Mmm , I am on here looking to learn the best way to keep My adopted pets outdoor room warm , he will be living inside with free access to outside the dog I am adopting is A grey hound , and when I go out during the day , he will be outside as I have an outdoor storage room I am converting for him , it’s dry and insulated and Gives him access to the toilet and he can choose To go inside the room or stay outside , its a great safe room for him if he is napping during the day and to protect him from the weather and make him feel snug and i have cameras I can put up so I can check on him , I have found animals are all different depending on the breed and our family are animal lovers and all have dogs and cats of different varieties and every animal has very different preferences , I live in a warm climate most of the year and we find our dogs choose to sleep where we sleep and choose to snuggle when we are watching tv , and I use electric blankets on our beds , so thats their choice all day in winter even if no one is in the room and we are home , but in summer we find the bigger dogs choose to stay outside and just wander in flop down say hi and go back out to their perfect spot , the staffies in the family as they mature have all built their own lair in a hiding spot regardless of quality man made bedding and our beds and couch on offer , and it’s their retreat and stash spot , the little dogs in the family have doggie doors , and indoor and outdoor beds , i will keep my dog indoors at night , if I am not home in winter but he will be outdoors with his own indoor room during the day , i Will be using cameras to watch him to see how he adapts , now if you have a few dogs together their is no reason to have them all inside at all , in my experience people with multiple dogs who live outside are happy healthy cared for dogs who get the best of both worlds and dont need to live inside , a single dog is different and every dog is different , I know people with a little dog and they say he wants to stay outside and doesnt sleep indoors , they would like him too , but he wont , we live in a great climate here and with the fresh night air and breezes , I personally used to sleep out on my kids trampoline some nights before I got air con in the house and love camping and being outside , i think the single dog locked out and tied up isolated and forgotten about who ends up with behavioural problems is abuse and should be reported , I don’t think the posters here are doing that to their outdoor dogs , I think dogs locked inside all day , day after day would not be right for some of the family dogs at all , the staffies In particular opted to build lairs outside and would go to their outdoor lair instead of being left inside while I went to work but would come inside and chill out when I got home in winter they would be in bed with the electric blanket on , but in summer at bed time they would opt to go out to their lair that they built with household things they stole , and they had a range of dog beds we tried for them to pull apart and chew up to use to build it , summer is too hot here for body heat especially if you are stuck with a fur coat , i see nothing wrong with dogs outside of they are happy and well adjusted animals

I am not sure why this is such an emotionally charged and controversial topic... I guess it has to do with people's not liking others telling them what to do, no matter the risks. It is also amazing how many 'facts' there are stating exactly the opposite things. If one searches hard enough one can find the facts to support their position, even if its completely the opposite of the other side of the argument. It's as bad as politics. It basically comes down to there being no perfect answer no matter which argument you side with. All you can do is what makes the most sense to you once you have 'learned' as much as you can and have some or lots of actual hands-on experience, either raising dogs or helping them with their illnesses. I am not a researcher or in a position to spew facts based on my own research, but I can at least make conclusions from years of working under various situations (shelter, rescue groups, large practices and small, individual practices) of 27 years as a veterinarian. The opinions I have formulated are not necessarily strictly scientific nor are they based on statistics... they are strictly opinions based on observations... no hard facts or numbers. However, coming from that background, most politically active dog breeders and others with other less clear agendas will automatically disregard anything I say as highly biased (and theirs aren't?) and self serving. I have never worked for myself and my earnings have never been based on the amount of revenue I bring in (as much as some employers have tried to make it so) and I gain nothing from either spaying or neutering dogs, or from removing their mammary tumors later in life, other than the satisfaction of having saved a pet here and there and relieved some of their pain and discomfort. It is part of the job, one which I have grown to like just because I am good at it... but I get no satisfaction at seeing old dogs that have been spayed have urinary incontinence issues any more than I have at seeing old intact females with malignant mammary cancer. I feel for all these pets that have problems and do my best to take care of their problems as they arise. As for the down sides of spaying dogs, I cannot add much to either argument except for the mammary tumor one. Having worked at rescue practice for over 6 years and seen thousands of old dogs that desperately needed homes, it was striking to see how many unsprayed ones indeed had mammary tumors (unfortunately we were not in a position financially to biopsy any of these tumors so I have little feeling for how many were malignant or benign unless they happened to grow right back or the dogs subsequently died of metastatic disease). But in my opinion any tumor is best not to have if it were a choice of having one or not. I did end up removing most of these dog's tumors and spaying them at the same time. Though I cannot say exactly since I did not count, at least a third of these unsprayed older dogs had one form of mammary cancer or another. I did not see a single spayed dog with a mammary tumor on the other hand. So I can at least say with some confidence that if you want your pet dog to not develop mammary cancer, it would be best to spay it. The earlier dogs are spayed the less likely they will be to develop these tumors, too, though I could not say from my personal experience at what age you wait until, that the odds get as high as one out of three. My 'feeling' is that is is somewhere in middle age, but I cannot back that up with numbers or facts. As to other problems associated with not spaying dogs (nothing to do with what age one spays them) I did a LOT of pyometra surgeries at this practice as well as the practice I work at now which is a community that is not exactly swimming in money, so many people do not get their dogs spayed. Pyometra, or infected uterus, is a commonly fatal disease that sometimes will kill pets even if you get the surgery done (just too late sometimes- the infection has gone too far). I would say that pyometras are a lot less common than mammary tumors, but their occurrence is more tragic as without immediate treatment, most dogs die (over 95%)... while mammary tumors that are not removed can often be ignored and may never end up killing the dog as long as they don't get too large or spread. So there is less a need of urgency with those. Still, those are two relatively common diseases that are nearly 100% preventable from spaying. On top of these are the dystocia emergencies I see all the time now in my emergency practice. Most of these pregnant dogs that are now in crisis are results of 'accidental' breeding (at least that is the most common situation presented by their owners and I have no specific reason not to believe them all, though I seriously doubt all of them are telling the truth). This is another avoidable situation that often ends tragically (if not for the mother, who can at least be spayed then) often for the puppies who have died in the process of not being able to be born properly. It gets very sad sometimes to work emergency. As far as the down sides to spaying and neutering dogs, I have seen plenty of female dogs with mild to moderate cases of urinary incontinence. This is an 'annoying' disease, and often uncomfortable if not treated (for both dog and owner) and I certainly would not wish it on any dog (or person). But I have yet to see a single dog die of this condition, nor one not respond to rather inexpensive medication. Sure I would like it for these pets to not have this problem, but I would gladly chose this over any of the above situations. As for all the other reasons for not spaying dogs, I have seen very few of these 'problems' in private practice. I have never seen a 'stunted' dog from a spay or neuter... though I have seen pit bulls and rotweillers that were neutered before a year of age have more slender builds (normal size and normal health)- most notable is these male dogs do not have the massive skulls and facial musculature of their unneutered counterparts. Though a massive head on some of these dogs is 'cool' sometimes, I do not know if that is enough of advantage to not neuter them. However, when it comes to neutering males, I do see few medical advantages... some behavioral advantages come to mind, but not too many medical ones (prostatitis is the major one I can think of right off, but this is not a super common condition anyway- not at least like mammary tumors or pyometras are in female dogs). Back to the original question on this old thread- when is the right time to spay a dog? Since in my practices I do not get to follow too many dogs their entire lives, I cannot make too many conclusions about what early spay and neuter do to dogs. I have done my share of these, though I personally don't like to do these surgeries before 6 months, but no other reason than I find them easier surgeries at that age. I have not seen any long term problems in the few dogs that I have been able to keep up with, other than urinary incontinence in some female dogs (in my unscientific observations, I would say about 1 out of 30 female spayed dogs develop this problem and age of spay seems to make no difference, at least when done early. I have not seen an older spayed dog (over 5) develop this problem after a spay... but by that age I do see lots of other problems from NOT being spayed showing up... When I see unspayed dogs in practice I do mention the above observations of mine... once... if the owners are not receptive to these comments I do not mention it again. Changing some people's minds about potential sensitive issues like this is like trying to change their political or religious views and that is certainly not my job or business. I still do my best to treat all the dogs and cats I see no matter what choices their owners have made ,and try as much as possible not to make owners feel bad about their choices, unless they border on negligence or cruelty (thankfully these are rare situations). Just an opinion... and only based on personal experience. Feel free to rail on me all you like. I just felt I had to say something.

Gamecock, what you are looking for is exactly what we are selling. And the wider target range is something I hadn't thought of. But other than the 2 BRs (large, by the way) its a nice family home on .5 acre lot. Thanks, thats encouraging. xamsx, its in a burb (many still going up) outside of Rochester. We had an estate/garage sale recently and even with the obvious plywood floors so many people commented on what a lovely home it is and asked if we were thinking of selling. DK average DOM around here but will find out. Frog_hopper, haven't signed with agent yet although two came by the sale and of course want the listing. One lives down the street and another was just out "garage sale"ing. She offered to work up comps for me and followed up with a phone call. She suggested listing it with "flooring to be completed by closing" to take advantage of the season. Meeting another over there tomorrow. Thanks all for your input. I'm kind of overwhelmed with just trying to clear this place of all the furniture, etc. to be able to get things going. Any further thoughts or questions welcome. Sandy

Hi All, I have been reading these flooring issues and feeling your pain. Truly. I have spent HOURS reading about how to get the film off of my dark laminate flooring. So pretty when it's clean but oh so not pretty once anyone walks on it or the dogs leave paw prints when they come in front outside (I have two shih tzu's so we are not talking large dogs here). It was to the point where I wanted no one on the floors after they were cleaned so they would look nice. Ummmm... not very realistic or practical. Trust me when I tell you that I have tried everything, and purchased everything, that worked for others. I will tell you what finally worked for me- FINALLY. I bought some Windex with vinegar in it. I sprayed it on the floor and let it sit for five minutes. You have to do this in small sections so it takes a long time to complete. Once it's been on that section for five minutes you need to get down on your hands and knees and clean it with a soft rag (I used a flour dishtowel) with as much pressure you have in you. Then you need to dry it immediately. It seriously did remove the film. You might have to do this more than once if you have thicker film on your floors from products you have used. I was so nervous to walk on it after about a half hour of doing this, but guess what? No prints! Nothing. It looked just like it did before it was installed and before I used multiple products on it. I have the same flooring in the lower level and tried to take a shortcut, so I sprayed the Windex with vinegar on it, let it sit for five minutes, and mopped it off. I mean- this takes a lot less time and elbow grease. But, it didn't work. Shucks. I still have the lower level floor to do so I will take a before and after picture of it and post it. It worked on my family room floor beautifully. This lower level floors gets a lot more traffic so this should be interesting. However, getting that film off is key. That is what is leaving all of the footprints and dog prints and everything else. I could literally draw on my floors through the film. It was disgusting. Try it- you have nothing to lose but about $3.50 for the bottle of Windex with vinegar and some time and effort. I'm so happy it worked on at least one of the floors!! From now on I plan to clean these floors with a clean fiber cloth mop and the Windex and vinegar spray. This will not leave a film. If I have problems with that (I haven't tried it yet) I will use plain water. No more products on the floors- lesson learned (the hard way!). Patricia