[Gail P]

Watch her and she'll tell you how long she can stay out. If she's shivering and holding up paws then she's feeling the cold and either needs to go in or wear a coat and/or booties. If she's running and playing and having fun chances are she'll not notice the cold too much. My dogs stay out for hours even in that kind of cold, but they're always running/playing/hiking with me (yes I'm out in it too, they're not just stuck out in the yard) or they're in harness pulling my sled. btw, none are huskies, most are border collies and mixes and most have a short but double coat. A couple are pretty smooth with less undercoat but none seem to really feel the cold as long as they stay active. Sometimes in extreme cold they'll hold a foot up for a few seconds but then they get moving and seem to "run it off" and not act cold anymore.

For the problem of ice balls, if you don't want to use booties there are other options. One is to trim the hair short on the underside of the foot and between the pads which will help prevent the snow from sticking. Also, when you notice she's got ice balls it's easy to melt them loose with your fingers. You'll have to take off your glove or mitt but you can kind of pinch the base of the ice ball and the heat from your fingers will cause it to loosen from the hair. It's better to get them out right away than to wait until you go inside and put her feet in water. If she's running around playing the ice balls can cause bruising to her feet. Think how uncomfortable it would be to have a stone in your shoe and run on it. There are also wax-based preparations you can buy to help protect the pads and prevent snow and ice balls from forming. Once such product is called Musher's Secret. Another alternative is a zinc based cream. I keep a tub of diaper rash ointment in my truck in case I need it for any of my dogs feet. It's a mix of zinc oxide, lanolin, beeswax etc.

I never let the cold stop me from getting my dogs out. They so look forward to their daily run around the fields when I'm out doing the farm chores and they love to go sledding in any weather.