People walking their dogs when hot

catkins

Driving around today between 12pm and 2pm when it was absolutely baking I saw at least 7 people walking a dog or dogs. Every one of the dogs was plodding along panting like crazy and just looking very unhappy. Don't people realise how much dogs hate the heat and how bad it is for them. It does not take long at all for a dog to get heatstroke and die very quickly - a death that is obviously not at all pleasant.

I heard last week of a dog that died when the owner took it out on a hot afternoon (no where near as hot as today). It had a bit of a run then collapsed panting. She rushed it to a vet but it died from heatstroke.

I know not every dog owner can or maybe wants to walk their dog early in the morning but if you can't or don't want to then either don't walk them at all or take them out later towards evening when hopefully it should be cooler and it will must likely not be full sun.

It just annoys me - some people should not be dog owners

Molly41

I know it's silly. Mind you my dogs are dreadful for lying out in the sun or by the fire and panting like crazy. We couldn't get our dogs out the door at the moment they are just flopped on the tiles with the fan blowing straight on them. Oh what a life!

candygirl

I don't walk mine in the heat at all, as they can't breath in it.At the boot fairs this weekend there were tons of poor dogs being dragged round for hours, panting like mad.It's cruel:mad::mad:
Also one of my friend's staffies collapsed and died in the heat a while ago:(:(

elsien

Early walks are not always an option, unfortunately. If I'm working a 3 till 10 evening shift, I have to walk mutt before I go, although I do try to stay in the shade and keep it short.
I have been known to tell people off at carboots and outdoor markets though. It's not just the heat, it's the crowds and the poor beasts getting trodden on that gets to me.
Having said that, we walked home from a relatives last night at 7.30 pm and mutt collapsed on the pavement 2 doors from home and refused to shift even though it was down hill all the way. A combination of old age and humidity, I think. We won't be doing that one again.

tizerbelle

Big Dog doesn't do heat but her bladder/bowel does not distinguish between lunchtime in winter and lunchtime in summer.

She will not do any business in the back yard (and at 14 years old, that isn't going to change) so regardless of how hot it is or isn't, I have to take her out between 12 and 1pm during the week as that is when I'm on lunch and she can't hold things in.

We only go round the block - literally a block of terraced houses but there is nothing else that can be done, she has to have her comfort break - she goes out the back street at 6.30am for immediate morning needs, then we have a walk at 7/7.30. Lunchtime outing. Tea time walk about 5.30/6.30 and then bedtime walk 9.30/10.30.

So we do the early walks and the late walks but we still have to go out at lunchtime irrespective of the weather because Big Dog bladder and bowels insist.

scheming_gypsy

i refuse to walk mine when it's hot. I've got two and when i'm in the back door is open so they've got access to the garden and they can play with each other if they need to burn some energy.
If it's been hot for a few days i'll walk them fairly late and the big hairy madam will be panting away

lostinrates

Other reasons to maintain a summer walk include if you show/do any canine sports competitions etc are often summer weekends. Better to maintain a dogs fitness/resilience to heat daily than to suddenly take it out and expect it to thrive under conditions its not prepared for. Of course one has to be careful and midful of weather, and make adaquate provision. tizerbelle's big dog, a working dog etc.

Its about the appropriate responce to any given set of circumstances IMO.

I'd happily walk my dogs through out most of a british summer but not take them in the car. One of my showing friends routinely gets people calling her to her dogs in the car.....which she's had fitted with a special airconditioning thing that works when the car is off, and has tinted windows, the dogs are far cooler in there than on the benches with others.

Yoghurt_Pot

i walk my dog at about 8am in the morning, but i also bought a water bottle with a bowl attached to the bottle from the 99p shop and take that with me whenever i walk him too

Gothicfairy

I have no choice but to walk mine no matter what the weather so please don't think everyone out and about is a bad owner. They might just not have a choice and with animal shelters being full giving a dog away is just not possible for everyone either.
Mine would have to be put down if I didn't manage so I feel that them walking for a short time is better then that.

I take water and a folding bowl for them and also add sun block to their ears and nose and don't take them further then they can manage but going out is just something we have to do and they cope and are well and healthy.

catkins

Some interesting replies.

I don't know how to do multiple quotes so I will just reply as I can.

Elsien and Tizerbelle - I do appreciate that for various reasons not every dog can be walked early or late. You say that you only give them short walks and, if possible, stay in the shade and that is fair enough. Ok I don't know how long a walk the dogs I saw today had had or were having but they all looked to be honest knackered! Also each of them were being walked in full sun even when a couple of them were being walked along streets where the opposite pavement was in shade. Because I got stuck in jams I could see them walking for a while not just a couple of houses!

Lostinrates - your answer surprised me. Is it really possible to get dogs used to heat? I ask because I have a black long haired dog (well actually he is clipped now) who has hated the slightest heat since a puppy. He will actuall refuse to walk if he gets out the front door and he deems it too hot!

I walk him at about 6am in the summer (luckily I am an early riser anyway!) and either myself or OH walks him anytime between 9pm and midnight! As I say some days when I think it is not particularly hot we will refuse to walk so I don't try and make him. To be honest that is difficult anyway as he is a big strong dog.

There have been quite a few times when my dog walker says he refused to walk but I still pay her as she does not live that local!

He is almost 11 so would not try and get him used to heat anyway but for future reference I would be interested in your views

lostinrates

catkins wrote: »

Lostinrates - your answer surprised me. Is it really possible to get dogs used to heat? I ask because I have a black long haired dog (well actually he is clipped now) who has hated the slightest heat since a puppy. He will actuall refuse to walk if he gets out the front door and he deems it too hot!

Slightly dubiously I'm applying research from other animals (in this case horses and people) because I'm not aware of the rest. This is also old research and might be superceeded. Most data will be in human athletes prepping for overseas events...because this is the most common and the most lucrative and the easiest to research I guess!

You can improve performance in heat, yes. But you can't make a dog like yours like it, and in most cases, why bother? If its too hot for us to work comfortably its probably unwise to puch them, especially without things that for the ''ordinary pet owner'' like training schedules, nutritional support and electrolytes in water, are both unnecessary and not MSE. It won't add to most pets' or owners quality of life.

But I think about your dog and then think about someone I know who breeds begian shepards in Tuscany, the big black hairy subgroup whose name has floated out of my mind, and yes, they SEEM though I can't quantify that in any shape or form other than by appearance, more comfortable on days I think our dogs would be

Now, I am NOT suggesting we all start providing less cool and shelter to british dogs or running them ragged at midday.....that would be cruel and pointless and damaging. I am suggesting that for dogs whose demands include working on summer days...and that work may take different forms,( competitive, in the forces or maybe assistance dogs..I don't know anything about their care schedule) that it would be less kind NOT to evade heat all the time but then take them out on the day we have to which happens to be one of the hottest, because they ''have'' to work then. There would be a different way I'd deal with this, e.g. if I'd taken my dogs out today it would have been a lead walk, at walk, not a suggestion they run like the mad sighthounds they are across the stubbly fields, that we'd do at 8pm.


some dogs, like some people, would probably be unsuitable for this sort of thing, just like some of us can't cope in the heat (I for example, whimper in the heat, my dogs cope MUCH better!)

I got quite into diurnal impact on performanace and stress and complicating factors (like heat and venue) at one point, but not with dogs, and about ten years ago.