i would make sure you monitor her time outside and maybe keep it supervised. Her coat is not very thick at 20 weeks so that is something to keep in mind.

on another note... just wait until she sees the snow. She will LOVE it and will want to stay outside longer than she should.

You could try a small coat for now, but she will obviously outgrow whatever you buy her very quickly.

I would just say limit outside time to 20-30 min and anything more than a potty break i'd keep supervised.

 

I am no epert, but in my experience, your puppy will know when she is ready to come inside. Keep an eye out for cues from her. If she starts shivering, head on in. I also agree that any time outside beyond a potty break should probably be supervised, or at least monitored every couple of minutes, as you have been doing.

 

What I've been doing with the fenced in area before the cold is when I let her out there I check on her every few minutes, maybe five minutes at the most. I let her in either when I see she is at the door, or if she has switched from running around and playing to laying down. It's not a big area but she likes to run around in there like a little nutcase.

And I'm looking forward to seeing her reaction to snow. I get the feeling that she will have a blast and not want to come in.

 

As long as she is dry and she is active, it should not be a problem to let her be outside with supervision with those temperatures. We do not experience anything much colder than that ever here but the girls have never minded cold dry weather. If she gets wet, warm towels make a puppy happy and sleepy.

 

In my experience if your dog is cold you will know. Our last dog was a short haired pitbull and she would start to stand still and shiver if she had too much cold weather. But even she didn't get really cold unless it was around 10 degrees or below, and she was fine in that weather with a fleece jacket. Our golden pup (5.5 months) seems impervious to cold. She went wading in the water today and we have snow on the ground here. She has been out for hours with us in the snow and pretty cold temps (19-20 degrees) and was still bounding gleefully through snow drifts when we got home, with no signs of being uncomfortable. I don't know how hairy your dog is but mine has tons of hair. Its not long, but its super thick. So I think you should be able to take her out no problem. In my experience most dogs I've had like cold weather better than hot...as long as they get to come in and sit by a fire afterwards.

 

I had her out earlier for a little over an hour playing and it didn't seem to bother her at all. She just came in from outside now. She was out on her own for about ten minutes and when I saw her sitting near the door while checking up on her I let her in. She was just staring at the space heater (all enclosed, nothing she can get hurt on). She is unsure of that so far. The vents on the outside move and she barks at it. She barks at the weirdest things sometimes. Uh...now she moved to staring at her reflection in the fireplace glass.

 

It was colder here on the weekend - windchill of 10 degrees Farhenheit (minus-12 Celcius). I had Shala out in the forest. She doesn't have a really thick coat or undercoat yet either, but when I checked her, she was like a little furnace. She was bounding around, playing with another dog, chasing squirrels, and definitely kept herself toasty warm.

I think as long as they are active, they're good. Sort of like us.

 

Someone just asked my puppy's breeder about this last night on facebook. I will paraphrase her answer and if Penny's Mom sees this she can vouch for my accuracy in telling this- basically with baby puppies, they are good at telling you when it's too cold because they will lift their paws up and down. They don't have the callouses yet that might protect from the extreme temperatures. Paw pads are the big issue with the baby puppies. If they are moving and it's daylight and they aren't shivering or lifting paws up and down, a good 20- 60 minutes might be OK. Our breeder has a very good tip with the young ones- she goes outside without gloves and if her hands get too cold her baby puppies come back inside with her.