by Henry Hall

Created on: September 06, 2008

Well, Should dogs be indoor or outdoor pets can be a pretty tough question. I have had a fair amount of experience with my dog, Goldie, who has lived indoors his whole life, so just "dumping" him outside, wouldn't be the best solution for him. I seriously recommend that dogs should stay outdoors though, you can then have a nice clean house and completely hair free. My dog has been a very big hassle when it comes to hair falling over the floors, it always involves cleaning up, whereas if this 4-legged hair machine was outside there would be a lot less cleaning! Some people say "Oh, but it's cruel to throw your dog outside", but you can easily make a small shed or pen with a bed, and your dog is more than fine.

They can also be a bit of a space issue, since they always want to follow you around, or play which is usually something to complain about.

This all of course depends on what size your dog is, it could be very small (e.g a Chihuahua or a Border Terrier), but some are too big and we could even say "too big for a house" (e.g: a Dobermann and a Deerhound), but the bigger the dog, the messier the house!

Another rather funny point is excrement. Where is a dog going to leave it's "leavings" if it lives in a house constantly! You don't want to come home from work or finish writing an article for Helium, look on the floor and discover something rather unpleasant staring at you in the face.

When dogs are kept outside, they can enjoy the climate (depending on where you live), and get good exercise and when it gets cold, you could easily bring your dog into the garage, or a utility room. If they are kept indoors, they cannot get the correct exercise which will eventually make it very unhealthy ,especially dogs like Whippets, they must have lots of exercise (e.g walks, playing games). It's not just what they need either, it's what they want. Space is always a top priority for anyone or anything, it's just... nature.

Dogs will only be unhappy from being outside if they are used to staying indoors in the warm, and then all of a sudden being thrown out. This is why, once you purchase your dog, you should put him outside in a nice dog pen or run and to have hay as bed. Dogs like hay since it is warm and cosy for them to sleep on.

So my conclusion, is that, if you want your dog to be healthy and have a nice house which contains: NO hair, NO mess, NO play toys, NO dog bed and certainly NO EXREMENT, keep your dog outside!
Thanks for reading!

Learn more about this author, Henry Hall.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.