Clarification - goal is to warm the floor vs. heat the room.

Is this really a room where the dog or dogs live most of the time?

Oh my - after thinking I'd given all the relevant information... thanks very much for asking! No, it's not really a dog room. We will have a fire going in here often during the winter and the kids will watch TV in here at night during the summer as well.

Dog Room is what we are used to calling it. It's an addition, which connects to two other sections of the house. It used to have electric heat (which being in NE of course we didn't use in the winter, WAY too expensive) so typically would just close off the doors. In milder weather, it was perfect for the dogs.

We recently have completed some renovations; from the plans:

radiant floor heating?

There are numerous heated pet mats and beds available that use very little electricity compared to heating a whole floor. We used a hard plastic version for putting newborn calves on that were born in the wet cold of fall and were slow getting around. The dogs lay on it in the winter when it isn't being used for a calf.

If it has a concrete floor on the ground, your options are limited. You can use electric radiant but that isn't particularly cheap to install or use. It would be about $1500 in parts. And then you are basically using electric heat to heat up the slab and the earth, in addition to heating the floor.

Now if you rip up the slab, insulate it underneath and run pex tubing into the new slab and then heat the water with the wood stove..... Now you are talking. A slab should be about $1000 and the pex tubing is fairly cheap. Insulation would be a few hundred. A big project for sure. Also a huge payoff down the road.

I had to ask about the dog because if the floor is heated you must give the animals a place to get away from the heat.

"I had to ask about the dog because if the floor is heated you must give the animals a place to get away from the heat."

Excellent point, says this ex-exhibitor and breeder of (English) Bulldogs.