How dogs stay warm in cold weather

I'm having trouble finding facts about how dogs manage in cold weather. The web is rife with the following type of stuff: "General rule of thumb is that whatever length of time it takes for YOU to get uncomfortably cold, then that would be the same for your dog. A shorthaired dog would be minutes, akin to you going out in a t shirt and underwear only. A full coated oes is more like going out with a good coat on, but still, you WILL get cold." [ source ]
Totally ignorant. The worst kind of anthropormorphizing. It is -25 C today with about 15 cm of fresh powder snow and the dogs, short hair, long hair, big, little are having a ball. I can't stand it for more than about 20 minutes wearing long johns and a down parka.

It's not just the northern dogs either. If you look north, you don't find big long-hair huskies and malamutes so much anymore as smaller, short haired bred-for-racing huskies that stay outside most of the time, and they seem to do fine, as do German Shepherds:
"My adult dogs stay out in temprature like -10 to -15 degree C and no problem at all. In the night, they are inside the kennels. I use windbreakers on the entrance and put lot of straws on the floors. They are fine and active and never saw them snuggling. However, when temprature falls below -25C I bring them in. I havnt seen any problem so far with these tempratures." [ source ]

Wikipedia deals with heat and dogs, not cold, but does offer some insight into how different the anatomy and thermal processes of dogs are:

"A common misconception is that dogs do not sweat. Primarily, dogs regulate their body temperature in a completely different way, through their tongue. That is why after a dog has been running or on a hot day, its mouth will be seen wide open with the tongue hanging out. This form of cooling maximizes heat loss while conserving moisture, because it carries heat from the hottest part of the body, the interior core of the thorax, unlike sweating, which cools the already coolest part of the body, the skin—or in less intuitive, more scientific terms, this higher efficiency of thermal loss relative to moisture conservation arises because heat flow is proportional to temperature gradient. In addition, dogs effectively sweat through the pads of their feet, since they are not furred. On a warm day and after exercise, a dog's naturally wet footprints might be visible on a smooth floor.

"Dogs possess a rete mirabile in the carotid sinus at the base of their neck, a complex of intermingled small arteries and veins which acts as a heat exchanger to thermally isolate the head, containing the brain, the most temperature-sensitive organ, from the body, containing the muscles, where most of the heat is generated. The result is that dogs can sustain intense physical exertion over a prolonged time in a hot environment, compared to animals which lack this apparatus; thus, a dog chasing a jackrabbit through the desert may not be able to outrun the rabbit, but it can continue the chase until the rabbit literally drops dead from overheating."

But the answer, I think, I finally found here in an article written by Ted Greenlee in 1971, worth quoting at length:

"I would now like to discuss two mechanisms of heat control, one which is utilized specifically in the case of Northern animals, and one which is utilized by dogs in general. I would first like to discuss the problems of severe cold and how the animal protects his body temperature in addition to his insulation. It is not possible to totally insulate the dog and in general, the areas not adequately insulated are the areas that are in contact with his snowy world. Those areas are, of course, his feet and legs. Problems of the feet and legs, or in the case of man, the hands and feet, are frequently noted in cold exposure. Man, who is not well insulated, to protect his body temperature and vital organs, will literally shut off blood supply to the feet and hands. When one goes out in the cold and is not properly dressed, one's feet and hands become extremely cold and frostbite or freezing of the fingers and toes is a common occurrence. If this process was followed in the case of a dog in his 60 to 70 degree below zero weather, he would of course be in very bad straits. Therefore, instead of stopping the blood supply to the extremeties so the blood does not become chilled, what occurs is that the warm, oxygen carrying arterial blood going into the limb runs right next to the cold, unoxygenated blood leaving the limb. Since they are right next to each other, the warm blood gives up its heat to the cold blood, preventing the loss of this heat as it gets down to the exposed part of the dog's foot. The oxygenated blood can get to the vital parts of the foot to maintain their nutrition, but at the same time does not allow a loss of body heat to the cold air.

"The ability of the animal's foot and lower leg to live at very low temperatures requires addition adaptation of the tissue, some of which is not well understood. There is one example though that is well understood and noted, and that is the difference in the melting (or freezing, Ed.) temperature of the fat associated with the foot and leg as compared to the melting temperature of body fat. The best example of this noted in the case of neatsfoot oil which is the fat from the foot of a cow as compared to the tallow which is the fat from the body of the cow. As you remember, neatsfoot oil is a liquid at normal room temperature, whereas tallow is solid. Therefore, the fat is adapted in the foot of the animal to keep it from becoming solid at these low temperatures and becoming brittle and breaking. I am sure there are other changes in the cells in the tissues of these parts which allow them to tolerate this lower temperature and still function for the animal, but the heat exchange mechanism between the arterial and venous blood in the limbs of cold adapted animals is absolutely essential to their survival."


cool or what?

This is too good not to blog immediately. On CBC TV (that's Canada dude!) a short bit by a comedian about how a heckler was put in his place by the bouncer... I'll try not to ruin it for you, the bit's not posted yet, but it should be shortly.

Best Story Ever on CBC TV

So, where was the bouncer for Michael Richards (a.k.a. Kramer)???

Which might lead us to a "society for the prevention of cruelty to hecklers"...
(not to wade into the fukc'n fray or nothin).

imho Kramer's hair still rocks!

Labrador Retriever

As New York Times reporter David Carr put it, about having his own blog, it's like "a large yellow Labrador: friendly, fun, not all that bright, but constantly demanding your attention."
- in a Village Voice article about the art market.

This is the first GCD(Great City Dogs) breed evaluation, appropriate because I originally wanted a Lab, a yellow Lab in fact, but ended up with this instead. Read our post about Choosing a Puppy.

Carr sums up nicely what most people think about Labs, and a lot of typical Labs. Like all dogs, the better qualities of the breed require a certain amount of work to bring out. For example, Labs are considered highly intelligent (by the standard of the number of repetitions required for them to learn a command -- it's no accident that they make excellent guide dogs) but if you aren't going to do the repetitions, then your Lab is going to seem not all that bright.

Labs see themselves as having two main jobs in life (not all dogs live to work, but some breeds do, including Labs): retrieving and companionship. You and your Lab are going to be happiest spending a lot of time together throwing and chasing a ball.

Labs are also prone to overeating and, if combined with lack of exercise, will get fat. They also shed, not as much as Golden Retrievers, but a lot, so grooming becomes pretty important.

As puppies, they like to chew, and that can be disastrous combined with their need to be your constant companion. Left alone, puppies can destroy furniture, even drywall.

But I still love Labs. It's not for no reason that you see lots of them in the dog park. I can't see owning one myself any more, but then I'm learning that I am a deep city person (DCG) and DCGs need GCDs (Great City Dogs).

About the GCD rating system^TM:
Four paws - a truly great city dog
Three paws - a good, sometimes great dog
Two paws - a dog that connects with certain people
One paw - a dog only someone as special as you can love