Veterinarian Sleeps in a Dog House on a Cold Winter Night to Show How Dogs Suffer When Left Outside

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Veterinarian Dr. Ernie Ward has long been a staunch animal welfare advocate. In 2017, he turned his attention to the condition of pets living outdoors during freezing-cold winter nights, conducting an experiment involving him spending a night in an outdoor dog kennel.

The footage taken from his home just north of Chicago, Illinois, is still informing pet owners’ decisions today.

According to pet advocate website Cesar’s Way, Ward had grown frustrated by the sheer number of people who believed that doghouses and blankets provided adequate protection for their pets against freezing outdoor temperatures in winter. A furry coat, the veterinarian maintained, is simply not enough to prevent our beloved pets from suffering in bitterly cold conditions.

Many dog owners also wrongly believed that an insulated doghouse would help trap and retain heat for the dog holding out inside.

In January 2017, Ward decided to prove his point once and for all that outdoor dogs are suffering in winter. The dedicated vet decided to camp inside a doghouse overnight, filmed his experience, and later posted the footage on Facebook along with his commentary.

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Decked out in “the latest, hi-tech ski and snow gear” and armed with a camera, a thermometer, and a timer, Ward settled into his igloo-style doghouse for the night. It was time to sample for himself exactly what a dog has to endure when forced to sleep outside in winter.

Posting on Facebook, Ward explained:

“Fellow animal advocates, I created this video to raise awareness about the dangers of cold weather to pets. To do this, I decided to stay in a doghouse overnight.

“I wanted to discover if a dog (or, in this case, a 145-pound human) would be able to heat a doghouse to a safe temperature. I also wanted to experience what the temperature inside the doghouse on a typical winter night would be.”

Despite the fact that there was no snow on the ground and it was not very windy, Ward read the temperature at 20 degrees F (-6.7 degrees C) at 9 p.m. Less than an hour into the experiment, Ward noticed ice crystals forming on the ceiling of the doghouse and admitted that his feet were going numb.

After four hours, the thermometer registered a “life-threatening” 15 degrees F (-9.2 degrees C), and Ward was forced to throw in the towel. “No dog is biologically adapted to handle this,” the vet concluded. “It is suffering.”

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, while long-haired or thick-coated dog breeds such as Siberian huskies may fare better in cold weather, they are still at risk over longer periods of time spent enduring the cold. Short-haired pets have have less protection and will therefore suffer more.

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Short-legged pets, the experts advise, may become vulnerable to the cold faster than their long-legged counterparts because their bodies come into contact with the freezing ground.

Pets with medical conditions, very young pets, or very old pets may struggle to regulate their own body temperatures when the outdoor temperature drops. They may be even more vulnerable to suffering than more robust pets if left to spend the night in an outdoor kennel.

“If you think that [if] you put your dog out in a doghouse with plenty of blankets that they are somehow magically going to warm up and be nice and toasty,” Ward concluded, in his footage shared on Facebook, “you are fooling yourself! This is brutally cold!”

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Ward’s take-home message to pet owners was simple: it can be truly dangerous to leave pets outside when temperatures plummet, so bring them indoors at nighttime. No animal, no matter what the breed, deserves to suffer the brutal chill of a bleak winter’s night. Ward implores:

“If you are considering leaving your dog or your cat outside, they'll suffer. Together, we can help prevent suffering and potentially save lives.”

He adds:

“We love our pets so much, and they ask so little in return. And I think the least we can do is bring them in on a cold night.”

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