Something to remember in the heat

I'm sure everyone will be thinking about keeping our pooches cool over the next few days but have you thought about the paws? A recent study showed that even grass will be bout 4C higher than ambient temps, concrete and tarmac significantly higher especially in direct sunshine. Just think of those paws over the next few days and keep contact with footpaths and roads to the minimum during heat of the day. take a moment if you can to just try and touch a pavement that is in the sun to feel exactly how hot they can get.

Good timely reminder Nath

Was just about to post about this! The weather is forecast to be 16•c tomorrow at 6am and up to 27•c by midday! Will be walking Bug very early morning at the river and then just playing with the hose/giving frozen treats for the rest.

its going make my job hard, as silly people still expect me to walk there dogs in the middle of the day, i have to try and find shade and water and every possible chance, and i have extra cool coats for customers dogs just incase

I just wondered what your average Summer temp would be over there ? We're in Oz and it gets very hot here and I'm so aware of this when walking my boy. Great timely reminder to take care of your fur babies

thanks Nath,i good thing to remember

Good reminder wish i had this heat problem in scotland

The other thing to watch out for if you walk on roads is melted tar.

And, avoid high energy games (chasing balls etc) in the heat. Dogs can't sweat to cool down and are liable to overheat. Overheating can be potentially very serious for dogs.

This is quite useful http://www.naturalnews.com/041021_pet_health_summer_heat_keeping_cool.html#ixzz3eTAZzhrO

Very useful particularly as you can buy protection for your dogs paws i also leave my curtains closed and window slightly open to prevent bees and wasps coming in my window .

Katie - I would absolutely refuse. I know that my dog walker changes her times when it's hot, and only walks near a water source so that they can cool off. You may be held liable if the dogs were to get heat stroke, and it's just not worth it. When I was dog walking I would do a long walk early morning and then pop around and do toilet breaks half way through the day when it was this hot! Bug was struggling at 7am!!

May be worth showing the owners whose dogs you walk this http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Health/Heat-Stroke/Symptoms.aspx If you believe walking a dog is going to be detrimental to their health kattie may be worthwhile speaking to your works manager of a way of explaining to certain owners without it being misconstrued in any way.

This time of year is no time for working dogs, today it hit 31.2C and that is no time to exert them.
I'm quite anal about food and training yet tonight me and the dogs sat down and they devoured a big tub of strawberry cookie and cream ice cream... what the hell lol... they deserve it. if you cant treat them then whats the point? foremost they are my pets.

Awww a big ice cream sesh sounds good! Have to be so careful here as average Summer day is 35c+ & often rolls into early 40's, not nice for any of us! Enjoy spoiling your fur babies!!

We aren't used to this kind of heat Bek. Normally we get mid to high 20's in summer but this is hot very early in our summer. We are expecting up to 35 weds (tomorrow) in the south.

Guess I'll be in shorts for work

Never thought of that Nathan cheers, supposed to hit 28 in Scotland today so just taking her a wee walkk now and to river before lunch its about 500 metres from here. Thunderstorms later yikes.

Not madly hot in S Cumbria but it was 28F when we got back from our walk at 11am - pretty humid and uncomfortable bearing in mind the average temp for June here was around 14F. Bo was really hot and he's stretched out on the couch now, where he'll stay for a few hours I'll guess. I took water and his bowl and he was thirsty every ten minutes from running on the beach and on the grass. He gets frozen yoghurt kong every day but last night I gave him frozen yoghurt chunks too.

Strawberry and cream ice cream yummy wow

about keeping our pooches cool over the next few days but have you thought about the paws?

great reminder ..
thanx :-)

i've been pre-testing grass and pavement by touch ..
not too bad around here .. although have kept to shaded grass for the most part .. with a dash to the river for her to paddle in ..

made her 2 cooling-jackets from an old t-shirt ..
soak 'jackets' in water then stick in fridge ..
( not the freezer as it becomes a solid lump of frozen material that's almost impossible to untangle )
keeping them in the car ice-box when we go out ..
she seems to like them whilst in the car ..:-)

she doesn't like being hosed-down / or having water scooped on her from the river .. or a bottle .. although i'll still do it to cool her ..
( but she doesn't mind rain at all )

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adding a pic of her in her 'cooling-jacket'
'n enjoying a cold mango lassi drink ..

Still way too hot here. Flo is laying on the nice cool kitchen tiles, I guess there are worse rooms to be in

Won't be taking her for a walk until much much later if it cools down, otherwise I think she'll be having a lazy day

Great info Nath,yes I have taken to checking pavement with my hand, and almost always take Vin in wood under trees,but will stick to early morns and some play at home if its like today all summer

Always check the pavement its a must specially if ur dog isnt used to heat ie: scotland i hate weather very unpredictable at times

See if you can hold the back of your hand on the hot tarmac for more than 5 seconds - if not then its too hot for the dogs tootsies. We're lucky in that we have a long green belt running down the centre of our road so we can nip over then stay under the trees. I usually wait til about 8pm for his second walk of the day and even then he pants

For the last week or so we have been getting up at six to take Misty to the river to walk. It's just too much in the day and then if it cools down enough we are going out late at night around nine pm but most days it's been to much still in the evening and she only pestered for a second walk last night. We took her out about half eight as it's been a lot cooler yesterday and today. Off out again around eight tonight. I bought a fantastic water bottle from sports direct for one fifty that she drinks out of and when it's finished it rolls up into a tiny ball. Take it on all our walks now!