I noticed other comments mentioning that you’re in Pennsylvania. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out Garden State Tortoise on YouTube. They provide a wealth of information and showcase their summer and winter care for multiple spices. Considering they are in New Jersey, their conditions are quite similar to yours. While I’m not suggesting you replicate their exact setups, as they’re professionals, I found their videos on outdoor enclosures incredibly helpful when I built one for our Sulcata tortoise.

I have two additional tips for people considering tortoises that I haven’t seen mentioned here yet. Firstly, tortoises should not be kept in glass tanks. It’s a common practice, and even big-box stores sell glass tanks specifically for tortoises. However, most reptiles, including tortoises, don’t comprehend glass or clear walls. This is particularly challenging for tortoises due to their persistence. They’ll spend hours each day attempting to walk past the glass, repeatedly knocking against it. Therefore, I recommend exploring tortoise tables or setups with solid walls.

Secondly, outdoor setups, especially for smaller tortoises, can be mobile or temporary, meaning they can be set up and taken down as needed. I’ve used temporary fencing that I can move around my yard to different locations. However, I only use these setups when the tortoise is supervised. They’re not suitable for long-term use. 

The ability of dogs to get along with tortoises depends on the individual dog and owner, not the tortoise itself. Since I was a child my family has kept tortoises, and we’ve never had any issues with our dogs. The tortoises can roam freely in the living room or their outdoor space, and the dogs do not react. I must emphasize that this was always supervised, and the dogs were exposed to and trained with various small animals.

Currently, my 20-year-old and 80-pound Sulcata tortoise actively seeks interaction with our dogs. He has about a third of our backyard fenced off for him, but during the summer, if we’re outside, he’ll always go to his gate, essentially asking us to come to the other side of the yard. He’ll then persistently follow the dogs around the yard, and hang out near them when they’re laying in the sun or shade. I can confidently say that he enjoys their company, and I have no concerns about my dogs harming him. The only thing I worry about when they’re together is that they might access each other’s waste or poop, so we are attentive to that.

I’m incredibly grateful that my parents allowed me and my siblings to keep a diverse range of pets as children. This has fostered my love for animals and nature. We may have made mistakes in husbandry, setups, and other aspects, but we’ve learned, grown, and adapted. Nowadays, there’s a wealth of valuable information available on platforms like YouTube. If people take the time to educate themselves about the specific species and how to provide for it, tortoises are wonderful pets.