Puppy Cold Tolerance? - Page 1

I am thinking about throwing my nearly 7 wk. old puppies out of the nice, toasty-warm basement, at least till it gets down to the 20's outside, perhaps moving them to the seperate garage building where I keep the adults at night. There isn't much. if any draft in the building when the doors are closed and latched. I run am electric oil-filled radiator, which, in the 22 x 40' open-rafter garage just keeps the water busckets from freezing when it gets below about 20 F. here in Eastern PA. How cold can healthy 7-8 week old pups tolerateand still thrive? I have a large, covered 2'w x 4'L x 4' h plywood box with a hole in the ceiling for a heat lamp and raised floor, thick shavings in that and on the floor of the garage (in the kennels.) It was so-o-o much easier to raise dogs in CA! Yeah... I know... They're GERMAN SHEPHERD DOGS... and supposed to be okay in the cold, but I am the consummate worry wart. Must be some kind of hormonal thing having to do with never having had children or something. LOL

as long as there are several pups , (little furnaces they are ) and they are dry , on straw with no draft they can weathwer it out. when it gets below 20 f bring them in .

it is "play it by ear" - I try to put my puppies out in the fenced yard during the day, even when it's cold - they have shelter of a porch overhang, and doghouse under the overhang, with heater and blankets inside the dog house. Plus they have each other. I bring them in at night unless the temp is over freezing. BUT I keep an eye on them - young puppies cannot regulate their temp themselves - hence the heater/house/shelter and each other - cold puppies will be very quiet, they won't play and they probably won't eat very well. Bring them in if they are cold. Warm puppies are much healthier and happier. molly

ADJUSTMENT is the key here... if they are toasty-warm and have to go to *cold* i would not do this. but it is unseasonably warm here ( i am west of you), and will be warm for a while. the 10 day forecast does not show if we will have a gradual cooling or an immediate cold snap. my young adults do very well in the barn, even if it's cold enough to freeze water in their buckets. as it gets colder, make sure the pups have warm nesting material, like straw, and check them frequently if the weather turns sharply colder. they are still babies.

Thanks all. I have been putting the pups outside under the porch overhang, still in the sunshine during the day, with a rug on the concrete to lay on and some shelter. They seem quite comfy. I will start moving them into the garage tomorrow during the day. If it gets cold-cold after next week (weather looks good for quite awhile), I'll bring them back up into the big puppy pen in the basement.

Shelley, as others have said, the most important thing is that the puppy or puppies are dry. They will huddle when it is cool and keep each other warm. I use 40 degrees Fahrenheit as a guide for that age, even though they have always had plenty of warm shelter. Puppies must learn to deal with cold as well as heat. Studies have shown that this is very important for their development, and I guess that one could say survival. I do see where this type of conditioning will make a puppy grow to be an adult who is tolerant of the changes in the weather. Good Luck, Bob-O