New pup - and it's cold outside!

[Wuffie]

Hi all! I am about to adopt a new puppy; he is a shiba inu. I know it is important to introduce him to my neighborhood early on, however, it is subzero outside. Averaging -6F or slightly warmer at the warmest time of day. My older dog has barking issues because I failed to do this intrductory training (We are needing help on this also) and I don't want to spend another 11+ years with this highly unpleasant behavior. Anyway, how can I safely introduce Puppy (no name yet) to the area in this cold?

[delladooo]

Probably the easiest thing early on is wrap up and carry. -6F is around -20C so at a guess you're somewhere like Canada? I know of a lady with German shepherd (adults) who are quite happy to go out in her Canadian winter and don't wear shoes but for a puppy, if you can get them to comfortably wear booties I'd possibly go that route too although I believe the can be expensive

[Wuffie]

Okay! I have plenty of spare blankets! Thanks! Yes, I live in Minnesota, about 2 hours away from Canada. Great guess!

[elisa]

I got my pup in winter in Finland and it was a cold one. It should be short walks anyways so just do like 10 min or less, if se seems cold or is lifting his paws. A coat could also be good. Don't go far from home and keep active.

I got some booties for my pup, but I would have had to put them on very tight for them to stay on so I ended up not really using them.

Other than the paws, I don't remember her really minding the cold as a pup. Now we put a coat on at -15°C, but likely that is more for my comfort than her.

A shiba inu should have pretty good fur. Something like a whippet and I'd totally advice to wrap him up.

[mtayy]

I have a similar situation that I need help with. We just got an 8 week king charles cavalier and he refuses to go potty outside. I keep him in his crate and let him out every hour to go potty. He gets so cold and starts to shake so finally I take him inside, and he goes potty within minutes in the house. I have a sweater for him but it doesn't seem to help much. I'm getting really discouraged even though I know it's very early on.

[emmabeth]

For a pup with fur like a Shiba will have, I would only use a coat for activities that involve being carried or sitting about - if he is actually running about/walking he should be warm enough, perhaps with the use of boots to keep his pads warm..

The more often he goes out the quicker he is going to grow in a warm coat so unless he is actively telling you 'its too cold' I wouldn't worry too much!