Here, in West Mi. winter, hard winter, winds gusting 30 to 40 mph, nightly ambient temps at 5f or 6f and daylight hours barely managing a slow temperature climb into the low teens, snows accumulating an additional six, eight, twelve inches daily, arrived late Sunday night, January 4th.
That Sunday mid-morning I had worked a dog. He tracked beautifully, edging superbly the twists and turns the rabbit had put into the line. The dogs head down, his short chop punctuated a deep-throated claiming bawl, his four feet flat on the ground, a complete, careful economy of movement, the forward progress of the rabbit I could read in the long line of the dogs back. The briar cane maze I stood in while watching was barren of snow, even the suggestion of snow, and the temperature a balmy 48f.
Today, Tuesday, January 6, I cannot see my barn from the house due to the blowing snow. It is very cold: Seven degrees above zero. We are in a declared blizzard.
About an hour ago, watching a junco scratching for seed beneath the snow-encrusted birdfeeder, I remembered that last winter a number of my beagling friends lost dogs during that winters cold spell. It was reported those dogs froze to death. It happens. At least it did last winter. I had been surprised to learn later several of these dogs were relatively young, in their lifes prime, two years old, three years old.
Our dogs should not be found frozen to death in their kennels.
When our winter goes to getting severe, we do need work at eliminating the sundry stresses this weather throws at our dogs. Our dogs shouldnt need to worry about trying to stay warm. We provide the facilities. Our dogs have no input into kennel placement and the manner of a kennels construction. We make those decisions. I doubt that any of us knows, has even heard, of a fellow beagler who has asked his dogs for advice on kennel design. We ought have dog facilities that at minimum well protect them from winters bone-chilling wind and cold.
Theres more.
During the winter months, dogs too do need a higher concentration of digestible protein and fats in their feed. They require an increase in the amount of feed given daily. Fresh dry bedding, at a depth of five to six inches, should always be kept in the doghouse or dog box. Northern winters make this is a must do. I recommend a fresh hay or a fresh straw, sweet smelling and that this bedding be replaced fresh weekly.
Water.
Water is of utmost importance to a dog kenneled outdoors during winter. Two to three times per day a dog should have opportunity at liquid water. A water bucket frozen over is not enough to keep a dog hydrated. Nor is it enough to add water to the feed pan you have scooped the three cups of dry dog food into believing that this extra water nicely replaces the bucket of frozen water the dog has had to contend with the long day. A dog not sufficiently hydrated will quickly succumb to cold exposure despite having been seemingly well fed. In fact, an under-hydrated dog will not exhibit the voracious appetite that normally is the result of cooler to increasingly colder temperatures.
Each of us beaglers deserves a quality hound that performs brilliantly at the trials we choose to attend. Each of our hounds deserves an owner who attends intelligently and considerately to the daily detail of kennel care. We should not worry our dogs with the stresses our variant weather throws at them. Our sport deserves mature, considerate folks who joy in providing optimum care and optimum facilities for their naturally cheerful beagle charges.