Dogs and cold weather

It amazes me when people feel badly for a stout dog, such as Husky or Malamute, who is “stuck” outside in the cold. Particularly if the dog spends most of it’s time outside anyway. To anthropomorphize our pets doesn’t help them or us. To apply only human emotions and thoughts towards our interactions with our animals deeply inhibits our understanding of the animal and our ability to help it reach it’s potential. If you’ve ever seen Caesar Millan’s Dog Whisperer, than you’ve undoubtedly seen an owner who treats their dog like a human child, and therefore can’t control it, because the dog actually wants to be treated like a dog. The same principles can apply to dogs and cold weather.

However, there must be balance. Dogs can get frostbite or even die from exposure to cold weather. Canines such as foxes and wolves understand fully how to survive in such harsh conditions without our help. They build dens to get out of the weather, they eat different types of prey, they develop thicker coats, and instinctively know how and when to adapt in order to survive. Our domesticated dogs however have lost much of that knowledge and rely on us to fill in the gaps.  Here is a great common sense "to do" list, from a vet, regarding how we as humans can help our dogs survive and thrive during cold weather:
The cold weather "to do" list for humans regarding their dog

All dogs are different
All dogs are different, much like people, and some naturally have a higher tolerance for colder weather than others. Here are several factors which affect a dog’s ability to withstand colder temperatures.

• The Breed: Large northern breeds such as Alaskan Malamutes or Siberian Huskies, have physiological differences that allow them to withstand cold much better than say, a Chihuahua. 
  
  
• Their coat: A well groomed coat is an amazing insulator. Mats reduce it’s effectiveness and the longer and thicker the coat, the better the insulation.  Look how this dogs retains heat versus the :  Human face or a terrier or a puppy
  
• Their age: A puppy has not developed enough muscle and fatty layers, nor have they developed their full coat. Elderly dogs lack the energy reserves to cope with the cold. Healthy adult dogs however can cope with cold much better.
  
  
• The amount of time they spend outside, particularly in the fall: One of the primary reasons wolves and foxes can survive the winter is that the natural rhythms of the seasons have instructed their bodies to put on extra fatty layers and build up a thicker coat in preparation for the cold. Domesticated dogs that spend most of their time indoors did not have the opportunity to receive these instructions from mother nature.
  
  
• Their food: Again wolves and foxes prepare their energy reserves for the oncoming winter by eating more. Be cautions of overfeeding if your dog is not getting plenty of daily exercise, but by all means give them a bit more food during the colder months. Additionally maintain a nutritious and well-balanced diet for your dog, and foods with a bit more fat content are certainly acceptable.
  
  

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In addition, they do have some very interesting distinct physical differences than us humans, in order to be able to walk about in the ice and snow more easily.

Read my post about dogs physical difference

How dogs can withstand the cold better than humans

It would seem that dogs must be somehow physically different from humans. I have watched them romp and play in the snow, and even walk about on ice, their feet in constant contact with the elements, yet they have no problems and continue on as if it were nothing. Yet I, even with gloves and boots, still manage to think I’m about to lose my fingers and toes due to frostbite. Dogs have two distinct advantages over humans in keeping their extremities going in colder temperatures.

The first physical difference

The first physical difference is in how their blood vessels are arranged at their extremities. As humans our bodies are designed to restrict the blood flow to the extremities if they are exposed to very cold temperatures. It’s a survival mechanism, we can live without fingers or toes, but if our core temperature drops to a certain level, we die. Imagine not wearing gloves, and the warm blood that enters your fingertips loses that heat at the tips, and then returns to the heart much colder then when it left. The body recognizes this as a potential lethal problem, and constricts the flow of blood to those fingertips in a effort to reduce the heat lose to the core.

Dogs limbs however are a bit different. The vessels that carry the blood from the heart to the pads, literally lie right up against the return vessels. The warm blood flowing out the tips literally is able to transfer some of the heat to the colder blood returning to the heart, in effect warming it up before it reaches the core. The core temperature therefore drops much slower and the dog’s body is much less inclined to restrict the blood flow to the extremities. It’s almost as if the blood is playing a trick on the body in order to keep the extremities alive longer, which seems as if it would become even more dangerous eventually. This leads us to the second physical difference. NOTE (This may in fact have something to do with why they pant in the summer as an alternative air-conditioning, since their skin at the extremities is not as well designed to conduct heat to the environment.)

The second physical difference
The second physical difference in dogs is in the actual flesh of their lower legs. If our blood played the above trick on us we would likely lose a lot more than just our fingertips to the frostbite, our entire hand might become entirely frostbitten at the same time. The flesh in our bodies contain a good deal of fat. Consider tallow. Tallow is a form of rendered fat that comes from animals and is pretty solid at room temperatures, resembling the white solid vegetable shortening you might use for cooking. Now consider Neatsfoot oil. Neatsfoot oil is also a form of rendered fat that also comes from animals, and is in a completely liquid state at room temperature.

Here’s the most interesting part. Tallow is derived from the core area of animals, while Neatsfoot oil is derived from the extremities. You see, nature has designed animals so their feet do not freeze solid as quickly as the rest of them might if it were constantly in contact with the snow and ice.  So the combination of tightly packed blood vessels and fat tissue that doesn't turn solid as easily allows dogs to expose their feet to the cold much longer than us humans could ever dream.  Pretty cool!

Read my blog about dogs and cold weather

A more detailed article on these physical traits