Most people like to take their dogs outside during the winter to enjoy the walk on the white carpet. Pet parents’ love for their dogs is, no doubt, enduring but least of them know the hazards of walking in the cold months when proper care has been not taken.
To relish that relaxing and joyful walk with your furry pal, follow these steps and rest assured that your pet does not have to fight with winter blues.
Step To Walk Your Dog In The Cold Winter
- Ensure that you are properly dressed, and you’re fit and healthy to walk down the lane in the cold weather.
- Before stepping out in the wintery month, you need to also dress your dog. Put a jacket on your dog. This is especially crucial for puppies, senior dogs, small breeds and short-haired dogs.
- It’s too cold outside. And without dog booties, never even give it a try. Protect your paws with dog booties or apply paw gel or paw cream to protect against blisters and cracks.
- Going on walks, put harness on your dog. Put front-clip harness, which does not choke or suffocate your dog in case of accidental pulling of the leash. Moreover, this type of harness prevents pulling by the dog.
- Whenever going out during the snow walks, put on a hard lease rather than a retractable one. Jogger’s leash is available in various sizes, which is highly beneficial as it stays hooked to you if you fall and lose your grip.
Putting on your dog’s cloth, check that they are not wet. Due to damp weather, your dog clothing can easily get wet. So, ensure that his clothes are dry. - Low temperatures usually froze up water bodies. Ponds and lakes may be frozen and you need to be very much careful about the hazards of these frozen bodies. Dogs can easily fall in the thin sheets of ice and may suffer from hypothermia or may even drown. Protect them from such accidents.
- Way back home, you need to provide little extra care to your dog. Returning home, wash their paws with cleansing liquid or some paw soap. Apply gel on the paw and rub it smoothly and gently. Leaving your dog’s paw without washing may lead to complication due to licking of the toxic chemicals of the ice melts and salts off his paws.
Listen To Your Dog
- It’s time to return home, if you find that your pooch is cowering, shaking or whelping constantly. If he is turning and pulling you along towards homewards, pay attention and listen to him. This shows that he is having cold or couldn’t sustain coldness. Return back immediately and provide warm blankets and snuggle him to provide extra warmth. Cuddle him until he returns back to normal temperature.
Steps To Walking Your Dog In Winter
If your dog is not ready for walks outdoors, look for ways indoors to exercise him. Play with him indoors, perform doga, entertain him, look for food puzzles, a game of tug, and other indoor games and many more.
Apart from this, you can always find fun ways and other crazy things to keep your pooch busy, healthy and entertained during the cold wintry months.