Dogs and Cold Weather

On these cold winter mornings we always have to spend more time with the dogs. We have older dogs and a few of them do not get along well enough (females) to leave them alone. So we have some dogs in the house, two dogs outside and one dog in the studio for the night.

Mornings are hectic as we get everyone out to use the bathroom, etc. A few of them (the older dogs inside) are in the habit of a morning snack so we have to get them satisfied. Once everyone is relieved and has a snack, things settle down to “normal”. The outside dogs are loving the cool, crisp weather and are playing full bore outside. The two oldest dogs have had a snack, been outside to potty and are now ready for a nap already.

In cold weather it is important to remember that dogs need just as much, if not more, water in the cold weather than even in the summer months. We always have to supply the water differently because of the freezing temperatures. In nature, canines do not have access to water 24/7. Therefore, we don’t attempt that either, we supply our outside dogs  with water in the morning, sometime in the mid day and at evening. We don’t try to have water in front of them at all times because off the freezing weather.

As for the keeping the outside dogs warm, we give them a good shelter and fill it with straw and/or leaves. They do quite well with that arrangement. We’ve seen the Arctic sled dogs sleeping in the blowing snow with sub zero temps, so I think dogs have a much better ability to fend off the cold than humans do.

All in all, winter is not too hard, but we are sure glad when the warmer months come.