Winter Walks

[Louise]

Wll, as you can see, I love in Montreal, Canada and as you know the temperature can get mighty cold. I have a short haired miniature- what precautions should I take when walking my doxie. He shivers a lot and I am hesitating to take him out for a walk. Any suggestions from anyone???

Thanks,
Louise

[mendy_brown]

if you have a sweater, that would probably be your best bet. molly goes for walks in the cold, but she doesnt shiver...i guess texas doesnt get as cold.

[2DogsLong]

Hi Louise,

I'm in Toronto. My 2 boys don't like it when it is too cold but go nuts when they are inside all day. I have coats and sweaters for them. Frankie HATES sweaters but I give him no choice when I think it's too cold. We put on all of our gear, go to the park for 7 minutes, return and remove the gear, then play fetch for 30 minutes. It's like they are ok with not getting a walk if they get a taste of the weather. They know that they don't want to be outside.

When it is not too cold, I just put their coats on and take them out until one jumps on my leg asking to be picked up. They tell me when they've had enough.

They DO get cold very quickly and they seem to feel the cold more at the beginning of the winter... they 'get used' to it and don't protest so much after a month or so.

I also carry them to the park so they don't have to walk on the salty sidewalk. The salt can hurt their pads.

If you don't have a coat, I can give you the email address of someone who will custom-make one for you. Proceeds to dachshund rescue.

Good luck!
Susan

[Oscar's Mom]

Here are couple of links to order coats if you having trouble finding some to fit. Both of the sites custom make them to your measurements and they are very reasonably priced.
http://www.drna.org (go to the fundraisers)
http://www.dialaccess.com/hiddencedars/weinerwrap.html

[Krista]

Personally, I don't walk my dogs when it is below freezing temps. I have a backyard that is fenced, so they get a bit of excersize romping around when they go out to do their business.

I do put coats/sweaters on them if it is below 40-45 degrees even if they are only going out for 10 minutes or less.

We mostly play games and fetch inside for winter activity.

It is also very easy to "make" a quick no-sew sweater out of the leg of an old pair of sweat pants. Let me know if you'd like more details on that.

[Tina]

I live in eastern Finland and we usually have quite cold winters. For this year the winter seems to be cancelled as we have not got any snow yet. In normal circumstances, anyhow, the temperature is well below freezing point from the end of November till the beginning of April. I have two standard smooth dachsies (in USA the smaller one would be a tweenie, I think), one wire-haired standard and one long-haired mini and I make long(about one hour) walks or skiing tours with them through the winter except when it gets close to zero (Fahrenheit). My dogs don´t have anything against it as long as we keep moving on and don´t stop for a longer time. The smooths used to have their coats on until last February they got out on a cold day all by themselves and after some twenty minutes I saw their heads popping up in the snowdrives. Miss Piggy(a smooth) also ran away with another dog on a day when the temperature was close to zero Fahrenheit and I decided not to take them for a walk. So I had to take a car instead and drive about seven miles to pick her up in the village on the other side of the forest. So I noticed that shivering was mostly a way to attract attention, not truly a sign that they could not go out.

[Mrs.F]

Hi Louise, I live in western Maine (ski country!) Our emergency clinic has treated several "long eared dogs" for frostbite. (I'm not sure what they consider long eared, but that's what the little hand lettered sign on the bulletin board says!)
My Penny's ears have very thin fur, so I keep an extra vigilant eye on the thermometer. I'm usually too wimpy to have my girls out very long when it's that cold anyway.