For those that live in Colder/4 season climates. Hi, I live in Michigan where during the winter it gets to around 10F. Last winter my Yorkie was only a few months old and we were just starting to house train him so we were letting him go potty where ever. This next winter he'll be over a year old and has grown a lot during the this time. He's currently a little over 7lbs and while before we were afraid of him jumping off the couch because we thought he could break something, he now jumps on the couch, off the couch, and goes up and down a few stairs with out any problem and we feel comfortable letting him do this without fear of him getting hurt like when he was smaller. However, we still mostly have him go potty in the house on puppy pads. My question is do you guys let your dog go out to go potty in the winter? I'd love to be able to let him go out to go potty and get rid of the puppy pads, but I am concerned that it might be too cold for him to go out even for a minute to go potty. I feel like it would waste too much time to dress him up, i.e. boots, sweater, for him to go outside and by the time he's dressed up if he had to go he would have probably gone in the house anyway. So what do you guys do? Do you have your dog go potty outside in the summer and inside in the winter? Do you have an area in the basement or garage with puppy pads where your dog goes potty? Or do you just let your dog go outside all year round and the cold weather, although unpleasent, doesn't bother them too much? Right now it's kind of nasty with puppy pads through out our dinning room which is where he prefered to go. By the way he still has a good amount of accidents but we have hardwood floors so it's not that big of a deal to clean up. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments. |
My dogs have always gone outside but they also wear sweaters even inside in the winter so they do ok going out when it's cold. I have always had bigger yorkies and this year will be the first winter for our new pup who right now is 7 pounds so it might be different for him. |
We use both pads and outdoors year round. My 9 pound boys have the pads available at all times, although they would prefer to go outdoors for their big business. They are willing to go outdoors no matter how cold or snowy, although the younger one won't stay out long if it is super cold. For walks, I insist that it has to be at least 25 - 30 degrees. I think it would be difficult to train a dog to understand that the pads are only available inside the house at certain times, or during certain seasons. One of my friends did successfully train her Yorkie to use the pad in the garage during inclement weather. A garage or maybe basement offers a distinction from inside the house. |
thanks for the replies. I am hoping to get people from Upstate NY, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, those types of states. I wouldn't consider Maryland and Virginia as cold winter states. Would you let your dogs outside if it was 10F, -5F with a wind chill? |
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AlaskaYorkie (Mike) would be a good person to talk to. He has 2 small Yorkies who go out in anything. I think being acclimated makes a difference, growing up with it. I personally wouldn't let my guys out with the temp below zero. They go on the deck for just a minute or two when it is about 10 degrees plus a wind chill. |
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I live in the mountains of Pa. we have had temps of -7, Cody goes outdoors, I put a sweater on him, he does his business and comes right back in. I have a yard so it's easy. Rain, snow, sleet, out he goes, I have to shovel an area for him when it snows. Cody is a big boy weighing in at 12 lbs. |
Thanks everyone. I guess it's time to be more strict about making him go outside. We have a fenced in yard and I've been hestitant about letting him out there alone before because we have hawks flying around. But I haven't seem them in the winter months, and now that he's bigger I hope he's too big for them to try anything. I guess we'll see how he does going out in the yard by himself with close supervision from the window.. |
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Ok. Thanks again everyone. |
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