dogs fur coats

[Ember]

The other morning it was freezing and I was dressed in scarf hat gloves, the lot and yet my dog went from lying in front of a big fire into the cold with not apparently a shiver, how do they do that?

[maggie01]

You will probably find that people will say their coats are there to keep them warm, but I always put a coat on mine if it is really cold.

[lankeela]

Their coats act at a sort of vacuum, keeping them warm in winter and cool in summer. This is why it is so stupid to clip a dogs coat right off. You often see a dog that has just been clipped wearing a coat - how daft is that? If you can't cope with a coated breed then get a short coated one! (Sorry, this is one of my soapbox topics!).

Some breeds need to wear a coat in cold weather but this is more to do with the amount of flesh they carry than the thickness of their coat. Greyhounds wear them (especially after racing when they have got very hot and then become cool very quickly).