Weather resistance

[mklamcc]

I was talking to a man who had a Great Dane and he said that his dog had very little resistance to hot or cold weather. Since EM have similar coats I was wondering if the same applies to them.

 

[Marrowshard]

It's less to do with the coat and more to do with the neoteny in mastiff breeds. Basically, the shortened muzzle can monkey with the nasal passages and make breathing more difficult (which is why many mastiffs snore loudly, snuffle a lot, etc.) and hotter weather exacerbates this. There is also a tendency among some mastiffs (show-style DDBs come to mind) towards narrow nares (nostril openings) that cause further impedence and intolerance to heat. A short muzzle is just less effective at allowing nasal blood vessels to dump excess heat on an exhale, that's all.
As to cold weather tolerance, I've not had a mastiff that couldn't hack it in sub-zero temps even with the single coat EM. All the same, Oscar has a winter jacket for extreme cold and we keep an extra close watch on his paw pads to make sure the ice doesn't cut them up.

~Marrow

 

[mklamcc]

Thanks! I was more concerned with the cold than the hot since we are going into winter and my dogs stay inside more often than not in the summer. I've got a lab and a German Shepard/Great Pyranese so they don't like the heat but love the cold so most likely Leo will be with them. Just wanted to make sure that would be a good idea.

 

[DennasMom]

Our Dane/lab mix LOVED the cold, but if we were sitting out side and not moving (i.e. a football tailgate), he had a sweater or raincoat he could wear. He occasionally did shiver... which is when the sweater would come out.

We also had a Shepherd/Pyrn (plus rottie) mix - which was our first dog - and he was NEVER cold, so we were a bit flabbergasted when we had to put a sweater on our 100lb Dane puppy!!