Your CAPS show you are angry...why? There isn't much difference really. When they got this dog as a puppy it had no dog house, no sheds to go into...so as an older dog, it just doesn't know to go into the dog house. Like I said, it rarely goes in the shed, yes, appears to be a dumb dog but still similar situation as yours in regards to taking care of a dog. Like today for example, the dog is outside laying up as close to the house as it can...and I have to see it every time I look out my kitchen window.
Not angry at all, just emphasizing the fact it is a big difference in having a dog house and choosing not to use it vs. no dog house at all. The difference is HUGE in comparison.
I’m not sure I buy that the dog doesn’t know to seek shelter if available.
I think that most dogs are born with basic survival instincts. Seeking food and water being on the top and shelter when needed close behind. Depending on the breed, shelter requirements (more so the animals' need to seek shelter), may vary.
The law says to provide it, not force them to use it.
My rottie Sheppard HATED BEING in the house until his last few years.
He paced the floor all night. As soon as somebody got up, he wanted OUT!
He had a thick undercoat and hated to be inside even in the summer. In the summer we provide him a swimming pool which he also loved, (not required by law, just by our lovable big dog).
The other side of the storey is that He LOVED to be on the "look-out" outside!
Instinctively, Dogs seek:
shade when they are hot –( I never had to teach my dogs to seek shade under a tree or porch or whatever else they can find to crawl under when they need to)
water when they are thirsty -(I never had to teach my dogs how to drink out of a mud puddle or pond when they were thirsty)
food when they are hungry
shelter accordingly as required by them.
I think a lot of the time we insist that if we are cold and wet and miserable, that the animal must be too.
The problem is when humans force them to be confined to an area, where the shelter is NOT PROVIDED (or they can't get to it).
Having horses we provide them VERY NICE run-in shelters and a large canopy of trees for them to use as they wish. AND quite often I arrive at the farm to see them standing in the rain. The shelter is available to them , they just choose not to use all the time.
So what i am hearing is, "that it pulls on your heart strings" to see the dog outside up against the house in the rain. There is a house that the dog doesn't appear to like (or understand how to use) due to lack of use.
But what I am guessing is that the dog probably prefers to be "on the look-out" keeping a watchful eye on its owners place, and that if it really wanted to it could seek shelter in the means provided to it which it apparently has (up against the house). I am sure that was all that was required by the dog at the time. ((this is assuming that the dog house is adequate in size etc...) some doghouses are actually colder inside than lying on the ground)
Just another way of looking at it.
Keep calling.
