Here is some background information on her. She is a 13 year old black that is in pretty bad shape. She is not is pain, but most of her muscle tone is gone and she can’t walk very well. I thought she might have cancer, but the vet said she did not. She is also blind.
The topic came up of whether she could survive the night outside. I say no way. It is -1 right now and should be -2 to 0 for the night.
I honestly do not think she could make more than 4 hours. But I really do have anything to base this on.
Does anyone here know anything about dogs surviving in the cold?
I WILL NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES RUN ANY EXPERIMENTS THAT INVOLVE PUTTING THE DOG OUTSIDE. When it is this cold I only allow her out for a as long as it takes her to go the bathroom.
My golden retriever lived outside for 14 years. We gave her a small doghouse and replenished the cedar shavings inside it once a month during the cold months. When it dropped below zero, we’d feed her fatty foods (turkey or chicken gravy over her regular dog food was a favorite). In her last years we’d bring her inside to a kennel in the garage if it got too cold, but that was more for our comfort than hers.
A friend’s lab/shepard mix ran away two weeks ago when the wind chill got down to -40 degrees. He was gone from 6:00pm until 9:00am. When he came back, his muzzle and chin were ice-incrusted. He drank a lot of water and slept a long while, but he seems no worse for wear. He’s 10 years old, but still pretty spry.
Yes it might. My lab was always an outdoor dog, and He had bedding and a proper outside shelter. A dog that hasn’t been out there might make it, but this is an abrupt change from inside. He died over at over 15 year’s old. I think he lived 18 years.
FWIW, I’ve read accounts of eskimo sled dogs in Labrador. At 50 below, they would lie down in the snow and go to sleep. They would soon be drifted over. In the morning the sled drivers would kick at the snow mounds and a healthy and eager dog would emerge from each.
I used to have a mutt who more or less looked like a Samoyed - big thick white fur. She always liked to sleep outside, and we asked the vet about it when she was maybe a year old. He said that she was good down to zero degrees Fahrenheit. If it got colder than that, he said, get her a dog house.
We would have loved to keep her inside at night, but she hated it. She slept outside in all weather. She did have a dog house, but I don’t think she ever used it.
Dogs that live outside and are used to it can handle extreme conditions. I think it depends on if the dog is acclimated or not.
Lets review: The animal is a 13 year old “black” in pretty bad shape.
Black what we have no idea but lets say Lab for the sake of argument.
She can’t walk well, is blind and luckily not cancerous.
You don’t if she is accustomed to living indoors but one gets that feeling.
You ask if she could survive the night outdoors. Your opinion is “no way” you doubt she could make it 4 hours yet you have nothing to base this on.
Then you ask “Does anyone here know anything about dogs surviving in the cold?”
I’ll give you my opinion.
I believe that the animal in question could survive overnight given minimal shelter though surely not comfortably.
You know that many here are pet owners and will find the idea of leaving an old, blind, 13 year old “black,” that cannot walk very well and may have cancer outdoors on a freezing cold night to be stupid at best and criminally negligent at worst.
I think you are posting this to get people worked up and are not really looking for answers.
IMHO people that make posts like this wear pointy hats and live under bridges.
But you knew that.
We have a gorgeous 15 year old 100 pound Samoyed who lives outside most of the time. The breed was developed by the Samoyed people in Siberia to be a complete companion and utilitarian dog to serve as living blankets for indigenous children, sled dogs, and fur to spin warm clothes. Now Massachusetts isn’t the warmest place ever but it isn’t Siberia either. We have some unknown neighbor that can’t fathom the idea that a dog should be out in less than 40F weather so she calls animal control a few times a year. Our dog Bear has an extravagant $600 dog house that I built for him but he really prefers burrowing down in the snow. We bring him inside every night and he usually fights to get back into that snow after a couple of hours.
Dogs dont feel the cold the same way people do. Try walking barefoot in the snow for 90 seconds. It hurts quite a bit. Dogs give a stupid smile after the same.
I think your description of the breed was a black lab which is short for a Labrador retriever. That breed was bred in part to jump into frigid waters with great fervor to retrieve game like ducks. They will do it over and over again with no sense of discomfort. Simply hanging out in cool conditions is like a tropical resort compared to that.
ShermanAter, accusations of trolling are not allowed anywhere except in the BBQ Pit. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt since you are new in not making this an official warning, but in the future if you have doubts about the intention of a poster either e-mail a moderator (which is preferable) or take it to the Pit.
That is an interesting statement, given your dog’s signalment and overall condition. I don’t mean to hijack, but can you elaborate on what your vet did to make this assessment? What did the vet attribute the muscle wasting to?
Guys, if you read astro’s link and don’t want to spend a long time reading a neat article that’s only tangentially dog-related, I’d suggest just searching for the word ‘dog’ in the text.
Fascinating and depressing article, but 95% of it is NOT dog stuff.