Inside vs outside dog - Page 14

Oh I get it.

  OP, if you are still here, as you can tell, some threads can get very heated.  Most all that post on this site are good hearted people, with strong opinions.  I hope you do not drop the forum.

As for your original post,  indoor vs. outdoor living for a GSD is really about the dog and the home life style and has many personal opinions.  The best thing I can recommend for you is to be honest with yourself about what type of life style you can provide for a dog.  As a general rule, GSDs are active dogs and will definitely find ways to entertain themselves (most destructively too ).  Once you have honestly evaluated what you can provide for a dog and if a GSD is still for you, then start looking for a breed line that will produce for what you are looking for.  Make sure you are honest with the breeder and do not take it personal if the breeder says they do not have anything that will work for you.  A good breeder will put the dog first and will be very selective where the dog goes.

Below is my experience.
 I have 4 GSDs and a Lab/Rotti mix, some live indoors and some live outdoors.  The living arrangements is really more about the dog.  All of mine get hours of exercise each day and lots of one on one time (sleep is for sissies); although lately that has dropped some due to my shoulder.

My outdoor group
       These are highly active dogs and would go crazy if they had to live indoors.  Case in point is during the hot days, they all come indoors.  Within an hour, each one is begging to go back outside, for nothing but to have their freedom and fresh air.  If I have not provided sufficient entertainment, it usually does not take long for something to get destroyed.

My indoor group
       These are not quite as active and are perfectly content indoors, as long as they get their daily fun outdoors.  Both are my service dogs (one is in training) and part of the criteria (for me) to be a service dog is are they content being indoors.  They can entertain themselves without being destructive or loud. 

I hope this helps.  Good luck.