Hi everyone - I got my first dog since I was a child a couple days ago. He's a 9 week old treeing feist. I'm surprised at how quickly he's taking to house training. When I take him out to eliminate, he caught on to the idea pretty quickly.

One question - I got him from a breeder in central Ohio and the winters there are pretty mild compared to my home, which is in Buffalo, NY. Yesterday we had temperatures in the low-mid 20s.

The pup obviously doesn't like the cold. He shivers and will stand on top of my shoe to get his feet off the cold ground until he decides to go. He has pretty short fur. The dog I had as a kid was a boston terrier mix who also had short fur and she never seemed to mind the cold. Will my pup grow more fur as he's exposed to the colder temperatures here?

I was thinking of buying him a sweater or something, but until now I always thought doggie sweaters were a silly idea, partly because my boston terrier mix never noticed the cold and she also had short fur. When it's time to go outside my pup will make me drag him to the door, I think because he knows how cold it is. I've taken to carrying him out to the backyard rather than dragging him out there fighting the whole way.

Thanks for any tips!

I used a sweater on one of my pups, as she arrived in the begining of December during a blizzard & 2 feet of snow. She was only 9 weeks old & she used to get cold, but loved being outside.

It was a way for her to be able to stay outside & play in the snow for more then only a few minutes to potty. I used it until more of her tummy hair grew in. She was NOT embarrased by it at all!!!

Ok, you guys that know me well....you can laugh now.

Last winter we could my daughter's shih tzso a coat that looked like a quilted horse blanket so he could stand to be outside long enough to go potty when he was 8 weeks old. Actually was quite proud of it.