German Wirehair Cold Toleration

T

Tom Roberts

Well-known member
I saw the recent post on cold weather tolerance with Labs and Chessies mentioned. Does anyone have any experience with GWP's? Mine does wear a vest and I tend not to used her with temps in the teens and single digits. Most of the time here in Oklahoma we don't have to worry about real extreme cold but usually have a few days of bitter cold. I always set up my spread with wind protection and in my back. Can my Wirehair take the teens and single digit temps? If so, any precautions I should take with her?.......Thanks.
 
My Wirehair's cold tolerance when wet is almost zero...but he's a slick and I keep him on the thin side. He's muscular but I like to see some ribs because he is mostly used for upland. The coldest weather I've had him out duck hunting in was probably the upper 20s and it warmed up from there. I will barely go pheasant hunting in the teens...my dog isn't the limiting factor in our relationship. ;)

I believe it varies a lot in Wirehairs. A few years ago I had a long discussion with vet who has several wires. His best cold water duck dog was a slick. He said she was a little large for a female and he kept her about 5 lbs heavier than what he would if she just hunted upland. He was a firm believer that body mass helps as much as the coat with handling cold. He also used a vest on her and made sure she could get out of the wind and was on dry ground between retrieves. He had many pictures of her busting ice on retrieves.

I don't know if Bill Sands still looks in on this forum much anymore. He has Drahts that he uses through the season in ND. I believe he sometimes uses vests and his dogs seem to be fairly robust. I doubt a little cold and ice stops him.

I have a nephew in OK who uses his Wirehair for ducks. He's had some photos with her appearing comfortable with ice dangling from her hair. She's actually a fairly thin dog.

So I guess it depends on what your dog can take and how much protection you can give them between retrieves. You just have to be prepared to leave early if your dog gets cold...no matter the breed.

Tim
 
Thanks Tim.......When you say "slick" are you referring to the length of the coat? My previous male wirehair had a much shorter coat than my present female. I keep her slightly on the heavy size as far as weight is concerned because I figure a little fat might aid in warmth retention. I keep her outside in a kennel with a doghouse that is packed with hay. I've got my whole back yard split in half so she can have plenty of room to run and exercise in the back half. She seems to thrive in the cold and has never shown any cold stress. I'm probably a little too cautious with her but would rather err on that side of the spectrum. I would be interested in hearing what others have to say on the subject.
 
Tom:
Like people, I’m sure each dog has a different tolerance for cold. I suggest doing a short hunt in the cold conditions and observe your dog closely during and afterward.


I have a Wirehaired Griffon (Andy) and a Pudelpointer (Peter) who I use for both waterfowling and pheasant hunting. Both dogs have medium length coats; neither are “slick”. Peter’s coat is quite dense with a lighter undercoat. Andy’s coat is less dense and lacks an undercoat.


Temperatures during open water waterfowling season in northern Iowa rarely get less than 20 degrees. As the temperatures get colder, I put neoprene vests on Andy and Peter. I also feed them very well the night before to ensure they have plenty of reserves for when we are hunting. In the boat, they lie on a piece of canvas under the dodger.


Pheasant season in Iowa runs until January 10 and it can get bitter cold after Christmas. During the recent cold spell, we had several days of -25 lows and highs of -5. I chose to not to hunt pheasants on those days. However, we hunted several days when the temperature got to +10 degrees. Again, I made sure they ate heavily the night before. I limited our outings to 2 hours and they wore their camo neoprene vests instead of their usual blaze orange cordura vests. The frozen snow abraded their feet a bit but otherwise they suffered no ill effects (other than finding a dead skunk).


I encourage you to take your dog out and let it tell you whether it can handle the weather.
 
I also have a Griffon. this past fall was her first year of serious hunting. She was only 14 months in October. She did well with water retrieves. I had a neoprene vest on her after we got into temps below 40 degrees. She made 14 retrieves in a row one morning; all in a pretty short time period. She does have a dry place in the front of the boat with gunny sacks to set on. I did not send her on the last 4 retrieves of that morning because she was starting to shiver pretty good and she really had not had a chance to "dry out" in an hour. I turned the heater on and kept her in the boat. I think that you just have to use common sense and watch your dog to see what she can handle. one word of caution; if your dog has a lot of drive; like a lot of the wirehairs and griff's have; you may have to make the decision to pull them off the hunt even though they would still go. My female would have finished retrieving that day without question; but there might have been health consequences with hypothermal ramifications
 
as previously stated; I think size and weight are also a factor. my female Griff weighs 54 pounds with no fat on her. I have her on free feed and can not get any additional weight on her. We live in the country and she gets a lot of daily excersise.
 
I think it depends a lot, on a lot of factors, but the short answer is yes, probably. I have a wirehair and unlike labs or Chessies, their coats are far from "standardized;" I've seen them totally indistinguishable from Shorthairs, complete with short, thin hair, to those that are apparently "slick" but actually have thick double coats just without furnishings, and wooly mammoths and everything in between. Mine has really long hair and is shaggy enough to be mistaken for a Griff but he doesn't have super thick hair.

Also, whether or not you can get the dog dry, and where you have the dog sitting (a boat with an unfinished metal floor is a lot colder than a boat with a flat floor,) your access to a heater, etc...I know one DD owner that glued a sheet of pink foam insulation on the bottom of his kayak where his dog sits and throws a bathmat on top of it.

Also, check what the water temp is. I went out on a day when it was in the low teens and was surprised to see my dog walking into the water pretty nonchalantly...I went to pick up the dekes and the water was probably 55 or 60 degrees, despite the ice forming over smaller ponds.
 
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