Three Dog Nights

Funny the things that stay with you.  I no longer remember what brought the subject up, but I remember my 8th grade science teacher telling the class one day that the true meaning of "3 Dog Night", which was a popular rock band for my generation was a night that was so cold people brought their dogs into bed with them for warmth.  The dogs and the humans would huddle together for warmth. 

We've had a lot of three dog nights lately, so I'm glad I have three dogs to survive them with, and cuddling with them is a lot of fun, but winter can be a real challenge for pets and their owners.  This is what we woke up to this morning:

I like winter.  I missed a true winter all those years in Texas.  But this has been a long stretch of frigid temperatures that necessitate dog owners being vigilant.  I had to do a little research a few years ago when we had a severe cold spell and Ripley was young.  The colder it got the more exciting she seemed to find it.  I would have to hardest time trying to get her to come back inside.  So I wanted to know how long I could let her play without being at risk for either hypothermia or frostbite.  I had booties for her but she, like the brood I have now, wanted nothing to do with them.  I can't recall the article I found that had exact timelines, but I had her on a 15 minute clock maximum, and I would have to routinely wade out there after her to get her to come in.  I was ready for Sirius, who loves being outside, to be the same way, but he's actually been pretty good at coming back when called.  -3 seems to be a little much even for a thick coated collie like Sirius.

The risks for dogs, despite their built in fur coats, is not that much different than it is for us.  Hypothermia is a condition where the dogs body temperature falls below the normal range.  Putting a coat on them won't necessarily prevent it because they can lose body heat from the pads on their feet.  So booties do help, which also keeps them protected from salt, which is the curse of this area - they use salt on the streets, which I don't like for a lot of reasons - but in this case, it gets in the dogs' pads.  I've had a lot of trouble with that, but getting them to both wear and walk in booties is hard.  I read to try and put baby socks on them to get them used to it.  So I tried that.  I owe my daughter some socks.  So, if all that fails for you like it did for me, then you have to vigilant to the symptoms: shivering, lethargy, disorientation, low heart rate, passing out.  The condition can be fatal. 

Frostbite is like it is for us:  tissue damage due to exposure, but it's harder to spot on a creature covered in hair.  So I've read you have do judge it by feel - if you feel a spot on your dog that is cold to the touch, it might be frostbite.

There are a lot of articles online about winter pet issues and safety, but here are a couple for reference:

Cold Weather Pet Safety by the AVMA

DogTopics.com/Hypothermia and Frostbite in Dogs

I've read some horrible stories about pets left out in this region during this cold snap.  This is the stuff that haunts me.  We're responsible for these precious lives.  So I'm always thinking about those stories when I take my gang out to play and relieve themselves.  I'm sure they're in turn thinking to themselves, "Ah mom, relax a little!"  But, sorry, this is my job.  To keep them safe, and they'll have amuse themselves inside.  They're doing okay with that.

As you can see from the photo above, we're almost out the other side, and then of course we can look forward to melting snow and rain so everything becomes a mucky mess, but that's the challenges we signed up for with dogs and kids.  It's totally worth it.