Spanky the Snow Pug

Having fun in the snow!

My one concern when I first got a pug was how he would manage in the snow and cold of Colorado. Well, the answer is fabulously. Despite some of the stories out there that pugs aren’t suited for extreme weather, either hot or cold, I do find that Spanky does do quite well in the winter months. In fact, if given the chance he’d probably go for snow over rain. If I ever move back to rainy Oregon, he probably won’t be too happy.  But once the first snow of the season arrives, he does seem to get adjusted to cold wet paws and gets along just fine.

So what about doggy shoes/boots? (you can order these particular ones here.)

We’ve never used them. I have seen dogs in the neighborhood with them and I also have a Flickr friend over in Europe who has a pug that wears them. Check our his picture right here – it’s pretty darn cute. I do notice that if it gets in the teens or lower (or -8 C), Spanky doesn’t particularly like it.  I may have to push him back out the door a few times to go do his business. The lowest the temp has been here was about -7 (-21 C) and he wasn’t pleased at all and literally hopped around the yard. In situations like that, doggy boots probably would come in handy, but fortunately we don’t have too many days like that.  If de-icer is heavily used in your community then doggy boots might be worthwhile. I have noticed that Spanky’s feet can get irritated sometimes, but for the most of the time his paws do okay, as we try to avoid those areas where de-icer is used.

The one thing we do do for him is dig a path for him in the back yard. Today we just got an inch of snow so there was no need. But a few weeks back we had over a foot. Spanky has no issue with going pee on snow, but when it comes to #2, he just prefers the feel of grass underneath his feet.

hunting for the grass