Easy on me there folks! My dogs have all lived outside all of their lives; we live in KY, the weather is not that rough here. Yes we do have cold winters and yes I do bring the dogs in when it's terribly cold BUT like i said before we have a large metal building back behind the house where we keep the tractor, hay bailer, horse supplies, etc. that the dogs stay in; they have the biggest dog house in town w/ nice soft snuggly beds, a big water bowl and their food! I spend time with them every morning before i go to work and i stay outside with them while i feed them their supper every night and then we have "play time" for a little while. My dogs get plenty of love and attention and i'm offended that anyone would even consider calling them "yard ornaments"; their are all members of our family as far as I'm concerned but you tell me...would you rather live in a house and be stuck in there all day by yourself while your owners were at work or would you like to be outside with a big house that you can go in and out of when you want and you've got about 350 acres all around you have free rein to roam around because your aunts, uncles and grandparents own the entire road? Bringing them in on a permanent basis is not an option, it simply would not work with two adults that work full time an hour away from home. Also, the fact that my step son and I both have allergies would not work with a house full of dog hair and not to mention the pollen, etc. that they would bring inside. And tell me what Siberian Huskey wants to be inside? Chubs will lay upside down in the yard when it's snowing on him and fall asleep; he will not come in the house, i think he feels confined, he just doesn't like it, the closest he will come is the door and give us a few "woo woo woo's" and wag his tail out of control! The other two will come in but about after an hour their at the door ready to go back out; they love it outside and i love being outside with them. We go for a lot of walks together and when we get the horses out they follow right along with us and all of the other riders even if we go 15 miles back in our knobs; my dogs are in great shape and they are tough as nails. My dogs also do not have any type of behavioral problems because they live outside; they are all complete angels. They do not tear things up because their not bored. The don't even go #2 in our yard. They all obey very well and know how to sit, shake hands, lay down, and stay when told. A dog with behavioral problems is a dog that gets no attention and is bored; not because their outside; give me a break.
I'm going to try out the VitaCoat from Dr. Foster's and some brewer's yeast and see if that makes any difference in Kane's skin. Thank you for the suggestions! If anyone else has any ideas to share on what I can do to help my dobie's skin (I would love to hear from someone w/ the same trouble???) I would love to hear from you. Thank you all for replying so quickly...have a great day!