With these last three storms we have gotten a fair bit of snow. It’s been fun to romp in, but the cold does present challenges in caring for dogs. First, with no electricity to the kennels, it’s hard to keep free-water for them to drink, and second, it’s cold, especially for short coated dogs.

If it is cold enough to freeze the water fairly quickly, we only fill the water bucket up about 3 – 4”. That’s enough water for them to drink immediately before the rest freezes and it leaves room in their water bucket for more. A couple more times during the day we can carry out water in a bucket and add another 3 – 4” of fresh water. This way they have several opportunities to drink. At night we bring the frozen water buckets in to thaw. Usually a couple hours in the house and you can dump the ice out. (We have metal water bucket and don’t like to bang them, as they get dented up.) If you do have electricity near your kennel, you can use the heated dog bowls. Be careful to ensure that the dog cannot get at the cord. I have heard numerous stories of dogs pulling the water dish around the kennel and exposing the unprotected part of the cord and chewing it and getting shocked. Also watch anywhere they can get at extension cords.

As for the cold, we use the K-9 Kondo Dog Den and have really liked it. We have found that grass hay (like timothy or brome) works the best for insulation. Unlike wood chips and straw, it doesn’t compress and doesn’t soak up water and stay wet and get moldy. Blankets don’t work because they will jam the two-way swinging door, plus the dogs tear them up for fun. In some parts of the country, like ours, grass hay can be really hard to come by. Around here everything is alfalfa, which is not a good choice, as it gets wet and matted. So we keep a close eye out for grass and stockpile a couple of bales. Some folks like cedar shavings. We have never used them. Since they are much bigger shavings, they may be better than pine and aspen shavings as far as not soaking up and holding water, but since dogs smell on the order of 150,000 times better than we do, We don’t like cedar for its aromatic properties. Whatever you use, make it deep so the dog can make a nest and be well insulated underneath.

In the evenings once we are home from work, the dogs are inside the house with us and really enjoy laying by the heater. Any non-house dogs we have staying with us are kenneled in the garage at night in dog boxes. The garage is insulated and we have a small heater in there, so even on the coldest nights it stays at a moderate temperature. The dogs seem to enjoy this, plus it gives us another couple of times to interact with the dogs.

We’ve gotten a lot of snow this year and the dog have loved it. Today we had a good long romp in the fresh snow. It was kind of an ethereal experience because it was foggy and you couldn’t see more that 50 meters, but the morning sun was filtering through and provided a beautiful light for taking photos.