aDorkable
Posted : 3/8/2008 3:05:30 PM
My recommendations for this sort of situation would obviously vary depending on how the dog has been handled up to this point. If the dog is leash trained then that's a good place to start, if not, work on that outside then bring the dog inside for short periods of time. I know heavily coated breeds have a hard time adjusting from the heat/cold in the house after being outside relying on themselves to regulate temperature. Misha was solely an outdoor dog until he was about four or five months old. With him, he was separated from his mother at eight weeks and spent most of his time with his sister in the pen. I leash trained him and would bring him inside for very short periods of time in the beginning. Luckily for me, he wanted to be with me all the time, so if I was inside that's where he wanted to be - even when it was really uncomfortable for him. Crate training him was also really easy, because he was already used to having an enclosed place to sleep and hideaway in. I also had no problems with housebreaking him because he preferred to go outside already, and he was spending time with housebroken dogs. However, I found that he was extremely pee shy on leash - and had a few accidents because of that.
Overall, I would suggest that the dogs be slowly introduced to the indoors, and carefully watched to make sure (mainly in the winter) that they are not overheating inside or (in the summer) overheating outside because of the air conditioning inside. I'd recommend people that they trust giving them some food, water, and treats indoors - so they realize it's not terrible to be inside, and slowly introduce them the idea of being inside. Other than that, train them to live indoors as you would any other puppy or dog.