Keeping Dog Warm

Hi y’all. My dog is an inside dog but likes spending a lot of time outside. We’ve got a big backyard that provides a lot of enrichment for her. But when it gets cold she only spends about 10 minutes outside at a time vs her usual 2 hours. She’s a German shepherd mix and running around outside is how she expends a lot of energy and makes her very happy. When it’s warmer she’ll go outside just to take a nap in the sun or watch the birds.

So the most obvious answer is a dog house. It’ll be a wind breaker, keep her off the cold ground, and help insulate her while she just enjoys being outside. But she chews anything and everything, especially wood. When we first got her she chewed on a pillar of our house. She will find a nice stick and then fall asleep outside while gnawing on it. I cannot overstate how much she loves chewing on wood. Yes, we know this might be pica, but we haven’t identified the cause after working with our vet and dog trainer, so we just redirect her to things that won’t cause any health issues.

Without a doubt, if I get her a wood or plastic dog house, she will definitely chew on it. It’d still be functional, and she’d only chew for about a day before going back to her sticks. But she can do some decent damage in a day and I’d prefer to avoid all that. Any advice? I just want her to be able to enjoy her time outside again.

Important information: we are in Louisiana. It snows once every five years max, and the temperatures drop below freezing about 10 days out of the entire year. So this is purely about providing comfort for my dog, and she will never be in any danger because I work from home and let her in and out as much as she wants. This is purely a quality of life thing.