North Missouri is obviously not Alaska, but our Gordons have all relished hunting in very cold weather, the colder the better for them. The cold has not seemed to diminish their ability to scent birds, either, as is sometimes the case for dogs in conditions with cold, dry air. Depending on the breeding, they can develop thick, heavy coats in winter. You'll need to clip the hair on their feet and apply some sort of treatment that keeps the snow from forming ice balls (or boot them) as with any breed with longer hair. I recommend Musher's Secret.
When it's minus 5 and you're just completed a two hour hunt and your dog is still joyfully rolling in the snow to cool off, you know they like and can handle it.
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“Every day I wonder how many things I am dead wrong about.”
― Jim Harrison
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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