Y'all bring your pets inside tonight

Too bad I don't have a photo of our Sam 2 winters ago with him lying outside on top of a snow drift with snow blowing all around him. He chose that location to sleep; he had free access to inside the barn with loose hay to burrow into. His sheep were in the barnyard next to the barn but Sam chose to sleep on the snow drift; clearly Sam did not feel it was too cold for him.

Livestock Guardian Dogs and Their Care in Winter
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food

Professors Ray and Lorna Coppinger studied 1,000 LGDs for over 10 years and ran the Livestock Dog Project. According to Ray Coppinger, whether dogs can sleep outside depends on the weight of the dog. Large dogs have less trouble handling the cold of our winters than the heat of our summers. Dogs are poor at radiating heat but good at conserving their heat. Sheep may require access to shelter, such as barns or stands of bush, during winter rain storms. In contrast, LGD breeds generally have a long, flat, weather-resistant outer coat that sheds water, and a thick, "downy" undercoat for warmth. Rough-coated, undercoated, short-eared dogs can withstand lower temperatures than smooth-coated, greyhound-shaped dogs. However, according to Prof. Coppinger, it is body mass that really determines cold resistance in dogs. At about -32°C (or -25F), medium-sized dogs (under 32 kg or 70lbs) start to take action against the cold by shivering or increasing their metabolic rate (burning energy to produce heat). Larger dogs, such as LGDs that weigh around 45 kg (or 100lbs), can withstand even lower temperatures before reacting to the cold.