Dog not wanting to be inside the house!
We got Bea (our Shiba) when she was 7. She was pretty much a kennel dog all her life, she was shown in her early years but was kept pretty much as a breeding dog. When we got her she always shown a preference for being outside, especially at night. This was ok during the spring and summertime but now it's getting really cold and started to rain. She refuses to go inside the house (this is followed by A LOT of shiba screaming, whining, crying, scratching. We built a dog house, have a crate AND a pet bed for her, but she refuses to go inside or LIE on any of those things (she seems to be afraid of the dog house) at night. Instead, she lies either on the cold concrete or on the dirt, or under a tree (instead on the covered porch) if it is raining. I don't want her to be cold and maybe I am just being a worrywart but any suggestions on how to get her to sleep in a doghouse/crate/bed (at least that will be warmer than the concrete). She hates it when I close the door to the crate...crying ensues...and I like the option of giving her the option of coming in and out...she loves to hunt at night and our backyard has a lot of nocturnal critters.
Comments
There are plenty of breeder Shibas who become accustomed to being outside 24/7. It can be really hard sometimes to get them adapted to life indoors, and it seems to me that their baseline aloof nature combined with life as a kennel dog, only reinforces this behavior if they are not raised with a family inside.
"I'm not coming in the house" phase. Toby is in it right now, and he simply won't come in when called. It's very frustrating. Luckily, Toby HATES the rain, so he'll always come in if it starts raining.
But I don't blame you for worrying, and I do think Lindsay is right....it's too dangerous to leave her out all night (not to mention cold and wet!) if she's not in a kennel or something. (My girl Bel was attacked by coyotes in the yard one night!). So I'd try to get her used to coming in, if possible, or at least get her used to the porch. Is the problem that at night she wants to go out if you bring her in the house and she scratches at the door to go out? In that case she might need to be retrained to the crate, but another option would be to see if you can get her to settle down in another part of the house not near the door, maybe? (Training her to "go to her place" might help with this).
Or is it that she won't come in once she's out? Bel used to do that a lot, and in her case, she never gets to go outside at night except for on the leash. If that's the case, taking her out on the leash is an option as well.
I wish I could give you some magical answer, but I would try going back to the crate. Use a lot of treats and give her positive connections to the crate. That's so easier said than done though.
Sleeping is actually my one down fault. With my other dogs it seemed so simple, but with the Kais nope. They wanted to do what they wanted to do. Koda was the biggest pain in the ass. There was no way he was going to sleep farther than three feet away from me. No way no how! I totally caved and let him sleep next to my bed. Now since his surgery he is on my bed 100%. I'm probably the worst one to give you advice, but I want to let you know I sympathize with your feelings.