(As for a doggy sweater, I'm not sure that's something I'm too keen on.)
Why not? If it's cold where you live like it's cold where I live, it's pretty hard to watch a smooth coated, short haired dog shiver when outside. But they still need walks. The coat or sweater doesn't have to be fu fu as shown with that red one. It can be very masculine, in fact. My dogs are not the fu fu type. They're mountain dogs. LOL.
The Chihuahuas have faux sheep skin coats which are reversable...one side is faux suede and the other is sheep fleece...the kind ranchers in Montana wear out on the range when they're on their horses, hunkered down against the wind and the below zero temps. It even has two pockets on either side to put something valuable in. I got these coats at Petsmart I think....not very expensive.
The one I had for Lyric, my Doberman was a "leather" bomber jacket with tan colored fleece lining. Ya can't get more macho than that. LOL. I wouldn't be caught dead with my dogs wearing some frilly little teddy thing, no matter if I am a girl.
He also wore a snood....a long tubular, black cozy hat thing that covered his ears which were at risk for frost bite. It came down on his neck. The coat, he sort of out grew, but it cut the chill down. And here he is in all his manly splendor:
And Chulita modeling the matching coat she and Jose` both wear when it's very cold. Jose` doesn't need one as much as Chuli as his own coat is thicker. Plus, he gets pee on his coat sometimes.....an anatomical issue.
And the reverse:
If you live where it's cold and you have a dog with very short, thin hair, I hope you'd do like you would for yourself when it's cold. I mean, you wouldn't go out in the snow stark nakid would you? With just a few sprigs of hair here and there? Rfffffff!