7 dog breeds that love cold weather, according to the AKC

A dog that noses open the back door at the first sign of snow and refuses to come back inside tells its owner something about where its ancestors came from. Plenty of dogs want nothing to do with winter. They tiptoe across frozen lawns, finish their business in seconds, and head for the nearest radiator. Others come alive once the temperature drops, rolling in drifts and lingering on walks long after their people have lost feeling in their fingers. The difference shapes daily life for anyone who endures long, dark winters. A household picking a new companion in a snowy region has good reason to ask which dogs will welcome the season and which will resent it. Lineage explains much of the split. Dogs developed for harsh climates carry the insulation and instincts their original jobs demanded.

Enthusiasm for snow does not make a dog immune to it. Dense fur and a heritage of frigid work can lull an owner into leaving a dog outdoors for longer than its body can handle. Frostbite and hypothermia remain real dangers, even for animals descended from dogs that labored in punishing conditions. A dog's eagerness to stay out reveals nothing about how much exposure it can safely take. The decision about how long an outing should last belongs to the person holding the leash, and no breed label removes that responsibility. Choosing a dog suited to the climate solves one problem. Watching how long it stays outside on the bitterest days addresses another.

The American Kennel Club took up the question in a brief editorial roundup by Randa Kriss, published Feb. 3, 2023. The piece names seven breeds that can enjoy some time in chilly weather and sketches each through details of its origins, early duties, or coat. Kriss presents the dogs in no ranked order, assigns no scores, and does not explain how the seven made the cut. She attaches a safety warning about these risks and points readers to a companion piece, "Hypothermia in Dogs: How Cold Is Too Cold?" The slides below cover all seven entries in the order the article lists them, and their numbers reflect that sequence alone.

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Freight hauling across the Arctic shaped the Alaskan Malamute's career, and no Arctic sled dog is older or larger. A thick, coarse coat keeps the dog warm on the job. Its imposing size fits the task. Moving cargo rewards a dog with the mass to lean into a harness under load, and the Malamute brings more of it than any rival.

Its lineage runs back to the Indigenous people of Alaska, who kept the Malamute for work. Travel Alaska places it among the most ancient dog breeds on record. A sturdy, wide chest and dense hair give the dog a powerful build. Modern sprint racers tended to pick other dogs, yet Arctic peoples held this one in high regard. The contrast reveals the breed's purpose. Its frame favors stamina over bursts of speed.

Spitz dogs such as malamutes and huskies carry a two-layer pelt, with an inner layer beneath an outer guard layer suited to far-northern conditions. The same insulation becomes a liability in Australia, where these dogs can overheat with little strain. The trade-off clarifies the Malamute's place. A pelt that traps heat serves the dog in the terrain its ancestors knew and weighs on it once temperatures climb. Owners in sultry regions face the same mismatch. A double layer meant to block the cold offers the dog no escape from summer swelter.

Alaska's dogsled mail routes offered another proof of the Malamute's hardiness. Accounts of the mail runs portray the dogs as strong animals with heavy coverings and furry paws. They thrived on dried salmon and needed no special shelter. A driver could keep such a team going with simple provisions and no kennel to build. Modest needs and a weatherproof body made the Malamute a dependable partner across the Far North, where ease of care counted as much as muscle.

Credit: Pixabay / Picryl

Arctic ancestry equips the Keeshond for cold climates, and a coat of unusual thickness kept the dog warm while it stood watch aboard riverboats in Holland. The breed's northern lineage and its Dutch career drew on the same asset. The fur its far-northern forebears carried let the Keeshond hold its sentry post on the water in comfort.

Dutch boat crews kept Keeshonden as guards, companions, and ratters as the vessels moved along the country's canals and rivers. Years of riding those barges gave the breed one of its nicknames, the Dutch barge dog. Its value on board reached past its tolerance for cold and covered sentry duty, pest control, and companionship. A single animal handled the work of a watchman, an exterminator, and a friend for the crew.

The Keeshond is a medium-size spitz whose plush pelt pairs a dense undercoat with a longer outer layer. Pale fur sits close to the skin, and the long gray hairs on top end in black tips. Many owners bathe and blow-dry the dog every three to six weeks, according to Britannica. Trimming the hair around the feet and pads keeps the dog looking tidy. The density that shielded a working dog on the canals asks steady effort of a modern owner. Anyone drawn to the breed for its winter hardiness accepts the upkeep that comes with the insulation.

Britannica describes the breed as able to adjust to many settings, cold weather among them. Its exercise needs sit in the middle of the canine range, at 45 minutes to one hour a day, according to Britannica. A household in a snowy region gains a dog willing to keep that walking routine through winter, though limits on time outdoors still apply on the bitterest days.

Keeshonden have a reputation as smart, affectionate, and outgoing dogs, and children find a gentle playmate in them. A loud, stern bark makes the breed a capable watchdog, even as its mild nature makes it a poor protection dog. The bark that made the breed useful on the water carries over to land, where a Keeshond can alert a household the way it once alerted a boat crew. A carrying voice and a sociable nature suit an animal that served barge crews as both guard and companion. Households with children inherit the same blend of vigilance and affection those crews relied on.

Illustration: Quartz

A heavy coat shielded the Newfoundland from the icy water where the breed first went to work. The dog's original labor put it in frigid conditions, and its fur formed the barrier between the animal and that chill.

Kriss calls the Newfoundland ideal for colder weather, and she grounds that judgment in the protection its pelt offered during water work. Her reasoning runs from job to climate. A dog that once needed insulation against icy water keeps that insulation wherever winter arrives.

Water sets this dog apart from the rest of the list. The other six entries trace their winter credentials to sled hauling, riverboat guard duty, hunting, snowstorm rescue, or fur alone. Only the Newfoundland built its reputation in the water, and its case rests on the idea that a pelt made for icy currents serves equally well in cold air.

Illustration: Quartz

The Norwegian Elkhound carries Nordic traits inherited from its past as an ancient Scandinavian dog that hunted in the frigid land where it originated. Kriss portrays the breed as used to pursuing game in that climate. Winter set the terms of its work from the beginning.

Hunting separates the Elkhound from every other working history on the list. The remaining jobs Kriss describes involve hauling, guarding, water work, and rescue. The Elkhound is also the only entry she labels ancient, which places its bond with harsh weather deep in its lineage.

The breed's Nordic qualities have endured across that long history, according to Kriss. She describes the Elkhound as an excellent partner for cold weather, a label no other entry on her list receives. The description moves the emphasis from the field to the household. It suggests that a dog shaped by hunting in severe weather can also share winter routines with an owner.

The Elkhound entry never mentions fur. Among the seven, only the Saint Bernard's entry shares this gap, and both rest their case on history alone. An owner in a snowy region weighing this dog has its heritage of hunting through wintry country as the main clue to how it may handle seasonal outings.

Illustration: Quartz

A huge double coat insulates the Tibetan Mastiff against the cold. Two layers of fur stack one over the other, giving the dog more than a single barrier against chilly air.

The Mastiff's winter case rests on its fur and its birthplace. The breed developed in the cold of the Himalayan Mountains, a homeland that matches the heavy insulation it carries. Other dogs on the list proved themselves through work, such as the Newfoundland in icy water and the Saint Bernard in Alpine snowstorms. The AKC entry for the Mastiff names no comparable job. Its pelt and its mountain origins do all the explaining.

A household in a snowy region sizing up this dog can treat its layered pelt as the feature that readies it for winter. The protection travels with the animal on every outing.

Illustration: Quartz

The Siberian Husky thrives as temperatures fall, and its fur grows thicker than that of most other dogs. No other entry on the list measures a dog's pelt against the wider canine world. Several of the others earn words such as thick, heavy, or huge, but the Husky alone gets an explicit comparison with most other breeds.

Two distinct layers build this density. Closest to the skin sits a packed undercoat with a softness likened to cashmere. Over it lies a longer, coarser top layer.

The pairing sets the Husky apart from its neighbors on the list. The Alaskan Malamute's entry describes a thick, coarse outer texture and stops there. The Tibetan Mastiff also carries a double coat, yet its description covers size and insulation and says nothing about how each layer feels.

A working past backs up the fur. The Husky originated in the frigid climate of Northeast Asia, and breeders developed it to pull sleds. Its job puts it among the laboring dogs on the list, alongside the Malamute that hauled freight, the Keeshond that guarded riverboats, and the Saint Bernard that found freezing travelers in snowstorms.

The Husky does its sled work in a lighter frame than its Alaskan cousin. A Malamute can top 75 pounds, while a Husky averages around 60 pounds at most, according to Travel Alaska. The smaller build makes the Husky quick enough for sprint races, and it still has the stamina for the long run to Nome.

An owner weighing the Husky for a snowy home has two clues to judge. One is a pelt denser than most dogs carry. The other is a lineage built around hauling sleds through Northeast Asian winters.

Illustration: Quartz

The Saint Bernard comes from the Swiss Alps, where people first put the dog to work finding travelers left freezing and helpless during snowstorms. The job sent the dog into the same storms that had overwhelmed those people. A rescuer that shied from drifts would have done them no good.

Kriss credits that history with leaving the Saint Bernard accustomed to cold, snowy regions. Her case for this dog rests on heritage alone. Entries for the Alaskan Malamute, Keeshond, Newfoundland, Tibetan Mastiff, and Siberian Husky each point to fur as a source of warmth, but the Saint Bernard's entry never mentions a coat. Only the Norwegian Elkhound shares that distinction, earning its place through inherited hunting traits.

Rescue work also sets the Saint Bernard apart from the rest of the roundup. Other dogs on the list hauled freight, guarded riverboats, toiled in icy water, or hunted. This one searched for people in distress. Its winter labor centered on human beings in danger, not on cargo, property, or game.

Alpine roots put the Saint Bernard in small company on the list. Elsewhere in the roundup, origins point to the Arctic, Holland, Scandinavia, Northeast Asia, or the Himalayas. Only one other entry, the Tibetan Mastiff, which developed in the Himalayan Mountains, names a mountain range as a breed's home. Together, the two dogs show that a breed can acquire its ease in harsh winters amid high mountain cold, well outside the polar north.