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?

I'm originally from Michigan. I've been home when its that chilly with Emma. Yes I let her go outside , her potty time is quick and when there was snow there's a trail made for her. She doesn't do the sniff and take time like she does when its warmer.

Hey, we've seen 0 degrees here in Virginia! :D;):) I moved here from Chicago and I don't think I went far enough south.

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.

:thumbup::thumbup: My boys are quick too. They are larger than Emma, but Teddy is a wimp and still goes out.

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..

My boy is 12 lbs in the coldest of cold winters I go out with him, he may be to big for prey birds, but when these birds are hungry they can still try to grab him, those talons can do serious damage to a 12 lb dog. I have a large deck I let Cody use when the snow is too deep and I am STILL out there with him. It takes but a second for prey bird to swoop, grab, and fly off, if the dog falls from their grasp those talons will dig in the dog causing serious ripping of the skin even death.

Definitely supervise closely. A note about hawks: our 9+ pound Yorkie neighbor was attacked by one in his front yard. Bigger Yorkie doesn't always mean safer. Luckily the hawk's talon's did not hit any major organs, and narrowly missed the diaphragm. He survived with surgery and had a drain hanging out of his side for a week.

:thumbup: That is what happened to our neighbor's larger Yorkie. My dad thought that I was being overly cautious until he saw what happened to Jack. Now even he won't let the boys on the deck unless he is out there. He has also seen how brazen the hawks can be, swooping at us when we have the boys on leashes. We have a ridiculously large population of hawks, black vultures (the kind that kill their prey), and owls in our little woodsy neighborhood. Not enough squirrels and rabbits to keep them well fed.

Ok. Thanks again everyone.

We have actually had some pretty cold winters the last couple of years and yes even in the negative numbers and my babies still go out.

Make sure you do a fence check every once in awhile.

Mac goes outside all the time in real cold weather we make it real real quick

Several years ago NYC, Central park, lady walking her Chihuahua on leash, hawk swooped and grabbed the dog, the lady held onto the leash, pulling the dog from the hawks talons, the dog was severely injured but survived the attack. Even with people around these birds are not afraid when there is a food source in sight.

We live in the deep tundra...North Dakota! Can get 25 below during the winter. I have 2 10 lb shiz tzus that only go outside. When it's so cold it takes your breath away the minute you open the door, they go on the deck in the snow by the door! Then run in quick. Hoping Max the new Yorkie follows them and does the same. He will be 6 months by the time the snow flies and 8 months old when the bitter cold arrives, so not a baby thankfully!

I am also in Michigan and Max and Sasha hate the snow. We have pads in the house for when we are not home and pads in the attached garage for when we are home. When we are home Sasha will scratch at the door to garage to let us know she wants to go. When we take them outside in the winter they will not go on the snow. They will stay on the shoveled driveway or sidewalk for a minute and then turn around and go back to the door waiting for us to let them in. I have a couple of wimpy dogs!

Brave doggies! :D We do deck dives in the winter too, but we aren't anywhere near as cold as you. Chicago was more than cold enough for me. Made me cry more than a few times. ;):)

Max and Sasha don't know what they are missing with snow fun! ;):) Good girl Sasha pawing at the garage door.

Jackson goes out to do his business no matter what the weather. He's a bigger Yorkie but my friend has two tiny ones that do as well. For peeing and pooping matters, they're pretty quick when it's cold. They don't need coats etc just for a quick pee trip. When it's blistering cold I'll try to keep a sweater or something on him and we will just be quick lol

We have a fenced in yard at my dads house that I let Jax out and I usually just walk out there at least partially with him. I put him on a flexi at our house so he has room to sniff and find a spot to go.

We're also from Michigan and now living in upstate NY. Our oldest 2 go outside year round, they love the snow (that I hate so much). At first I kept sweaters on them then I bought them winter coats and boots. Took them a couple tries to get used to the boots (such a cute sight), but Bella had long hair and always ended up with snowball feet. Feel free to take them for short walks or even let them play in it for a bit. Last year's winter wasn't too bad (in Ann Arbor anyways). I highly recommend purchasing coats and boots from ebay, way cheaper and so many options, paid about $7 each for coats and got dog "Ugg" boots to match their coats for about $12 per dog

boots also help protect their paws from all the salt, Bella hated the salt and I'd have to carry her

Where we live it does not get cold like that- but we have winds that rip car doors off without fail every year. It rains nine months out of the year and it seems that when there is a bit of a chill in town we have crazy ice storms out here in the gorge. We are in a special little micro climate I guess :) I had the opportunity to 'babysit' an eight pound yorkie for about a month long probably within a year of the time that I got Lilah. She was expected to go outside (that was her house rules and expectations she came with) but without fail would brave the cold winds with whipping tree branches pelting rains and have an accident inside right after. She was just plain miserable and I thought, man- when I have a yorkie, my yorkie will have a potty pad. I felt like it just wasn't a practical expectation for this little gal. Lilah is 4.6 lbs and has had a potty pad station in our restroom since the get go. She thinks it is fun to go potty outside but I am grateful in one of our raging windstorms that it just isn't an issue that she might blow away. And because she consistently has that option available, it is never a question of hiding to eliminate to avoid the conditions outside or anything like that. She has a safe space as an option and for us, that is what works best.

It gets very cold here. My dogs had darn better go outside I do not care what the conditions are.

I will put coats on for sure. They've learned to run and go and then run back. But no one comes in until the potties are done (I watch).

If my 5 pound chihuahua can go out, a yorkie can. My chorkie goes out too.

I do shovel out a small section so it's not so deep if there is a lot of snow.

Twynkys---coats and got dog "Ugg" boots to match their coats--I'd love to see pictures because your little ones in this outdoor gear just gotta be over-the-top cute!!

Here here! I second the motion! I checked her pictures and saw we have matching Victoria secret blankets, lol, but I want to see doggy ugg boots and jackets! :love:

Hi, I'm in the Foothills of the Smoky Mountains. In the highest part of the mountain it's gets very cold well below 0. I'm in the valley not near that cold, thank goodness! It does get into the 10's sometimes. Highs during the day in the coldness month will hover low 30's the wind always blow giving a fierce wind chill some days. Ok enough on the weather report, back to Yorkies.
My little boy will ware a sweater or just a shirt, I loosen up his buddy belt harness and we always go out. He will want to stay out longer than me.
Dogs do have a higher core temperature than humans so they don't get cold as fast as us. We play ball outside, if snow rarely, we will build a snowman. We have lots of fun in the colder weather than 95-100 degrees. When he gets cold he tells me it's time to go in.