Hey guys! Thanks for all the replys. The pups are a mix of everything under the sun, but the vet mostly sees rott, cattle dog, and chow. The male, Knox, is tall and lean with a grayish silver coat and snady brown markings of a rott. Shelby, the female, looks more like a rott, except she is smaller and has a longer snout.
As far as getting out of the yard, that has happened with Knox, but he did not run off. In fact, he sat and waited by the fence opening until he heard my moms voice, then came running up to her. The garage door was broken, and thats how he got out. They dont dig, so I am not worried about they getting under the fence, and as far as going over it, all the surrounding yards are fenced in with other dogs, with the exception of one, and they are both afraid of that neighbor.
To address the outdoor issue. They were born outside, and were never exposed to the indoors at all until I brought them home. I got them from my bf's cousin, whos dog had a litter under his neighbors trailor. 2 weeks before I got the pups, the mom died. No one was taking care of the mom or the pups, even after the mom died, so their only cover was under the trailor. What they have now is far better. They live on the screened in porch, which is really more like an extra room in the house. They are sheltered from all weather, and it stays warmer out their because we cover all the windows with plastic (which we have not done yet becuase we have to replace the screens they tore out, and it has not gotten cold enough). But we did bring them to sleep inside for quite a while, but they got board and go and chew on books. So, we are going to get crates, and train them for winter nights. However, I dont think it is fair to keep them locked up like that all day when the weather is nice. They are gettting better with tearing things up since I got some chew toys. I am in college and my bf works all day, so when I am home, they come inside with me, and on some days thats a lot of time, others they only stay in for an hour or so. But, I have a question. The pups are only about 9 months old, about 40 lbs thus far, and cannot stand being separate. Are their crates big enough to hold both of them? We have no idea how much more they will grow so I am worried that we wont get a crate big enough. Also, is it ok to have them share a crate, or should we try and separate them? When we got them fixed, a nurse called to tell me that they did well and all. She told me that they put them in the same crate, the biggest one they had, yet they would sleep almost on top of eachother. They are still that way. Its too cute!