I’ll walk him in the street, hopefully it’s not that high because the plows came by at some point
Nope, it’s builds her character
Are you kidding? I’m not going outside, just opening the door for him to go out
I have a sudden interest in training her in piddle pads so I don’t even need to open the door
Apple pie a la mode, please
0voters
The Eastern Seaboard is about to get walloped with a winter storm, from freezing in Florida to a blizzard in Boston. National Weather Service has issued blizzard warnings in NJ, NY, CT, MA, & ME with anywhere between 1-2½’ of snow falling in the next 24+ hours.
You own a dog, you love your dog, it’s a part of your family. Do you shovel the grass for your pooch or does your dog gotta stick it’s stuff in the snow to go?
Dog goes where I go, and I go out to the stable to do the animal feeding and cleaning twice a day, no matter the weather. At minimum I hike daily down the plowed road a couple miles, otherwise my knees seize up. In the best snowy weather I go snow shoeing and the dog would scream in agonized despair if left behind. No one wants to hear screams of agonized despair.
Just finished dumping horse manure from my gf’s Arctic Cat. The dogs came with. I ended up tearing around for a while, the dogs did a month’s worth of exercise in a half hour.
The area on the side of the house where we typically walk her is also the path to where the fuel oil guy plugs in, so it’s getting shoveled regardless.
My JRT requires at least 3 walks a day or he gets too wound up in the house, which is never a good thing. Fortunately, I walk 25,000 steps (about 10 miles) a day and he is very willing to walk with me most of the time. If it’s really cold (below 10 degrees F), or really windy (> 30 mph winds), he will opt out and stay inside all day and hold it in. We have a fenced-off patio area that he has access to 24X7 via an electronic doggy door and he is 100% house trained. He actually likes snow for the most part, and while I walk on the street he is usually walking on the packed snow on the sidewalk, which I think is easier on his paws. Considering how much he craves heat I’m surprised he likes the snow so much. He is double-coated.
Completely depends on the amount of snow. Over a foot, I’d have shoveled him an area. He would always go romping off into un shoveled parts of the yard to #1, but the #2 usually happened in the shoveled area.
When I got my previous dog he had no training at all so I trained him to pads. I put him in a room with newspaper, noted where he piddled the first two times and put a pad there. When he went on that I put a fresh one down, about a yard towards the door. Each time he used it I moved it further away, down the hall and into the utility closet where the cat box was. He even pooed there. So I walked him at least twice a day, but if it was raining, or when it was bitter cold, we did not have to go out.
Nathan was the only pet I ever had that like playing in the snow though, and for a dachshund, so close to the ground, it was unusual.
I should have mentioned, we have a dog that loves to take off and visit the neighbor’s yard, or worse, run down to the street and run down the sidewalk. One of the few good things about a big snow is that we just go out with her and let her run the hell everywhere before we shovel.
Before the snow arrives, I place a 8’X10’ tarp on the ground adjacent to the back door and stake it down to prevent the wind from moving it. After the snow, I clear the snow from the tarp, remove it and voilà, grass.
We have a Husky/German Shepherd/Samoyed/Great Pyrenees mix. Her bliss is about -15 C in 8 inches of snow. Up until recently we would never shovel for her, she’d just tramp it all down herself. She’s getting older though (now 13.5) and she’s having trouble “swimming” through the snow, so if there’s over 18 inches or so we might clear out a small area for easy access if she doesn’t want to do any hard work.
It’s not the cold that keeps me from walking my dogs in this weather, it’s the salt and ice on the roads.
It gets into their pads and seems to cause them a great deal of discomfort.
They have the backyard to do their business, but if we are snowed in for more than a day or so, we usually take a trip to PetSmart or Lowes and get a bit of a walk in there.
Just back from our walk. -28C, (or -18F), lots of snow, plenty of salt on the city corners especially! When she gets salt in her paw she stops and holds up her paw, I brush it off for her and we proceed. We do sidestep big piles of salt where we can, of course.
3 yr old boxer mix, loves the snow! Can’t wait to get into the yard when there’s lots of freshly fallen snow, just zooms around like crazy! Low temps, blowing snow, sleet, she doesn’t seem to mind any of it!
Yeah I don’t have to worry about salt. Gravel ‘road’ no side walks or anything. In winter it’s pretty much one lane, and if you meet someone, well, someone has to back up. Usually the person with the better 4x4. Doesn’t happen very often.
when Rozee was alive (Border Collie) and developed hip problems, my wife and I would pack down a large part of the dogs yard with snow shoes so she could walk out side.
It was sort of like mowing a yard, going in smaller, and smaller circles.