Deep Snow Pet Safety

My parents have a puppy who's now just shy of 6 months old and in our most recent snow storm the snow drifts reached the height of their porch.  The dog is a smaller breed and had only really experienced compacted snow that could bear his weight. Thinking that the snow was as solid as what he was used to, proceeded to walk off the edge and down into 2 feet of powder.  This, of course, greatly confused the dog who landed quite softly fortunately. But he really doesn't have a winter coat so it still posed a cold hazard.  The fix was to clear the snow around the porch to make sure it looks like a ledge and also to maintain better control of the dog.