Does a dog need to wear boots to protect against the cold?
Usually not. While dogs can be trained to wear boots, most boot novices will not enjoy the boots and will be distracted holding up the booted feet and not relaxed enough to eliminate outdoors. A boot to protect a bandage is different. This single boot or plastic bag may cause the dog to favor the wrapped foot, but is important for a dog wearing a paw bandage to keep a bandage clean and dry.
Factors That Can Influence Cold Weather Walks
There are quite a few factors that can determine whether or not its safe to take your pup for a walk when it’s cold out. Sadly it’s not as simple as giving you a temperature threshold and saying thats the breaking point.
How Cold is Too Cold to Walk a Dog?
The answer to this is partially going to depend on your dog’s own ability to stay warm as well as the severity of the winter weather. If you own a Husky or a dog breed that has a very thick coat, you will find that they are going to be much happier playing outside in the snow or the rain in winter than a dog that has a thin coat.
Time of day matters as well, and night walks during winter will always be colder than daytime ones.
The temperature at night could drop relatively low when compared to walking during the day. Your pet might love the snow, but walking later in the day could lead to an unsafe or dangerous health situation for your dog. Always try to keep cold-weather walks to the earlier parts of the day to keep your pet safe when they are out in the snow.
Greyhounds and other thin-coated dogs are not likely to stay warm when it is very cold outside, especially if they are not active. Some dog breeds could get hypothermia quickly when exposed to colder temperatures or a drop in temperatures due to wind chill. Smaller dogs might think it is fun to be outside until they start to get frostbite.
You should also consider that the pads of your dog’s feet are hard to protect from winter weather, and they lose a lot of their body heat through their feet since they cannot regulate their temperature any other way with ease. You do not want your pet to get frostbite on the tips of their ears or the pads of their feet.
Walking Dogs in Cold Weather – Don’t Make Your Dog Suffer! | Most Dogs CANNOT Tolerate Cold Weather
Many of us make the mistake of thinking that dogs can handle cold weather because of their fur. However, while their fur does keep them insulated, they do have limitations to the amount of cold they can take. Lifehacker recently posted an infographic that shows all you need to know about when it may be too cold for your dog – it even takes into consideration breed and size.
Dr. Kim Smyth, a staff veterinarian with Petplan, a pet insurance company, has created and modeled the graphic after a scale made by Tufts University. The graphic can be used to determine if the outside weather is safe enough for your dog, or if you should wait a while before taking them back outside.