Must dogs really be walked in all weathers?

I walk my dog 2x a day in most weather, it keeps me sane. I do not like the snow, I am afraid of falling so we do not go as far. If it is raining very hard and windy he might stop and just look at me, I know then that it is time to go home. I do not have a garden only a patio and he will not even pee out there. Rain doesn't bother me having been bought up in England, funny though I do not find the rain as dismal here. Weird?
 

RobinWren said:
I walk my dog 2x a day in most weather, it keeps me sane. I do not like the snow, I am afraid of falling so we do not go as far. If it is raining very hard and windy he might stop and just look at me, I know then that it is time to go home. I do not have a garden only a patio and he will not even pee out there. Rain doesn't bother me having been bought up in England, funny though I do not find the rain as dismal here. Weird?
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If you live in BC, you should feel right at home with rain. I call it the "wet coast ". I lived in Van for a year in the 1970's, and while it rarely snows in the city, I owned 2 rain coats and 3 umbrellas . Jimb.
 
caroln said:
My dog hated going out in the rain. I had to physically push him out the door. He did his business as fast as he could and would be back at the door, whining to come in.

As long as the owner has a yard for the dog where it can do it's business, I don't see a problem with skipping a walk or not going to the park for one day when it's inclement weather. Even kids stay in the house when it's raining or freezing cold.
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Same here. None of my dogs suffered for not being walked in bad weather. One of us would let them out in the fenced yard for a few minutes and they'd high tail it back into the house as soon as they could manage their business. During a several day storm, they might get the "zoomies" and run around the house a bit, but they never did it outside in bad weather, or want to be leashed up for a walk. Animals are no fools.
 

Our labs were walked 3x a day, whatever the weather. They had winter coats, but, back then, there were no
doggy boots. They were always ready to go "walk".
 
Rose65 said:
I see the truly dedicated owners go past our house in the worst rain, wind, snow and ice, at the crack of dawn. Some of them several times a day.
Is this really necessary? I wonder if some people have no other interests. Every time I look out they are walking again. I know some who have large powerful animals and they walk for hours daily. Others have tiny ones and actually carry them if they flag!

We walk once a day before lunch, about 40 minutes, including a field where she can run free if no others are around. But if the weather is very bad, we just don't go. We have a big garden and patio.

I do believe dogs are just like us in that they like their warmth and comfort. It's just dogs are naturally so very obliging and seem very willing to go out. But surely if it's blowing a gale or pouring rain, it's not vital to drag them and yourself out there?

So we don't worry about a missed day. What do you think?
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Depends on if they poop in the house.

'Tis why I have cats.
 
jimintoronto said:
I wonder why no one seems to worry about farm animals being outdoors in all sorts of weather conditions ?. Of course farmers provide proper shelters for their animals to get out of the rain or snow and wind, but those shelters are not heated except by the animals themselves. I can't imagine a herd of Angus beef cattle standing in a field while wearing rain suits.....or snow boots. GRIN. JIMB.
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(Some farmers do provide indoor heat for their stock. Chickens, especially)

Our cows always stayed inside during cold and rain and storms. We had a huge barn for that purpose. Even the pastures had weather shelters here and there, in case of a sudden rain storm or if it got too hot. That's also why you should have nice leafy trees in your pastures.
 
hollydolly said:
However lot of people have astro turf now instead of grass, in their gardens, so can't allow their dogs to be out there..
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Yikes! I've only ever seen one lawn with astro turf and it looked horrible next to the living lawns, especially in winter when it screamed "fake!" And why plastic!!! over nature???
 
AnnieA said:
Yikes! I've only ever seen one lawn with astro turf and it looked horrible next to the living lawns, especially in winter when it screamed "fake!" And why plastic!!! over nature???
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If you buy high quality Astro turf it looks great and real. I live in the high desert where we only get 7” of rain a year. Not watering a lawn is the responsible thing to do plus it holds up great when you have dogs.
 
Teacher Terry said:
If you buy high quality Astro turf it looks great and real. I live in the high desert where we only get 7” of rain a year. Not watering a lawn is the responsible thing to do plus it holds up great when you have dogs.
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Xeriscaping seems a much better alternative than covering the Earth with plastic.
 
Rose65 said:
I see the truly dedicated owners go past our house in the worst rain, wind, snow and ice, at the crack of dawn. Some of them several times a day.
Is this really necessary?... Every time I look out they are walking again. I know some who have large powerful animals and they walk for hours daily...
What do you think?
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❄️🌧️ 🦮 in rain wind snow ice and at the crack of dawn ...God bless 'em
 
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Perhaps in an effort to understand this behavior, you could try a little experiment as follows: whenever the weather is poor, raining, snowing, Etc., forbid yourself from using the bathroom until the weather clears up. See how you like it.
 
jimintoronto said:
If you live in BC, you should feel right at home with rain. I call it the "wet coast ". I lived in Van for a year in the 1970's, and while it rarely snows in the city, I owned 2 rain coats and 3 umbrellas . Jimb.
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Today is a glorious day if you are a duck but dog walking not so much fun. When we lived in Toronto the dog had to be taken out in the snow and that was fine, she was a border collie and loved it. But I was young and now I'm old, that was then and this is now. And to answer your question, yes, I feel right at home here though I may not be so happy later this week because we re expecting snow.
 

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