I think as long as they have a place to get out of the elements, shepards should be just fine in the texas weather.

My two hounds can't handle anything below about 35 for long periods of time, especially if the sun isnt shining.
They both have jackets for outdoor play when its very cold, Nico also has a neoprene swimming jacket because she wont stay out of the water no matter what and Loki has winter boots. They have no undercoat at all and just cant hang.
When it is cold out they nearly double their food consumption in order to compensate.

Levi our Husky would roll in the snow and frolic and the colder the better for him to lay on the deck and relax.
Even Our little baby husky pup loves to be out in the cold and snow and rain and mud and seems impervious to the cold. I have to force him to come inside or he would surely get too cold all wet and muddy in the wind and it 34 degrees out.

But the cold here isn't even the same universe as true northern cold...I couldnt do it. Im miserable at freezing, and below freezing Im a big whiney baby!

I am near Nashville :-) And my dogs are loving winter thus far, lol. I still prefer summer, but I'll take this over -30 any day!!

Wow, 32 degrees sounds tropical about now.....here today's high temp is 5 degrees. It's just cold enough now for my Dobe to act cold/wear a coat. My sister's GSD NEVER seems to get cold. I've gone for walks with my sis and her GSD late at night when it's this cold and with crazy wind chills, and the GSD was the one among us who was happy and comfortable. I can't imagine it getting cold enough in Texas for any dog with a coat to be chilly.

Hi' you folks from the USA, you talk about the Temp being 32. but you do not say if it is in Cent or Fah, because it is confusing to me trying to read the posts
Ours is in Centigrade and is 7 degs below freezing at the moment
over here we get hard frosts both air and ground, in parts of the USA i guess it will get colder as it will here as the winter sets in, The Dogs take no notice of Seven Degs below Freezing, as they have been out Training for an hour today and the rest of the time lying outside in their Pens
Tonight at 6.30 we take them to the G.S Training Club for a session we get back at 11oclock tonight then the Dogs will be fed for the evening

Sorry Steve. I'm talking Fah, as I think most in the US do. It is 5 degrees F. here in Vermont today.

32 Fah is the same as 0 Cent I believe. Beyond that I'm not sure how the conversion works .

Gosh Kristel, that is possitivley warm, i would be around outside working without a shirt on in that temp
A friend of mine who lives near Perth Autralia mailed me and said it was 45 degs Fah on Christmas Day in the shade, To me it would be sweltering hot

http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm

Some handy reference points

Water Freezes: 32F 0C
Pretty Cold: 20F -6.6C
Darn Cold: 0F -17.7C
Pretty Warm: 90F 32.2C
Darn Hot: 105F 40.5C
Water Boils: 212F 100C
Equal Temps at -40F and -40C
Normal Indoor Temp: 68F 20C
Normal Body Temp: 98.6F 37C

As you can see the Farhenheit scale puts more gradations in the range of normally experienced temperatures.

The Fahrenheit scale was designed by a German instrument maker, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, to reflect the temperature range most people in Northern Europe experience. 0F is the temp of an ice, salt and water mix. Variously, the high point at 96 is said to be an average armpit temperature or the warmest outdoor temperature he could find in his area (now Gdansk, Poland).

Since his thermometers were very repeatable and well-made, they became the standard of how temperature is measured. That is, you can take two of Herr Fahrenheit's thermometers and they would give the same reading. No small feat back then.

The Fahrenheit scale, like most of the other non-metric measurements, evolved to reflect human experience. An acre is about as much as a man and a team of oxen could plow in a day. A mile is a 1000 paces of a marching Roman soldier, one horsepower is the work a strong horse can perform. An inch is about the length of a thumb knuckle or three barleycorns. A foot is well, a foot. ;D

The metric system was invented by the French.

Steve, " To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius (Centigrade), subtract 32 and divide by 1.8.

To convert Celsius (Centigrade) to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and add 32." (infoplease.com)

Kristel is right, 32 F is 0 C.

there's been extreme cold weather alerts here w/the wind chill ('feels like minus -26C' etc).

luc had frosty chin whiskers on our run last night and i looked down once and his nose was white!!!! (in a frosty way). all i could think was 'oh dear' and 'run faster so we get home before he gets frostbite or something'. he still had fun though (he can tolerate cold as long as we're moving)

Mr. Patrick,

2 F. this morning in CNY, or -16 C.