Earlier this year we took Sami to Livigno, a postcard ski town in the Italian Alps near the Swiss border, and he saw real snow for the first time in his life. A Portuguese beach dog in a winter wonderland.

His first steps in the crunchy snow were everything you'd hope for. By the second morning we'd put a jacket on him - his coat is clipped so short that the famous Westie double coat wasn't going to do its job - and later came the boots, with actual puppy socks underneath. Anything for the toe beans. He was, naturally, a sensation everywhere we went. At one point we met another fully dressed dog and both parties stopped for formal introductions.

The most dramatic moment had nothing to do with snow: on our second morning, a fox was standing in front of our cabin. An actual fox - the animal this breed was literally created to hunt. Sami went absolutely out of his mind. I had the leash gripped tight while two hundred years of breeding screamed at him to go. Half an hour later, on a completely different street, he was still looking for that fox.

As for the snow itself: he got used to it within a day, wasn't especially impressed, and tried his signature beach move - rubbing his face in it, the way he does with sand - exactly once, before discovering that snow is wet, and he does not care for wet. By day two it was the most normal thing in his world.

So, do Westies like snow? Ours tolerates it with dignity, chases foxes through it with enthusiasm, and prefers his beaches. Breed-typical on all counts.

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