Gearing for winter

[Amy]

Hi All!

Living in New England, we have already had our 1st snow fall/storm!  It got me to thinking about what is to come......

 

I have a 1 year old Golden Doodle, Maggie, that has a fairly thin coat.  Was curious as to how doodles like the cold weather?  We are avid walkers, and plan on venturing out no matter how cold it may get. 

I was wondering if a coat, etc is needed for them or not?  She appeared to love the snow over the past weekend.  She came from TN, and was so excited to see the white stuff.

Any advice is appreciated!! 

 

AMY

 

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

A lot of people do buy coats for their doodles, however, I think if you are going to be walking out in the colder, icy, snowy weather a more important thing to think about would be boots.  Want to be sure their pads don't freeze.  I bought coats for my girls the first winter because we were having a lot of snow and I was walking them as the yard wasn't completely fenced.  For me it just helped keep them a little drier without all the snow falling directly onto their coats.  They still got soaked underneath though.  Maggie is one beautiful little girl and I bet she is going to love the snow.

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

Monty loves snow. We just had a second snowstorm of the season in Denver and I was not able to keep him inside today. Just like any other doodle, the snow just balls up on his legs so after a few minutes outside, he is walking 5 pounds heavier because of all the snow stuck to his legs. So when we go for a walk in snow, I use Muttlucks. They work really well (unless the dog starts running after a rabbit and the shoes start flying off his feet). I got the ones with fleece inside. Monty had no problems getting used to them. They work really well keeping his feet warm and protected agains ice and de-icers. When it is snowing and we go for a walk, I also have a little throw to put over his body. Not to keep him warm, but mainly to keep him dry.

[Donna K & Quincy]

We use both a rainsuit and boots depending on the weather. They use a lot of sand and salt on our streets and the suit and boots save both a lot of cleaning and doodlesnowballs after a fresh snow.

[Stacy, Bruno, Molly and Gracie]

What kind of boots?

 

[Donna K & Quincy]

We use Muttluks.

[Jennifer and "Cooper"]

Where did you get the suit?  We live in Northern Michigan and discovered last winter that Cooper is a snowball magnet.  (Worse than our poodle!)  I swear, he can be outside for 10 seconds and he comes in with golf ball size snowballs stuck all over his legs and belly.  We actually set up a thawing station in our kitchen for the entire winter.  The suit you have would be great for playing outside and would cut down on my wet winter floors and carpet.

[Donna K & Quincy]

 This is the site for the rainsuit. Daisy of Daisy and Mommy Lisa has the same one.

http://www.neopaws.com/

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Amy, take Donna's advice for warm and reliable weather gear.  She knows!   Anyone who did take her advice last year was thrilled with the results.

Donna, recommended Muttluks as boots.  CORRECT.  We have a much less expensive pair and they work, well for 2 minutes. Only my girl really must wear them but they do not stay on long.  Muttluks have the best results.

[Donna K & Quincy]

LOl Joanne, I know because we get crazy crappy weather.

[BG and Gavin]

Gavin loves the cold weather and wants out no matter what.  Our weather is not as consistently cold as Donna's.  We have the odd cold snap where it is minus 20 (celcius) but usually we are just under the freezing mark all winter.  We don't use anything on Gavin - he stays warm enough.  I would like to try Mushers Secrect this year (a wax that protects the paw pads) as like Donna said the salt and sand is hard on their pads.

[Donna K & Quincy]

Actually BG our winters are not that cold and that`s what causes most of the problems. We get a lot of wet slushy snow and rain. Our average winter temp is between 0 and -5. We usually get a coldsnap in Jan when the temps get down to the minus 10-12 mark but those are very few. The thing I hate most about our winters is that we get a nice snow fall followed by a rainfall. I don`t use Quincy`s rainsuit to keep him warm but rather to keep him dry. I wish it would just stay cold so we could keep our nice clean snow.

[BG and Gavin]

See that's why this site is so educational lol!  We usually get a little snow, then it melts, a little more, then it melts except for last year when we had snow and cold weather most of the season.