Winter Dog Poop: How to help your pet during cold weather

Dog poop is created twice daily, at least 365 times a year. The summer months may lull us into taking Spot out while barefoot and drinking lemonade, but inevitably a chill will return to the air, and before you know it, we’ll be wrapped up like Eskimos and tromping a path through waist deep snow just so Spot can do his daily duty.

It may sound cruel to mention this now, when you could be laying on the beach and sipping fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them while bronzed cabana boys rub coconut oil onto your skin, but this is a very special time of year, and not just because of the weather. Now is the time to prepare for winter dog poop with summer sales on all manner of dog clothing.

If Spot happens to be a yellow lab and not a pint sized Chihuahua, you may be questioning my sanity when I mention dog clothing. After all, everyone knows only small dogs should wear fashion accessories. Take heart; I have not lost my mind, merely I have been on the receiving end of a -20 windchill. Dog poop waits for no weather.

In my native Minnesota, the winters are fierce and terrible. Until I succumbed and purchased proper winter dog poop gear, my daily outings with the pups were as follows:

Step one: bundle up in snow boots, wool socks, coat, hat, mittens.
Step two: attempt to attach dog leashes
Step three: start to sweat in so much warm clothing, causing hands to become slippery in mittens
Step three: take off mittens and THEN affix leashes
Step four: venture forth into the cold
Step five: return inside for forgotten mittens
Step six: dogs urinate, and start sniffing around in the dog poop mine field
Step seven: dogs’ feet become cold, whiskers freeze
Step eight: sweat inside of mittens freeze, causing me to drop leashes
Step nine: dogs run back in house, releasing toxic gases because they still haven’t pooped
Step ten: recover leashes, wait until dogs’ feet warm up
Step eleven: whole body sweats inside warm gear
Step twelve: return outside; outerwear freezes to my skin
Step thirteen: dogs become distracted by cold and forget to poop
Step fourteen: repeat steps seven through thirteen as needed
Step fifteen: dog poop occurs
Step sixteen: spend 20 minutes peeling off wet layers
Step seventeen: change bed sheets; melted snow stuck in dogs’ feet has soaked my bed.

As you can see, it’s a long an arduous process, mostly because the pups get so darned cold outdoors. The solution? Coats and booties. The winter dog poop nightmare will become a thing of the past, and your pets’ dog poop outings will be warm and toasty.

For a coat, I recommend the Landa Dog Coat, by Weatherbeeta. These are actually the same technology as Weatherbeeta’s popular horse blankets, so they are tough, weatherproof, and warm. They even come in a few other patterns and sizes, large enough for even Big Dogs. Because of the horse-worthy durablility, tears and soggy coats are no problem here.

Dog booties can be trickier, since most canines contrive to rid themselves of any implement on their feet. There are some interesting and ingenious designs out there, such as suspender-like straps that hold the boots up, but I’ve had the best luck with simple paw-length booties that have elastic in the cuff. If you pull them tight enough, they stay on fairly well for routine dog poop breaks. Just don’t leave them on for an extended period of time. You don’t want Spot’s foot to drop off from lack of circulation. I’m kidding! Mostly.

Now that you’re educated on what to buy, it’s time to talk about where and when. As I mentioned, there are some great sales for winter dog gear during the summer. Check your local petshops and online stores. Big chains, like PETSMART and Petco will often have a clearance section where great deals are to be had, and because they need to move product, you can sometimes get a steal. The most reliable source for the Landa Dog Coat is SmartPakCanine, though some other horse retailers may carry them as well. Talk about having your holiday shopping done early!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 07th, 2008 at 5:43pm and is filed under Dog Poop Calendar, Dog Poop Info, Dog Poop Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.