Phineas favors digging. Ryder rolls. Sammi and Shyla are all about the running. And romping. And running.
With more than 75 inches of snow so far, a lot of humans are ready for this winter to end. But not dogs.
“When I get home from school he kind of looks at me like, ‘Are we going outside?’ He’s giving me this look like, ‘Come on! Come on!'” said teacher Jody Brier of her Labrador retriever-pointer mix, Rio.
After enduring four major snowstorms in six weeks — and with more snow on the way — we asked readers to share some of their best dog-and-snow photos, videos and stories. The response? Lots of snow-covered muzzles. Lots of perked ears and wagging tails. Lots of frolicking.
And only one glare at the camera.
“This little Boston terrier has no use for the snow,” wrote Carl Natale in an email accompanying photos of his dog, Dylan, sniffing tentatively at the ground and lifting her front paw.
(Note: Natale is online editor for the Sun Journal. Dylan couldn’t care less; she’s just hoping for warmer days.)
Need a reminder that snow isn’t all bad? Read on for the majority canine point of view.
Ryder and Yoki
At 7 months old, Labradoodle Yoki is experiencing his first winter. And his first snow.
“He just goes crazy,” said Beryle Martin, who lives with her dogs in Auburn. “He gets what I call the ‘zoomies,’ where he runs back and forth, runs back and forth, runs back and forth, and he rolls in it. He just loves it.”
Ryder, 6, also a Labradoodle, isn’t quite as much of a fan. He runs and rolls, but he’s generally ready to go inside after a bit.
“Yoki, he’ll stay out in it all day until you make him come in. Then he’s shivering,” Martin said.
Labradoodles have webbed feet, which makes it easy for snow to get caught between their toes — and dragged into the house. But the winter annoyance is minor compared to the joy.
“Fresh snow is their preference,” Martin said.
Phineas
It doesn’t take much for the snow to tower over Phineas’ head. But that doesn’t stop him. The 4-year-old Jack Russell terrier mix seems to have a philosophy: the more snow the better.
“Our Phineas loves the snow!” wrote Trudy Duval in an email. “He went outside last Saturday and detected a scent of some critter that he had a ball looking for. He’d tunnel his head into the snow and then start digging away. This went on for a good half hour. Because it was so cold I didn’t want him outside for too long. I brought him in and then had to take the hair dryer to him to melt the snowballs hanging from his face and between his toes.”
Phineas’ favorite spot to dig: under a pine tree in his Lisbon backyard, where birds and squirrels like to gather.
Although the snow is now well above his head and his tunnels get filled in each storm, Phineas isn’t sick of winter yet.
“We went for a walk … Oh my word he was climbing the snowbanks, just having a ball,” Duval said.
Rio
Despite his short coat and his early days spent in the south, Rio loves the snow.
“More than peanut butter!” wrote Brier in an email.
Brier and Rio, a 5-year-old Lab-pointer mix, often venture out to a cow field behind their Turner home. She likes to snowshoe or ski. He likes to run.
“If it’s too much (snow) he’ll stop and let me make a trail first and then he kind of runs behind me. But he runs ahead of me, too,” Bier said. “In the yard he just tears through the yard.”
Not a lot bothers Rio in the winter. He runs through snow, ignores the cold, doesn’t mind ice.
But the summer heat is another story.
“He just lays in the grass like, ‘Forget it. I want the snow back,’ Brier said.
Ranger
Ranger was a puppy the first time he encountered snow. He was immediately thrilled.
“He was like, ‘What is this? This is amazing!’ He ran around and skipped and hopped like a bunny,” Linda Morris said.
Now nearly 3 years old, the Belgian Tervuren hasn’t grown out of his barking, frolicking delight. He loves the snow so much that Morris and her husband, Ken, bought him extra toys before the recent blizzard in an effort to distract him from the flakes falling outside. It didn’t work.
“He was at my elbow during the entire thing and he was like, ‘Can I go out now? Can I go out now?'” Morris said. “And I was like, ‘Buddy, you’re still blue from the last time you were out.'”
The Morrises have had to make some accommodations for Ranger’s fervor. Their 22-year-old son drops by their Lewiston home to tromp down a trail in their backyard so Ranger will have a path off which to play. And they bought two giant rubber balls, called Jolly Balls, to replace the ordinary ones that kept getting lost in the drifts.
“He was like, ‘What do I do out here? I can only run and play so long,'” she said. “So at Christmas we gave him a Jolly Ball and that was like the best thing that landed on Earth. He was like, ‘Yipee!'”
Pippi
As a 17-pound Papillon-Pomeranian mix, Pippi Longstocking — known as Pippi to her friends — can barely get through even a small amount of snow. This year’s major storms can be daunting.
“She looks at me with this look like, ‘Mom, can’t you please take this away?’ Sometimes I actually kind of have to push her butt out the door,” said Kristina Violette. “She doesn’t really want to walk in it.”
But when there’s something Pippi wants — a toy, for example, or a dog treat, or the neighbor’s cat — she’ll dive right into the 3 feet of snow that fills her Lewiston yard. Dive, literally.
“She swims in that snow,” Violette said.
And sometimes it takes only a bit of adventure to overcome Pippi’s trepidation.
“We’d had the roof shoveled,” Violette said. “And … she had climbed up the snowbank and she had her paws right on the roof. Right on the roof! So I had to knock that down a little bit so she couldn’t get to the roof.”
Red Dog
At 15, Red Dog has earned an easy, shoveled-path, snow-free life.
He just doesn’t want it.
“No one — human or dog — could have been happier than Red when the storms arrived,” said Christine Cook in an email. She baby-sat Red Dog at her Lewiston home in January while his family, Ann and Bob Yorks of Farmington, were away. “Undaunted by the bone-chilling temps, strong, gusty winds and swirling snow, Red proceeded to make snow angels, poke his face deep into snowdrifts, or lie down to enjoy the falling snow blanketing his body.”
One storm turned into two, which turned into three. Red Dog was undeterred.
Photos show him relaxing in the yard, snow on his muzzle, toy between his paws.
“As time went on, I was forced to shovel and clear a series of paths and ‘turn-arounds’ for Red to move about in the deep snow,” she said. “These he considered his ‘man caves.”’
Kaya, Sky, Adam, Emily, Shyla and Sammi
Long fur, short fur, young or just young-at-heart — all six of Jen and Tom Esty’s dogs love the snow. So much so that the couple doesn’t have to do a lot of shoveling. The dogs pack down the yard for them.
“You could say they do the work, but it’s all fun to them,” Jen Esty said in an email.
The couple, who runs Pet Works of Maine, a doggy day care in New Gloucester, adopted four of the dogs. Shyla and Sammi, 2-year-old sisters, are foster dogs from the South.
Shyla and Sammi hadn’t encountered snow before this winter.
“They did not really react so much as to just jump in, living in the moment. They seem to see it as something fresh and new and they are all for that,” Esty said. “They are really fun dogs, kind of shy with people but that all goes away when they are out in the yard having a blast.”
For the dogs, the season’s last snow — whenever that is — always is as much fun as the first.
“Last spring we were out doing canicross (cross country running with dogs) on a trail and Emily found one of the last clumps of snow and just collapsed onto it, like she was relishing in that very last bit,” Esty said. “I wish I felt the same about the snow.”
Have a dog? Winter tips from the experts:
* Clear a path so your dog can easily walk around outside, even if he prefers jumping into the deep end of the yard.
* Use only pet-safe ice melt. Salt and many chemical ice melts can be harmful when dogs lick them off their paws. Product should clearly be labeled as pet safe.
* If it’s too cold for you, it’s too cold for your dog. Dogs can get frostbite, just like humans.
* If your dog stays outside, make sure he has easy access to shelter to stay warm and dry, which means clearing snow so your dog can get to and from that shelter. Also, check water frequently; it can quickly freeze in the winter.
* If your dog is often outside for long periods in the winter, consider offering a higher-fat, higher-protein diet than you do the rest of the year. Dogs burn more calories in the winter as their bodies try to stay warm.
* Booties can help protect sensitive paws from snow and ice, and coats can keep dogs with short fur or no fur warm. Most house dogs don’t need them for short trips outside, but evaluate whether your dog could benefit.
* Look for snow caught between your dog’s pads. If he has long fur, consider trimming the fur under his feet to help prevent snow and ice from getting caught there when he walks outside.
For more photos and video of dogs in the snow, check out www.sunjournal.com!
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