to spot if the belly does not swell
with gas.  If there is foamy retching however, I would suspect bloat even
if the dogs' belly seemed normal.  After all, it could be a bleeding spleen.


Blitzen, yes I accept that lucky timing had a lot to do with it, but my
point is that even indoors you can't watch them every minute;  or
necessarily  act in time. Sometimes, 'shit just happens', as they say.
And bloat isn't the only disease that can kill them fairly suddenly ...

I guess I am saying that having experienced both methods of care, I still
have no absolute preference;  and as others have said, it is 'horses for
courses', you do what suits you [and, I hope, your dog(s)], and it will
depend at least partly on locality and facilities.

Moons, I don't keep a GSD as a house dog because I think it gives me a better chance of saving a bloated dog. I keep my GSD with me 24/7 because I like to have her with me at all times. She's part of my life like the air I breath. I won't even try to convey to you how I feel when one of my house dogs dies.

I don't see making house dogs out of GSD's as being detrimental to the future of the breed.  Haphazardly breeding unproven dogs with no or few health tests are a far worse problem for the breed's future. That's in my opinion of course.

Even though I consider the tendency for a dog to bloat genetic, I still opt to err on the side of caution. Feed 3 small meals per day, no exercise for one hour before feeding and at least 1 1/2 hours after feeding.

(Moons, I don't keep a GSD as a house dog because I think it gives me a better chance of saving a bloated dog. I keep my GSD with me 24/7 because I like to have her with me at all times. She's part of my life like the air I breath. I won't even try to convey to you how I feel when one of my house dogs dies)

There you have it, (She's part of my life like the air I breath), that's what makes it work, in or out.
It's a shame more people don't have that feeling.

When I say some of the things I say Blitzen I'm really talking to the masses, remember the Nine of Ten.
I know you do everything needed for your dogs health and happiness, the other nine are the ones I worry about.

The breed will never be what it once was, but it could improve greatly.
Breeders follow the demand, always have, it's good some breeders try to stay the course and maintain the actual standards.

I like a flashy sweet bitch same as anyone else, but the work comes first.

Mine are part of my life too Blitzen, i feel for those who aren't mine almost the same.
i get really angry sometimes with people who don't share these feelings because I see what they do and don't do at their dogs expense.

This one already troubles me some.


Moons.



 

And that was a profound message, Moons. For the first time I feel as if we are on the same page. Cheers.........

Steve, I'm with you on this one.....after 40 plus years of raising and breeding dogs in and out of the house, successfully, I really don't need to be informed about which way is better. I have experiences to guide me that I feel are pretty reliable....lol

I didn't read any posts to this thread that were intended to try change anyone's mind about how they keep their dogs. We were offering pros and cons of both methods based on our own personal experiences and the areas in which we lived.  Some who responded have also owned dogs for  40, 50 years. That  was what the OP asked for.