Why Doesn't Snow Or Ice Underfoot/paw Bother Dogs?

[sandyRoe]

This question is inspired by another post on the subject of taking dogs for walks.

[grasscarp]

Well it might bother dogs, but how would we know?

[Old_Geezer]

In what way ? I suspect their pads are good insulators, and I'm sure having 4 legs help keep them stable.

[woofgang]

but it does. They can slip in ice, also it can collect around the foot hairs and between the toes and become very painful. A dog's ability to cope with cold varies, one of my two (who are full brothers) loves snow and ice and thinks that skidding around is funny, his brother thinks its a joke in very poor taste and will only go out the relieve himself and only when he absolutely must.

[sandyRoe]

If we had to walk through show or ice in our bare feet we'd feel freezing. Yet dogs don't seem to mind. As OG says, it's probably their pads insulate well.

[wolf63]

My last dog used to get iced-up paws. After walking for a bit he would stop dead and lift the are paw into the air. I had to massage it until he was happy with it again.

I bought him little boots, he told me that they tasted lovely.

[Baldric]

http://www.poochto5k.com/research-reveals-that-your-dogs-paws-act-as-natural-snow-boots-for-cold-protection.html

[RATTER15]

Look at Alaska. sled dogs, they will often sleep buried in the snow with no ill affect, they have extremely good insulation to keep them warm, I imagine their feet are also very well insulated.

[janbee]

I've occasionally seen dogs wearing little bootees in the winter time. They look silly mind you but if it keeps their paws safe then it's no bad thing. It just does nothing for their street cred when all the other big butch roughie toughie dogs laughing at them !

[paulllambert]

When I was a milkman, I delivered to a house that had an Alsatian. Every morning the bloody thing used to charge towards me as I was putting the milk at the end of their drive and stop just short of the iron gate which stopped him from escaping. One day, there was a thin layer of snow on the path. He came charging as usual, but as he put on the brakes, he slipped, skidded, went *** over head and smacked the gate with a thud. It made my day, and, for a while, the poor sod walked with quite a limp.

[chaptazbru2]

So glad a dog's distress made your day !!!

[hc4361]

Dogs with very short legs and smooth coats usually don't cope very well in the snow.

[xstitcher]

My late dog..a Westie didn't like it at all and would limp. I would bath her paws in Luke warm water to dissolve the packed snow between her toes.

[Tilly2]

Tilly loves diving headfirst into the snow. Nothing bothers her. She just enjoys the moment. At the moment, it's squelchy, horrible, wellygripping mud. Does she care?


No.

[tonyav]

Our dog loves running around in the snow.

[Peter Pedant]

good chadderbank so it doesnt matter much 1) if I'm wrong and 2 ) no one understands what the hell I am on about. two things

body heat of dogs - hair is hollow and a good insulator. Scott of the Antarctic's dogs had lots of hair sticking out at right angles - a bit like a bottle brush. I hugged a malamute around the corner and it sort of went in 75% and I said the the dog - "fluffy hair and not much of you".
And the dog said - we're quite thin really with really thick layer of hair. Definite bottle brush

but that leaves the paws - or should I say - shall we pause for the paws ?
People will have noticed they (dogs' legs) are long and thin ( cursorial specialisation = they have evolved for running ) but the arteries are curled around the veins on the way down ( of the leg)

cue - counter current mechanism - at the top warm arterial blood warms the venous blood on the way back. Half way down, now-cooled arterial blood will still hear the really cold blood from the pad. At the pad really cold arterial blood becomes really cold venous blood ( independent of oxygen transfer ) - and this is the way that blood is conserved.

google 'why dont ducks feet freeze'

and also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countercurrent_exchange
but there is only a paragraph on this

well it was a technical question
so expect a technical answer followed by 50 000 "wha ....'s?" 30 000 "mehs" and ten thousand 'yeah wha' yeaaaaah!'s

oh and you need specialised changes in the blood so that it works way off the standard temperature of 37 'C and doesnt sort of sludge

[Peter Pedant]

// Dogs with very short legs and smooth coats usually don't cope very well in the snow.//

and now you know the canine physiological reason why

[Tilly2]

So, Peter, Tilly does not need bootees?

[jno]

why ducks' feet don't freeze and why their quacks don't echo

[Peter Pedant]

ask her

if it is a malamute - no and if it is a hairless Mexican - wunzie I would have thought

The malamute I hug, one day I found curled up outside with a covering of snow on it, which It shook off and said: I quite like this weather

[Peter Pedant]

// and why their quacks don't echo//
physics and not physiology - ask Jim 360 that one

cold air layers refract the sound ?