# Walking in the Rain



## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

I walk my dogs no matter what the weather... I even try when it's storming but Tucker won't have any of it and runs back towards the door.

My dogs drink from puddles from time to time and its never bothered them, so I'm not sure what to suggest about that.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Regular steady or misty rain - I grab the umbrella and go.  

Torrential downpours - I stay home. 

Puddle drinking I don't really encourage. But it's not something I worry about too much. I imagine freshly downpoured rain's healthier than drinking runoff from chemically treated lawns. <- Which has happened and made me very nervous.


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## Golden999 (Jun 29, 2010)

GoldenLover84 said:


> I walk my dogs no matter what the weather... I even try when it's storming but Tucker won't have any of it and runs back towards the door.


I've walked my dog in a lot of rainstorms and even blizzards and he's always enjoyed it. He really seems to think of his walk like the postal service -- come rain, or snow, or sleet, or hail, the walk must go through. And I'm happy to put up with the weather for my dog (and I could use the exercise myself).

I've always figured that dogs are pretty hardy and a little rain won't hurt them as much as missing a walk. Him getting sick yesterday gave me pause, though, and is sort of making me second-guess myself. 



> My dogs drink from puddles from time to time and its never bothered them, so I'm not sure what to suggest about that.


It doesn't bother me that he drinks from puddles in the abstract -- as long as it won't harm his health. Around here, though, a lot of puddles look kind of blackish from industrial pollution (Lots of factories in this area), car exhaust, and so on and so forth. And there is a lot of litter in the area, and a bunch of other stuff. Plus, there's the usual bacteria and whatever is in unprocessed water. So, it kind of worries me in the sense of who knows what toxins are in there, which is why I try to prevent him from drinking out of them.

I try to remember that dogs generally have bodies that can better process that kind of stuff than humans can -- lots of immunities and so forth. And he's fully vaccinated. But I still worry about him. I guess I can only do what I can do it -- I pull on the leash, steer him away from puddles, and tell him "No." when he drinks out of them (and he only gets a sip or two at most out of any one puddle), but there may not be anything that can be done beyond that. It may just be one of those everyday risks that to some extent is unavoidable where the only real strategy is to minimize the risk as best I can.


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## Florabora22 (Nov 30, 2008)

I take my dog out regardless of the weather. She... LOVES the rain, a bit too much for my taste. She gets so filthy messing about in the puddles that I know a rainy walk = bathtime for Flora.


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## Win1 (May 15, 2007)

I have always walked in the rain unless it is a thunderstorm. I don't allow drinking from puddles. Here in Florida people use a lot of fertilizer here and I don't think that drinking from the run-off can be good.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

I like walking in the rain as much as my dogs do. I don't take them out when it's raining really hard or lightening though and they don't like a lot of thunder either.

My two like going out to play in the rain, it's almost a game for them because they like being toweled off afterwards. I get them pretty dry and the next I know they're back outside playing in it and the cycle starts all over again.


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## GinnyinPA (Oct 31, 2010)

Ben loves walking in the rain, unless there's close lightning. He also drinks from puddles, streams, canals, etc. He really prefers 'wild' water to the water in his bowl at home. He has only once gotten sick from it. Given the weather last spring and again this past week, if we didn't walk in the rain, we wouldn't be walking at all - and we'd all suffer from that.


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## Lisa_and_Willow. (Dec 18, 2007)

Here is the UK if we didn't walk in rain we would rarely go out! Neither of mine are bothered by rain so we just wrap up well and go.

I would discourage drinking from dirty puddles by roadsides. Mine drink from muddy puddles but that is away from car fumes, oil etc.

Hope you get better weather soon.


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## harrym (Nov 13, 2010)

Lucy won't drink from her water bowl if there is anything visible in the water [a tuft of hair, a piece of shredded paper], but she will drink from a puddle every time. She got sick once when our neighbor had just had her lawn treated and I'm sure the rain washed some of it away into the roadside puddles. She had diahrrea, nausea, and seemed very week. The vet gave her a shot of vitamins and cerenia to calm her vomiting, but she was pretty sick for about three days.


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## LifeOfRiley (Nov 2, 2007)

I love walking Riley in the rain. 
If it's an absolute downpour, we don't go because he doesn't want to be out there anyway. He'll just stand there, squinting and looking at me like "Why are we out here?" But if it's just a steady rain, I throw on my rain gear and we head out for our normal walks. He thinks it's just fabulous.

Riley avoids puddles like the plague and is way too prissy to drink from them, anyway, so it's not a concern for me. But I wouldn't let him do it, if he wanted to. I'd worry about all the nasty stuff in that water (pesticides, bacteria, etc.) and I would worry about Lepto.


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