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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Foundation's podcast. I'm your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about mixing cold

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Speaker 1: weather and sometimes cold water with your dogs. If you're

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Speaker 1: wondering where the inspiration for this podcast comes from, don't

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Speaker 1: strain your brain too hard, buddy. We are getting into

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Speaker 1: real winter and with that comes well, seriously cold weather,

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Speaker 1: at least it does for a lot of us. But

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Speaker 1: cold is also kind of relative. What's cold to a

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Speaker 1: person from I don't know, Corpus Christi, Texas is probably

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Speaker 1: quite a bit different from what's cold to me, a

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Speaker 1: person who, for some stupid reason, damn near lives in Canada.

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Speaker 1: Cold is relative, but also not, at least when it

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Speaker 1: comes to our dogs and how we should approach their

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Speaker 1: time in the frigid world as the top half of

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Speaker 1: the earth tips away from the sun. That's what this

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Speaker 1: episode is all about. I was talking to my daughters

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Speaker 1: the other day about how we are going to have

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Speaker 1: to try to find a few deer to hunt before

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Speaker 1: our bo season here in Minnesota comes to an end.

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Speaker 1: The first thing both of them did was to instinctively

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Speaker 1: look from our kitchen table to our deck, which was

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Speaker 1: covered in a fresh layer of snow. The next question

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Speaker 1: from one of them was, what's the coldest weather you've

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Speaker 1: ever hunted in? Now? Up here in the North Country,

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Speaker 1: that's kind of a loaded question for starters. You can

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Speaker 1: talk about the air temperature, but you can't really get

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Speaker 1: to the heart of coal without talking about wind chill

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Speaker 1: when it comes to temperature. I told the girls that

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Speaker 1: about eight years ago, I was still sitting on a

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Speaker 1: buck tag for Wisconsin when Christmas break rolled around, so

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Speaker 1: I drove on over there to see what I could

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Speaker 1: do about filling it. I spent three days in the

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Speaker 1: big woods over there, and it never got above zero.

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Speaker 1: I never saw a deer either, but I sure did

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Speaker 1: freeze my knackers off waiting on stand for one to

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Speaker 1: walk by. The highlight of that trip was that on

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Speaker 1: one of my stands I could see a field, and

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Speaker 1: using that field was a small flock of pigeons. Now,

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Speaker 1: since I had the old black dog with me and

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Speaker 1: a shotgun in the case, the grouse situation was more

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Speaker 1: impealing than the deer. We did a little pigeon hunt,

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Speaker 1: which was something that Luna approved of more recent than that.

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Speaker 1: But with that same dog, I made the choice to

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Speaker 1: drive three hours to western Minnesota to hunt late December

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Speaker 1: roosters in the cattails. What I found was forty mile

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Speaker 1: per hour winds, which when you start with single digit temperatures,

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Speaker 1: gets into stupid territory real quick. When I did find

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Speaker 1: the birds, they were all huddled up out of the wind,

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Speaker 1: and I instantly felt bad for pushing them out of

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Speaker 1: their little Heidi hole. I decided then that it was

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Speaker 1: probably a better idea for me to cut them some

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Speaker 1: slack and head back to the truck. Now, while I've

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Speaker 1: hunted colder days, I don't remember too many of them.

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Speaker 1: I did manage to fall through the ice on a

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Speaker 1: pheasant trip one time, and that walk back to the

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Speaker 1: truck was a long one where all of my clothes

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Speaker 1: froze stiff. But it wasn't as bad as you think,

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Speaker 1: because when you're hunting solo in a long ways from anyone,

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Speaker 1: if you fall through the ice and manage to get out,

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Speaker 1: the rest of your day isn't so bad. Now you

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Speaker 1: might think, well, sure, but dogs are different from some

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Speaker 1: stupid hunter. They handle the cold better than we do.

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Speaker 1: And to that I'd say, well, kind of, Oh, sure,

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Speaker 1: you have some dogs that have snow in their blood.

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Speaker 1: We have a neighbor who shouldn't own a dog, but

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Speaker 1: he owns a husky anyway, and that dog lives its

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Speaker 1: life in a small, fenced in backyard year round, but

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Speaker 1: every once in a while it makes a break for it,

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Speaker 1: and it's almost like watching a cartoon when he tries

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Speaker 1: to catch that dog. Do you know when that dog

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Speaker 1: is most likely to make a break for it, When

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Speaker 1: we get one of those epic winter storms that dumps

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Speaker 1: about fifteen inches of fresh powder on our world. That

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Speaker 1: husky just needs to be in that stuff, and you

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Speaker 1: can't really blame it. Some dogs are just bred to

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Speaker 1: be in the cold and snow. You might know someone

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Speaker 1: who has a Chesapeake Bay retriever. These dogs are, by

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Speaker 1: most accounts, bad ass unless you're tasked to train one

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Speaker 1: really well, and then you have your work cut out

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Speaker 1: for you. No, don't get me wrong, they're very trainable,

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Speaker 1: but they also have a reputation for making the hardest

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Speaker 1: headed dogs out there look like big pushovers. This breed,

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Speaker 1: like most of the breeds we love, has an origination

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Speaker 1: story that's kind of wild. It's kind of cool now.

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Speaker 1: Way back in eighteen oh seven, a ship took off

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Speaker 1: from Newfoundland, which is a location that plays pretty heavily

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Speaker 1: into a couple of breed stories, including the Labrador retriever. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: this ship encountered a real storm, the kind that swept

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Speaker 1: the boat farther out to sea, the kind that made

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Speaker 1: the crew realize they were most likely about to be

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Speaker 1: crab food. So they did what sailors do when they're

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Speaker 1: about to die. They started drinking real heavy, and after all,

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Speaker 1: why not. But before they sunk, a British ship found

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Speaker 1: them and saved the human passengers as well as a

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Speaker 1: couple of dogs that were on board. They were a

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Speaker 1: pair of Saint John's water dogs, and they made it

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Speaker 1: onto that rescue ship, and instead of heading back across

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Speaker 1: the pond, they ended up sticking around and kickstarting a

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Speaker 1: new breed, the Chesapeake Bay retriever. Now, while those two

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Speaker 1: dogs were not specifically bred together, they did manage to

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Speaker 1: get it on with some other breeds, including what was

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Speaker 1: likely coonhounds, given the availability of other dogs in the

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Speaker 1: region at the time. Not only did this new breed

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Speaker 1: have slightly higher hips that allowed it to push through

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Speaker 1: the marshes to retrieve ducks, but it had a wooly

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Speaker 1: coat with an oily undercoat that allowed them to stay

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Speaker 1: relatively comfortable even when breaking ice in the salty bays

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Speaker 1: to bring back some ducks. The kicker with these dogs

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Speaker 1: is that they weren't even close to being finished with

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Speaker 1: their jobs when the sun set on the duck hunt

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Speaker 1: and they were rowed back to shore. They also had

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Speaker 1: to sleep in the boats and guard the gear, at

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Speaker 1: least in the case of being owned by a market hunter. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you're wondering if that kind of story leads to

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Speaker 1: very independent and protective dogs, yes it does. If you're

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Speaker 1: wondering if that means a first time dog owner should

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Speaker 1: go deep into chessie territory, it does not. Now this

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Speaker 1: is where things get a little squirrely with dogs and

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Speaker 1: mostly dog owners. Chessis are the right dog for that

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Speaker 1: job if the job is to hunt extremely cold temperatures

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Speaker 1: that might involve water. But a lot of people, and

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Speaker 1: by people I mean men here, because women aren't generally

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Speaker 1: this dumb view their dogs as the kind of dogs

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Speaker 1: that can handle cold no matter what Chessie or not.

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Speaker 1: This might be true, or it definitely might not be true.

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Speaker 1: The dog that spends most of its life on the

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Speaker 1: couch and then is asked to swim in thirty four

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Speaker 1: degree water and then sit around for hours. Is a

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Speaker 1: dog that might just die on your watch. I don't

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Speaker 1: care what breed it is. That kind of thing happens

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Speaker 1: when ego gets involved in hunting, and it's bad. It's

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Speaker 1: the temperature opposite, but the same kind of thing as

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Speaker 1: what happens when there's a super hot opening day for

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Speaker 1: pheasants in South Dakota and a handful of dudes hunt

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Speaker 1: their dogs to death in eighty degree beach weather. Now,

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Speaker 1: you can condition your dogs to the cold, and you

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Speaker 1: should if you live where it gets cold a lot.

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Speaker 1: We should also be smart about it. I learned a

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Speaker 1: lesson on this the hard way a few years ago

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Speaker 1: when I had a different dog podcast. As is the case,

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Speaker 1: for some stupid reason, when you have a podcast, you

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Speaker 1: feel like you need to have a heavy presence on

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Speaker 1: social media. So I took my lab for a duck hunt.

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Speaker 1: Then during October when we had this kind of freak

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Speaker 1: early heavy snowstorm. The open water closed up during that

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Speaker 1: storm mostly, but it was still October. Now, I got

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Speaker 1: lucky and shot a few green heads and a teal,

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Speaker 1: and I took some pictures of my dog retrieving them,

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Speaker 1: and then I posted those pictures. Now, some folks took

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Speaker 1: it upon themselves to compare me to Hitler for swimming

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Speaker 1: my dog in icy water, which I found strange because

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Speaker 1: I swim that dog in that same water almost every

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Speaker 1: day it's open. In fact, the water that I shot

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Speaker 1: the photos in is in my backyard. It wasn't where

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Speaker 1: I was hunting. And if you think Luna has ever

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Speaker 1: complained about getting into that pond, no matter what the

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Speaker 1: conditions are, you just haven't met her yet. As much

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Speaker 1: as I hate people in general, but really hate people

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Speaker 1: when it comes to social media, I kind of get

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Speaker 1: their point, or I got their point anyway. They had

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Speaker 1: no context and they didn't understand what my dog does

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Speaker 1: on a daily basis. That kind of hunt or those

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Speaker 1: kind of retrieves might have killed their dog, but for mine,

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Speaker 1: it was just a good tuesday. Now to muddy the

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Speaker 1: freezing water a bit more. If I tried that with Sadie,

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Speaker 1: my three year old pup, she might actually die. Sadie

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Speaker 1: doesn't have a whole lot of fur, and she gets

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Speaker 1: cold very easily. She's also about forty eight pounds during

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Speaker 1: the hunting season, so she isn't working with a ton

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Speaker 1: of insulation. I know that, so I wouldn't ask Sadie

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Speaker 1: to do that, even though my duck dogs always wear

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Speaker 1: a neoprene vest when it gets even remotely cold and

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Speaker 1: they have to do water at trees. In fact, during

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Speaker 1: a recent pheasant hunt where we filmed some roosters flying

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Speaker 1: into some five shot, Sadie had to sit around while

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Speaker 1: we filmed b roll in transitions during the hunt. Now,

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Speaker 1: even though the temperatures were in like the twenties and thirties,

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Speaker 1: anytime she had to stop running around and she had

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Speaker 1: to wait, she was shivering. She's not built for the

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Speaker 1: cold like her big sister, and that necessitates a different

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Speaker 1: approach to hunting. And you know, being in the cold

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Speaker 1: for us. Now, this is important because you might go

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Speaker 1: from a dog that you can't get out of the

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Speaker 1: snow to a dog that might be in danger after

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Speaker 1: not a hole a lot of time out there in

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Speaker 1: the frigid elements. In extreme cases, just like with people,

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Speaker 1: dogs can even get hypothermia. Dogs run a little hotter

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Speaker 1: than us temperature wise, where they're at about one hundred

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Speaker 1: and one to one hundred and two and a half

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Speaker 1: degrees is kind of their sweet spot. Hypothermia starts to

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Speaker 1: kick in at least mild hypothermia when their body temperature

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Speaker 1: falls below about ninety five degrees. It obviously gets more

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Speaker 1: severe as their temperature plummets, with moderate hypothermia setting in

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Speaker 1: when they get into the upper eighties, and anything below

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Speaker 1: eighty two degrees is severe and could definitely be fatal.

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Speaker 1: The symptoms are what you'd expect, mostly you know, shivering,

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Speaker 1: a dog that seems fatigued, and stiff, shallow breathing in

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Speaker 1: some cases, dilated pupils. Puppies are more prone than older dogs,

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Speaker 1: just as smaller dogs are more prone than larger dogs.

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Speaker 1: Older dogs are likelier candidates to get hypothermia two, which

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Speaker 1: can be trouble if you're one. This badass duck dog

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Speaker 1: has more age on it than you'd like to admit,

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Speaker 1: and you ask it to do what it used to

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Speaker 1: do when it was in its prime. Something that often

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Speaker 1: moves in lockstep with hypothermia is frostbite, which can happen

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Speaker 1: to dogs even though you don't hear about it often.

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Speaker 1: The spots where this is most likely to occur include

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Speaker 1: the tail, ears and paws. Gray or blue skin can

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Speaker 1: indicate frostbite, but sometimes you can tell by a dog's gums,

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Speaker 1: which will turn pale. Now, if you do manage to

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Speaker 1: freeze your dog into hypothermia stage and you can't get

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Speaker 1: to a vet quickly, wrap them in warm blankets. A

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Speaker 1: water bottle with warm water in it and wrapped in

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Speaker 1: a blanket can be placed on their abdomen to facilitate

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Speaker 1: the reheating process as well. But a better bet is

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Speaker 1: to not let your dog get hypothermia in the first place.

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Speaker 1: This means you have to be realistic about what your

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Speaker 1: It also means you just might need to acclimate your

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Speaker 1: dog to the coal. Now, this is a weird one,

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Speaker 1: but if you've ever tried to be a runner, or

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Speaker 1: a weightlifter or intermittent fast for long periods of time,

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Speaker 1: you know what it's like to start with a body

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Speaker 1: that doesn't want to do what you ask of it

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Speaker 1: and eventually end up with a body that will be

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Speaker 1: just fine with what you ask of it, even if

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Speaker 1: just half a year earlier you thought that ask was impossible.

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Speaker 1: Dogs acclimate to the cold really well, but they need

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Speaker 1: time and you need to pay attention to the conditions

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Speaker 1: and what they have going on. But that's not all

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Speaker 1: of the danger that comes from the cold and particularly snow,

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Speaker 1: because with snow oftentimes comes rock salt on the roads.

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Speaker 1: Now rock salt, which in my neck of the woods

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Speaker 1: they spread very liberally on the roads because our driving

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Speaker 1: conditions often suck so much. Isn't technically toxic to dogs,

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Speaker 1: but it sure can make them sick, and it's also

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Speaker 1: hell on their paws, which might be a more realistic

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Speaker 1: concern for a lot of folks. But then you have

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Speaker 1: the anti freeze aspect, which, to be fair, is a

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Speaker 1: year round thing but often happens in the winter. Now,

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Speaker 1: this miracle liquid keeps our vehicles running when Mother Nature

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Speaker 1: does her best to make them not run. But it's

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Speaker 1: very toxic to dogs. Now, the kicker there is that

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Speaker 1: it's sweet tasting, supposedly. Now, I haven't tried it and

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Speaker 1: my wife hasn't fed me a glass of it yet,

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Speaker 1: under the guys that she made me some kool aid

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Speaker 1: or something, So you're just gonna have to take my

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Speaker 1: word for it. Anyway, you don't want your dogs licking

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Speaker 1: up a pool of anti freeze, but you also don't

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Speaker 1: want them trotting through a pool of it and then

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Speaker 1: licking their paws when they get back to the house.

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Speaker 1: And the same goes for rock salt. Obviously, last week

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Speaker 1: I talked about dog paws and how amazing they are,

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Speaker 1: and also how an injury to a paw can be

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Speaker 1: some rough stuff. A good way to help them in

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Speaker 1: this realm is to wipe off their paws when you

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Speaker 1: get back from a winter walk, if you think there's

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Speaker 1: any reason at all to do this. This will also

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Speaker 1: help some with cracked popads. Now here's the thing about

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Speaker 1: dealing with winter and your dogs. I'm not advocate you

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Speaker 1: keep them inside until Turkey seasons so they aren't in danger.

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Speaker 1: That's worse than taking them out and letting them get cold.

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Speaker 1: Dogs need exercise, They need mental stimulation, even when the

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Speaker 1: weather absolutely sucks and you do not want to go

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Speaker 1: outside at all. Don't put that on your dogs. It's

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Speaker 1: easy to say we are doing something for them when

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Speaker 1: it's really for us, Like when folks give their dogs

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Speaker 1: treats over and over or feed them table scraps because

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Speaker 1: their dogs are begging with those adorable brown eyes. But

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Speaker 1: that's not for the dog. Mostly, that's for us. Makes

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Speaker 1: us feel good. Sitting out. A trip to a park

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Speaker 1: you know, where your dog could run around and do

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Speaker 1: its thing twice a day during the winter so that

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Speaker 1: you can feel good and stay warm is no bueno.

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Speaker 1: This is maybe the thing I want to drive home

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Speaker 1: last with this show. For many of us, we don't

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Speaker 1: have a choice but to expose our dogs to cold weather,

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Speaker 1: to snow, and on some occasions, to water that is

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Speaker 1: damn near froz but not quite there yet. Our dogs

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Speaker 1: would have it no other way, but that doesn't absolve

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Speaker 1: us from the responsibility of handling them in the outdoors

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Speaker 1: during winter. Just like the person who never hunts with

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Speaker 1: their dog but has a dog that needs exercise and stimulation,

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Speaker 1: which is you guessed it, all dogs, They need to

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Speaker 1: bundle up and take their dogs to the park, even

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Speaker 1: when every ounce of their being is telling them to

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Speaker 1: get under a blanket and watch some reruns of the

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Speaker 1: Office while their dogs lay around waiting for them to

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Speaker 1: get up and put their boots on and grab a leash.

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Speaker 1: The key to all of it is understanding what your

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Speaker 1: dog needs and how to provide that while also keeping

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Speaker 1: your dogs safe. This is a balance where we weigh

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Speaker 1: in what we want out of the relationship often a

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Speaker 1: little too much, and that affects what the dog really gets.

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Speaker 1: But the truth is, even if you have a tiny

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Speaker 1: Chihuahua that clearly doesn't boast a long bloodline of retrieving

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Speaker 1: ducks and frozen bays of Maryland, that dog needs to

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Speaker 1: do something. Now. You might have to put little booties

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Speaker 1: on it, maybe a sweater or three, and maybe only

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Speaker 1: take it out for five or ten minutes around the neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: But even that little taco bell dog needs to go

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Speaker 1: outside and sniff around for some part of the day.

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Speaker 1: All dogs do, really, and if you think you have

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Speaker 1: one that doesn't, that's probably mostly on you, because it

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Speaker 1: most likely needs more exposure to the outside world. Then

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Speaker 1: it'll get in a few potty breaks throughout the day.

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Speaker 1: So think about this as we settle into the dumbest

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Speaker 1: time of year, when smart critters like bears and frogs

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Speaker 1: are sleeping peacefully for months at a time. We can hibernate,

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Speaker 1: and neither can our dogs. So the best we can

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Speaker 1: do is pay attention to the conditions, pay attention to

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Speaker 1: our dogs and how they handle it, and get out

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Speaker 1: there to play in the snow and cold for some

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Speaker 1: amount of time that won't lead to disaster. Think about that,

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Speaker 1: Think about coming back next week because I'm going to

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Speaker 1: talk about the early stages of planning to get a

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Speaker 1: puppy since it's dang near that time of year for

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Speaker 1: a lot of us. That's it. I'm told Peterson, this

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Speaker 1: has been the Houndations podcast. Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: listening and for all your support. We truly appreciate it

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Speaker 1: here at meat Eater. If you need more dog content,

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Speaker 1: maybe you need a recipe to cook something cool out

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Speaker 1: of adia killed this year, you know, for Christmas dinner

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Speaker 1: or whatever them. Meat eater dot com recipes articles, tons

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Speaker 1: of shows dropping that we filmed throughout the year, tons

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Speaker 1: of podcasts up there too. The meat Eater podcast network

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Speaker 1: has really grown. And maybe you're aware of it, maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe you aren't. But if you like the outdoors and

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Speaker 1: you do because you're listening to this, and maybe you

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Speaker 1: drive a lot, maybe you need a little something to

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Speaker 1: kill the time during your commute whatever, maybe you're going

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Speaker 1: to start working out for the new year. We have

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Speaker 1: a podcast network that has three different shows on the

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Speaker 1: meat Eater channel dropping every week. You know, the main show,

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Speaker 1: Media Radio, and of course you've got trivia Spencer does

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Speaker 1: a great job with that. We got Clay's bear grease.

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Speaker 1: If you just want to learn something cool about history

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Speaker 1: and here's some amazing storytelling. So much good stuff there,

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Speaker 1: go check it out at the meadeater dot com