Finished up the summer dog house Ive been working on and put it out in the dog yard just in time for the few cold nights we've had. Its gotten down to -16 here but I hear its gotten even colder in the hills.Weird weather for this time of year... even weirder is that its warming up to zero and above during the day to make working outside quite pleasant.
Since its been cold and I'm curious on this new dog house design Ive started doing some temperature tests on it and the others designs I have. There are about six different styles out there, four of which are insulated ones that I made myself. The other one is a salvaged dump prize and the rest are the standard dog house that most mushers use.
I'm checking the temperature readings in Thani's house tonight. His is the big mansion log house that was my first experiment. Things could be going better if he would get inside it and sleep but with Calypso still being in heat all the boys are acting pretty loopy. Griffin wont eat his food right now and Remus has lost a bit of weight due to his constant motion trying to get Calypso's attention. Of course all of this will do no good as she has been in 'lock down' in our heat pen just before she started soliciting the boys.
So far the main temperature observations Ive been able to find is that most of the dogs will not use their houses until its colder than -5. Some of the older dogs will use their houses all the time but that is probably to take advantage of the comfortable straw, I'm not convinced its for heating purposes. The dogs with lighter coats seem to have a lower tolerance for the cold but I imagine its not too much different.The low outside temp last night was -16 and the new insulated house that Mercury was using fluctuated from a min of -3 to a max of +15. Thats a huge difference especially considering the outside temp was so cold. Most of the time he may have been out of his house flirting with Calypso and keeping her busy (since hes neutered) so I'm not sure what time the max temp was reached.
I want to do a few more tests on his house specificly and on the standard one he has right next to it. It will be very interesting to see how these two compare. Ive always thought the standard plywood house could be improved on but I'm uncertain just how much.
I have to constantly remind myself that these guys are wearing fur coats and that an inside comfortable temp for me, like 65, would be a raging furnace for them this time of year.
The temperature gauge is placed about midway into their straw bed right next to the opening of their house. It may be warmer higher up so I plan to do wall readings later on to get a clear idea on what the average temperature is for the whole house.
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