Fluffy in Snow

Yesterday we got 7 inches of heavy kinda wet snow. Kaylee is having the time of her life jumping like a rabbit through the field, but we do have a problem. She's a fluff ball and snow balls stick to her fur very quickly. Last night she almost had a a full ring of snow ball around her bottom even though we were smushing them whenever we got our hands on her. (They stuck to her fur. Pulling on them wasn't an option.)

Any advice for next time it snows? I would love to let her play for an hour or so without discomfort.

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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on January 18, 2013 at 12:20pm

Yuki is an eskimo dog and fluffy as can be. I've just always let the snow just melt off of him, hehe. I gate him in the kitchen (where it's easy to mop up the mess) and put some towels down for him. While he's outside, he just eats off the snow if it starts to bother him.

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Permalink Reply by Peggy Woods on January 18, 2013 at 2:30pm

also what you can do is pop her in the kitchen sink & spray them off with tepid water. That's what we used to do with our poodle we had yrs ago. With my 2 I have now, well they aren't fluffy but they just lick off anything that bothers them.

You could also trim the problem areas a little...

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on January 18, 2013 at 2:58pm

If you get a lot of this snow condition, you might think of trimming the belly & leg fur a bit in winter, not enough to reduce insulation. The standard coat is much more forgiving in winter, but when it's near or above freezing, snowballing can be a problem. Trim the excess fur away from the pads (good practice if you have smooth floors).

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Permalink Reply by Marcie on January 18, 2013 at 4:41pm

When I had my cocker mix I put a jacket or sweater on him. It really helped. He always acted like the snow balls pulled on his coat and it hurt.

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Permalink Reply by Priss, Charlie & Kaylee (PK) on January 18, 2013 at 8:09pm

Sounds like we might just have to have her trimmed or do it ourselves in the winter. The snowballs do seem to bother her and they certainly hurt when they get big. At the very least they slow her down when she's chasing after her friends.

I'm not sure if a jacket would help since the problem areas are on the backs of her legs and butt, which I don't usually see covered by doggie jackets. Perhaps I just have to look harder for something. It'd certainly be better for unexpected snow storms.

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Permalink Reply by Julia on January 19, 2013 at 1:49am

Okay, this is way out there, but...

This is a typical spaniel problem, and I've dealt with my share of spaniel problems. :)

Marcie mentioned a jacket for her spaniel. When mine was wet and muddy after swimming, I used to put him into a toddlers sweatshirt and sweat pants in order to get him into the car without completely destroying the car's interior. Perhaps sweat pants could be modified?

This is the part that is a crazy guess: When I was having horrible problems with burs in my spaniel's ears, my groomer told me she uses this

http://www.amazon.com/The-Stuff-16oz-Conditioner-Detangler/dp/B0002...

It is a spray-on conditioner that has silicon in it, so the burs practically slid out. I wonder if this were applied to the fur of a fluffy or a spaniel before going out in the snow, would it prevent the snow from sticking? Even if it doesn't, it would be worth getting for handling burs and matts.

Just a thought.