Hi all, my family is getting our new puppy in about 2 weeks, on January 20. In preparation, I am re-reading through the Happy Puppy Handbook and am wondering something about recall training. We live in the mountains of the Western US, where it is currently very snowy and cold - we have awoken to 8+ inches of snow every day for the last 4 days, with more to come over the next several weeks, and the daytime high tomorrow will be 18F. I am reading about how I want to capitalize on my puppy's natural instinct to follow by putting her on the ground and encouraging her to run towards me. I really want to have a good recall, and want to practice this daily, but how cold is too cold for a puppy to be out in the snow? We will have some intermittent days of warmer weather (maybe up to 40F), so the snow won't be so deep in my backyard, but we won't have days of bare grass until at least March at the earliest. I know many of you live in more mild climates, where deep snow and cold may not be an issue, but I would appreciate any help I can get!
Hello there I'm sure people who live in snowy conditions will be able to comment more, but I'd be more worried about a small puppy having to put in a lot of effort to run through 8 inches of snow. I'm sure she'll have no trouble when a bit older, but it doesn't seem like a good idea at first. Anyway, most puppies stay in their own gardens until vaccinations are finished, so perhaps you can just clear a little patch of ground for her at first? You can make a start on recall training in the house and garden for the first month at least.
So, yes, your puppy won't be out and about until the end of February anyway, meaning you should only have a couple of weeks to contend with. It really does depend on the quality of the snow. If it's well compacted, it's not really any different to any other surface - although you must be concerned if it's slippery. If it's light and fluffy, it won't cause too much bother. If it's heavier, then, again, you need to be careful not to overdo it, as it's hard work for the puppy. I live in a ski resort and when I had my puppies, we had plenty of snow. If it was really deep, we didn't walk, we just played with them in the snow. Willow never seemed to get cold, but sometimes Shadow would shiver, and so we'd go in immediately. I'm sure you'll find somewhere around that is flat enough to practice recall most days. Even if it's on a path where people have walked and trodden it down.
Gretta - I Live in New England and although we dont have as much snow as you currently I am in a similar boat. I will be getting my puppy on the 20th as well. I was planning on working in my drive way for this as it is big enough to start I think until March when the snow (hopefully) starts to melt. Good Luck!
We got our puppy last year on January 19 - it wasn't majorly snowy last year, but still some storms in the early weeks we had her and very cold windchill. We did lots of recall games in the house, up and down the halls...we really didn't do much recall with her outside consistently until closer to March. Then she was able to be outside at the park and we moved to calling games between us, etc. I don't think it had an impact - her natural instinct to be with us was there until her teenage stage when she needed some more training and now at a year her recall is really solid.
It's cold and snowy here and Oban was a winter puppy, arriving at our home Dec 8 of '2007, a year of record cold and snow for us. We didn't have the book but applied the same techniques we used on the first puppy, a proper spring puppy We did snow blow paths (it was way too deep for him to get through) for Oban to access the back yard and we walked on groomed snowmobile trails. The method of letting him discover on his own that he was further from us than he felt comfortable with, then us telling him COME when he was coming anyway, still worked just fine. I would not have risked the snowmo trails if it hadn't. He knew COME reliably at 10 weeks and we got him at 8 weeks. P.S. We only walked shared trail snowmo trails.
Thanks everyone - I appreciate the encouragement. We live at the end of a long cul-de-sac so very little traffic. Once Gretta is cleared with her shots, we can work out on our street and driveway, which are generally cleared well.
