Hoping someone could help me out with a little information. I currently reside in hot AZ and am moving up to Montana in the near future. My question is what if anything do you guys do for your dogs in the winter? Right now I have mine in kennels with wooden dog houses with flaps on the door to keep out wind. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Where are you moving to in Montana? I have some good friend spread out all over the state. Also where are you moving from in Az? The reason I ask is the climate difference in Az. If your from the cooler regions you'll probably not have too many problems.

I would however have your dogs packing some extra pounds before the move. The dogs will burn alot of energy keeping warm and loose alot of weight doing it. Fat is also a good insulator. I wish you luck on your move and some happy hunting in the new country.

Like Shorty said, it depends on where you are moving to in Mt. I live along the Beartooth front and we get quite a bit of snow and some cooler temps here. My dogs have houses mostly buried into the hillside. Most of our storms come from the southwest, so the opening is facing to the northeast. During the bad storms, the worst that happens is the door blows almost shut with snowdrifts. I've never had them seal completely off, so they really end up with some good insulation from the snow and hillside. I've put my little remote thermometer inside one of them and it never drops below 16 degrees without a dog in it. With the dog inside, it usually hovers around 35 degrees, which is more than good enough for my dogs. In the summer, they stay inside as opposed to the shade of the trees around them. I assume that means it's cooler inside.

Just my .02

Scott

Coming from the 5500 feet zone in Central AZ. Moving up to Northern MT around Shelby.

Thanks

hope you like below zero weather in the winter and lots of wind year round

Don't let them Texans pull your leg I spent many years in Montana(Eastern Montana) with hounds and it is brutal. One winter we had so much snow and wind I had to keep my hounds in my truck box in the garage all winter. The pens were under 10 feet of now and it was down to 50 below zero on many nights. We were snowed in 3 days where we couldn't get out of the house and this was on Thanksgiving. When I did get out I crawled out a second story window and slid down snow banks and then went to find the vehicles outside. My Chevy truck was buried I could see the radio antenna sticking out of a drift and that was all. The engine compartment had blown so full of snow with the brutal winds that is bulged the hood. Many times from Thanksgiving till Chinooks blew in in March you couldn't get out with your hounds at all. When you get below minus 15 it is very dangerous for dogs and we would go 30 days at times when the daytime tempertures never got above minus 15.

If you think I am making this up try me back in a couple of years.

Enjoy!

Mike, that's far from the first story of that kind that I've heard. My Dad grew up in Dupree SD and moved to the foothills of the Rockies in high school. He said the further east you went, the worse it was. Of course, keep in mind this was a few years back. It seems as late, the winters have slackened off quite a bit. I remember snow in the 4-5 foot range when I was a kid and now a 3 footer is talked about for a couple years. Last year we got more snow than in the last 3 or 4 combined. Hopefully we are headed back into a series of more "normal" winters. With that said, the snow and wind is what seperates the men from the boys

Scott

Tman I don't know if the winters are quite as bad as Mike says. But everyonce in awhile we do get a dandy. The picture below is of a 5 foot fence taken the last day of April this year. Keep your houses full of staw with a flap on the door. If your living in Shelby face your houses to the east, your a long way from a cat.

This was October 13th of last year.



We had 42" in the yard on the level.

Scott

Thanks again guys for the information. I grew up in Wyoming and we had some terrible winters. Just trying to plan out my strategy for the hounds don't want them freezeing to death. Thanks again.

Don't get me wrong I love old Montana but some parts of it are better visited from June thru August. LOL!

The thing about Wyoming I like better than Montana is the fact that the realy pretty parts are pretty limited in size. LOL! Seriously half the state of Montana is a like a huge mountain park and it draws people like honey draws flies. The western side of the state is filling up with folks that are sick and tired of living where they do and want to go some place pretty. Problem is they brings their damn city politics with them and before long you can't tell it is still Montana. In Wyoming antelope still out number the people, and they are not that big a problem. LOL!

Yep Mike
You sure do got it right!!

Well Montana Gal just stay out their in the woods on the tails of them big black dogs and maybe you won't have to deal with them pilgrms too much. If so load your plunder and comer on down this way trees are scarce but hell we got plenty of cactus and miles to ride. LOL!


Keep smiling!

keep the dog box full of hay and you will be just fine. them dogs are tougher than you think they come out of the boxes like it summer time when they hear the truck pull down to the kennel know matter what the temp is. later Andy

Here is winter in maine