How To Help Your Dog Survive The Snow
If you’ve ever had an Italian greyhound you know they hate the snow. They hate the cold. In general they hate the water but ours are starting to discover how fun water can be. They hate being uncomfortable. Mrs Happy and I have discovered that Marty and Cooper, our precious little babies, have a very tight range of comfort between 72 and 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything below that and they’re shivering. Cooper, our grey Iggy with the white boots, is slightly more tolerant of having cold feet. But Marty, our little white Iggy with the grey helmet, has no tolerance for snow or cold feet.
Just the other day I heard a whimper coming from outside only to discover little Marty struggling to climb the stairs of our deck. He hobbled into the house limping on three feet and crying, making high pitched shrieking noises and trying to garner all the attention he could get. Why you ask? Because his feet got cold after walking on the snow for less than a minute.
If you have an Italian greyhound you must scoop the snow before they ever venture outdoors. For a while we had scooped out a 10 ft x 10 ft area of grass for them to do their thing. But as the week went by I figured they needed a little more room to explore the back yard. So I scooped Marty and Cooper a trail to go exploring. If you look closely, you can see Cooper in the middle.
If an Italian greyhound blesses your family, and you live in a region where it snows, be prepared to go that extra mile to keep your Iggys comfortable and to help them survive the winter weather. They don’t like snow and they hate the cold. Sometimes you’ll even need to dress them up in a something warm.
If they had their way, they would be in Maui 365 days a year soaking up the sunshine and frolicking on the beach. Instead, they have to endure a snow trail through our backyard and wait two doggy years for winter to end. Hang in there Marty and Cooper. Before you know it, we’ll be back running at the puppy park.
If you want to see hundreds of beautiful pictures of our Marty and Cooper showing an unbelievable amount of love, you can find their slideshow near the top of my sidebar.
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
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