Your bum gets cold without any dog beds to sit on

When you take a working dog out, you have to remember that you have taken him off his warm, cosy dog bed. Yes, when they are asleep at home, they MUST have a warm bed for all those many hours where they are lying still as the creeping cold from the floor can do tremendous damage by chilling the dog through and through. But frankly, it is amazing how tough dogs actually are when they are working.

I was out picking up on a shoot with my biggest Wirehaired Pointer and it was pretty damn cold. There were about three centimetres of snow on the ground and all very, very pretty. When you pick up, you stand behind the people, who shoot and watch what is happening. Sometimes you have a bad drive and there is not a lot to do in the place you are standing, so in that instance the dog must sit absolutely still and just watch what is happening. As I stood there with my dog I wondered what it would look like underneath him as he sat for about 20 minutes, not on one of his lovely dog beds, but straight on the snow in the forest. He was moving his front paws from side to side so he could turn his front to see what was happening, but his bum was firmly anchored. When I begged him to move, this was the print underneath him. I thought it was incredibly cute and took a photo.

Dog paw prints in the snow

It is a sign of a very well behaved dog and it also shows that when they concentrate on something that is their true passion, they feel the cold even less. What a good boy. I am glad to say that he suddenly got an important job to do as a bird had fallen inside the walled garden and it had to be picked quickly. The day was over and he was back in the car enjoying his warm, waterproof dog bed.