Coldest You'll Walk Your Dogs/Let Them Out?

[corbinam]

Last night the wind chill here was -35. Actual temp around -11. My husband, who is from the south, said "I want to take the dogs for a walk. It's not every day that it feels like -35. This should be experienced!" So, he bundled up, and out the door he went.

He was freezing. I don't think the dogs ever got cold, per se, but the sidewalks were covered in ice, and within about 3 minutes, both dogs were limping.

End of experiment.

 

[bi-blacks]

I too shovel paths around the yard for the dogs. They take advantage of them to do their business and then run and play in all the snow hills I've made. They just love it. It is only -39 C. with the wind chill today and by Friday it is supposed to be a balmy -3 C. Time to get out the shorts.

 

[take4roll10]

This morning, it was 5 degrees with a -17 wind chill, but no snow on the ground. We encountered some patches of ice, but most of the sidewalk was clear. I had to walk my dog so she could potty and she didn't seem bothered by the cold temps. We were out for about 15 mins. I was rushing to get back inside as soon as she was done, but she wanted to keep walking and certainly would have if I let her. I did put a little jacket on her just in case it was too cold.

So seems like my dog can handle the single digit temps as long as there's no ice or snow on the ground. If there's snow, she will start limping.

 

[SheepOfBlue]

No snow here in Alabama, but it is cold, going down to 8 tonight, and Blithe seems to love the cold weather. Due to physical limitations, I'm unable to walk him, so I have a dog door and both of us love it.

The dog door is inset in the bottom of a low window, and Blithe will stand with hind legs on the inside window sill and front legs on the outer one, surveying his kindom outside. Unfortunately lots of cold air comes in when he does this, and also the seal on the door is no longer very good as it's so old. I've found they no longer make this size door so I can't get a replacement flap. Nevertheless, he is in and out all day when it's cold and seems a lot more frisky, and can come and go when he pleases.

Yep Sca is indifferent and Spitfire is loving it. I tried to let him in this morning and he didn't want to come Of course after playing yesterday they both loved a toasty house to snooze in while watching TV.

 

[Chris]

Last night the wind chill here was -35. Actual temp around -11. My husband, who is from the south, said "I want to take the dogs for a walk. It's not every day that it feels like -35. This should be experienced!" So, he bundled up, and out the door he went.

He was freezing. I don't think the dogs ever got cold, per se, but the sidewalks were covered in ice, and within about 3 minutes, both dogs were limping.

End of experiment.

I lived in Omaha, Nebraska in 1979 until 1984. That first winter was not to be believed! Winters were always brutal -- I often did my morning run in minus 15-20 degree temps during the coldest spells. We didn't think anything of it because we were in Strategic Air Command; some of our bases made Omaha look like the tropics!

 

[BarbV]

-27C with the wind chill today and both my boys are out in the cold!

Bacca obsessed with eating snow, so much that he is in danger of hypothermia....sometime he comes inside so disoriented with brain freeze!

Indy huddles in a snowbank and waits for squirrels or other dogs to come by to invade his territory.

Its a constant battle to get them both inside. Neither dog is ever in a hurry to get inside. The deep cold does not seem to bother either of them

But it bothers me, so I haul them inside whether they want to do r not.

 

[sable]

Its in the single digits here. Yesterday -30 wind chill factor and it was freezing today, colder then yesterday.

I let them go out to potty and make them come right back in.

 

[Eagle]

It just sort of happened. When we got him, we noticed he would have "accidents" in the basement. His original owner (my sister-in-law) trained him, but was generally pretty lax, so I think maybe he did this in her house and thought it was normal. At first, we tried to break him of the habit, but we're not good disciplinarians either (mostly me), and we decided it might be ok for him to have an option when we're not home, bad weather, illness, etc. We just started putting pads or newspapers where he was going anyway, then trained him to go wherever we put the pad (then we moved it to a less visible corner).

It's not really something I'd recommend - or something I would have imagined we would tolerate - but it works for us. He doesn't go indoors very often, but we feel better knowing he has the option and it tends to eliminate "accidents" upstairs (where we don't want him to go).

I don't know, it sounds great to me. Picture having to get up every night at 3 am with an elderly dog. I would much rather have a puppy pad in the basement.

 

[Fasb's Owner]

We've walked in single digits without any trouble. Frigid cold seems to not bother Fasb at all.

He did have some trouble today, though. We had six inches of snow or so earlier this week. Didn't bother Fasb. Had a few more inches today.

We walked this morning. Fasb strayed off the road and hopped around in the deep stuff like usual. On the way back to the house, he kept wanting to stop, lay down, and lick his paws. The snow was sticking to the fur around his paws - particularly the long fur on the back of his hind legs - and clumped.

Kinda concerned me. Haven't noticed that this week. Today's the warmest it has been this week - almost 30 degrees, instead of mid teens - so that probably has something to do with it. It's not a wet snow. We were only out 20 minutes, so I wouldn't think he's that cold yet.

I'm not sure if his paws were getting to cold, or he just doesn't like the feel of the clumping snow? Any ideas? I don't really think his paws were "too" cold, but I'm not sure. I tend to think he was just annoyed by the clumps. I got him inside as soon as I could. He didn't limp or show any problems inside the house. He did stop and lick at his hind legs a couple times once we came inside.

 

[bi-blacks]

The more you let them lick at the snowballs the more the snow will stick. As soon as I see them stopping to clean or lick their paws, I stop walking and clean out the snowballs and take as much snow off the back of their legs as possible. Depending on how far you are walking you might have to do this several times but it does seem to work for us.