Hello! My puppy is coming home in 12 days! I’m very excited, but starting soon it’s supposed to get very cold and snowy (High temp forecasted for most days is around 17 degrees fahrenheit, low is around 10 degrees) He’s only going to be 8 weeks. How long can he be outside? What should I do for his paws? Thank you all
When Oban came home at 8 weeks old on Dec. 8 it was that cold. And we are in a snow belt, we used the snowblower to make paths for him or I tromped paths down on snowshoes. I was careful in the cold to watch for signs of shivering or holding up feet, which he did do a few times in highs of -30C ( ~-35F) No special treatment was needed for him, no coats or booties. In fact we worried a bit more about getting locked out in the middle of the night bathroom trips. ON very cold -30 and colder days and nights he might have been outside less than 10 minutes but if it was a bathroom trip the cold seemed to inspire him to get down to business and back inside quickly. Otherwise he LOVED the snow and was completely befuddled when it started to melt away come spring.
I think frequent short trips is the answer, and at least when we got our puppy at 7 weeks he needed to go out for a pee every 20-40 minutes throughout the day anyway. I know one adult dog that simply cannot pee if he is outside for too long in the cold - his donger gets "frozen". He needs to come inside to thaw out a bit and then straight out again to have his pee.
