I fell asleep and left the dogs out last night.

First of all, let me say, Thank Goodness, your doggies are OK! Minus 18 is very cold! Please keep checking their ears for signs of frostbite, it can take a few days to show up! I have avoided this by installing a "doggie" door, so that all my animals can use it! Before the dog door, I would shut the door, but NOT latch it, and they could push the door open, and I can assure you when they did, the blast of cold air certainly wakes one up!

One of my dogs has stayed out all night several times. He likes to run around in the woods chasing stuff. If he is not in by the time I go to bed then he roughs it outside for the night. He usually sleeps in the barn when that happens.

My husband has forgotten our puppy outside. But he has never been out for more than an hour. Today we almost had our puppy stolen from us because the dog does not know how to stay in its own yard and will go in the front yard and go into the neighbors yard. My husband went outside and followed the dog tracks in the snow and seen this guy next door holding our dog and my husband said Thats our dog and they guy said I dont see no tags on him. And yea it almost got ugly..lol. But soon he will be to big to fit through that hole in the fence..lol

OMG How bad you must have felt thank god they were alright I hope you dint beat yourself up too bad they have that thick fur which I am sure helped them I am glad everything turned out ok

That is just a mistake you made and try not to be hard on yourself. You know how dogs are. They are very resilient and show unconditional love toward us. I have a puppy myself. It is a pet Beagle named Suka. I let her out during the day and I can't say that I have ever left her out all night. It does get cold here but not as cold as your area! That sounds quite cold but remember you dog has a winter coat on him. His fur. He'll be fine and I am sure you will remember next time to keep him in. Take care friend.

Wow - -18? -40? Well, I'm glad I live in the NW... It's staying 40-50 degrees out most nights. It's sure a good thing the dogs had each other! That probably also kept them from roaming too far. I have a 2 year old female black lab, and the two times I've ever spaced her being outside, it took me half a day to find her. We live right on the outskirts of a small mill town, but right along a river and large rainforest. IE there is a LOT of places for a pup to find something interesting to roll/hide in. I think my dog probably enjoyed her momentary freedom alot more than yours though, freezing their butts off!

aw... sad... i like pups. lucky it was only a day

Poor baby! It was an accident and nothing happened so alls well that ends well. I'm sure it will make you extra conscience and make sure they are back safe and sound in the house before you fall soundly asleep again. I leave my 2 rottie pups outside, but last night it was 60 deg. I still feel bad leaving them out even though its not really that cold here. He's a cutie!

We live about two miles from town and off of a major highway. Most all the dogs I had were in a big pen so they could roam but still not get in the highway, except my yorkie and min pin and there is no forgetting them cause they will bark their heads off if they are out in the cold for over 30 minutes. Now that we are in New Mexico though I had to leave my min pin with my Mom cause he is not house trained you have to let him out to go and he hates leashes. So I only have my yorkie know and we will walk him on the leash and sometimes we tie him out for a little bit. He will bark as soon as he is ready to come in. And when you open the door he will not walk up the steps and come in. His leash is long enough. But rather than come on in he will stand on his hind legs for me to walk down the steps and pick him up. It is so cute though. Now we did have an outside dog that always came in at night and we left in the house while we were gone because he bit someone one day when we were gone. And I did go out one day and shop for about 10 hours and forget he was in the house. Poor dog by the time I got home he ran out the door when I opened it. But unless he had major problems he would not use the bathroom in the house. He was such a good dog.

It might be a good idea to get a shelter or dog house set up outside just in case. I know I did this last summer accidentally. Like you my dogs are rarely outside for very long. Only long enough to do their business. Last summer on a hot day I let them out before I went to run a few errands. I then grabbed my purse and left to hurry and get them completed. The bad thing is I'd forgotten to let them back in before I left, so they were outside about two hours in the heat and sun. I felt awful. I don't even keep a water dish outside since they never stay out there. But thankfully they had shade and were on the covered porch panting and ready to come in when I got home.

Oh my god. Poor dog. He must be shivering all night long outside your home. Do not do it again. You might be risking your dog's life there. Anyway, isn't he barking at the front of your house just to atleast inform you that he's outside? or he can't coz of the freezing temperature?

if you would have left your dogs outside when it was -40°, they wouldn't bark anymore. i think they would be pretty quiet :P thats really cold. -18 is still damn cold. the lowest we had this year is -8°. i went ounce out to check the mail in shorts. ooh my god, that was so cold. your poor dogs, i feel really sorry for them :(