Eric is really struggling with the warm weather. He is a show breed and has thick brown fur, lots of. He's like a bear! Just wanted to see if you had any other ideas for me to help him keep cool as the weather is only going to get warmer this week. We walk him early morning (before 11 am) but will walk him earlier as it gets hotter. Then a walk late evening. Always to somewhere with water - Sea, pond, muddy stream! Paddling pool in garden through the day. Dining room is fairly cool and he snoozes on the floor in there. Water obviously always available We don't give him many treats as nearly everything apart from his kibble and strangely enough hotdogs upsets his tummy. I have given him a little bit of cucumber and he seems ok with that and i thought that might help. Could I freeze some kibble in a kong? - would I just put it in whole with cold water and freeze? How about ice lolly moulds? Anything else I'm missing to help him?
We are just over a horrible heat wave with one day where the humidex reached over 40C (~103F) The only thing I can see is, 11 am is not really early, at least not here. I try to be out at 7 am and our walks are shorter in the heat, maybe only 20 minutes. Oban needs his legs iced after each walk. It takes only 10 minutes but has a dramatic effect on his panting as well as his leg. I have velcro cold packs to wrap around his legs. Maybe if your pup is panting hard those would help cool him down too?
Yes 11am isn't really early is it? He has a 20 min walk at 6.30, breakfast at 7.30 then a snooze. His morning walk is more of a longer walk and usually involves some off lead. Wonder If we should take him straight out. The sea is a 20 min drive away, we could do that as his first walk (7am ish) giving him some off lead time too then breakfast when we get back. Then some training games at home till his evening walk? Does that sound better? x
I think that sounds like a good idea. Give him an hour walk at 7:00, and breakfast after that. Training games and home, and another walk in the evening. That's what we do here when it gets hot.
Max has a chilled bone toy which I fill with water and leave in the freezer! He loves mouthing at it after a hot walk, sometimes a cold wet flannel from the fridge helps cool down his hair too as he's black it gets super hot in the sun! On the very hot days I walk him before 8 and again after 7/8 in the evening When it is so warm he just prefers to snooze the day away on the floor
I have cooling gel pads for Snowie. The gel crystals react to temperatures over 27 C, become liquid and become freezing cold. I put down two of these pads for him to sleep on at night (the pads are quite small, about 40cm x 40cm) and we know when he's really hot cos he goes to lie on them straight away. In the height of summer I rub a gel pack (that has been in a freezer) over him, and when he's lying down, I put the gel pack under his chest. He decides when to move off it, but if he's really hot, he doesn't budge. I have read of people making up very watery chicken/veg soup and then freezing it in bowls, and then giving this giant lolly to their dogs on the grass in the garden to lick and cool off with.
I put the crumbly bits left over in his bag of treats into ice-cube moulds, added water and froze them. I'm going to use them as ice-lolly treats for when it (finally) gets hot here....
Doug had breathing difficulties and if the heat was terrrible i would go to any place that had air con and would let us in. My local dog training venue had air con and I would take him there at least once a week when it got really hot. I had a paddling pool and would sponge all my dogs down I also used a cold pack frozen khongs and ice cubes and damp towels for them to lie on. I also had a fan which Doug loved.
Thank you for all the replies He is totally flaked bless him. we have changed his day which is helping. Today he has had an hour at the beach 7-8am which he loved. He has dozed on and off most of the day. The pool is out and he has had some ice cubes. He's alseep now on the fire place marble - can only just fit lol I'm only taking him out again tonight if it cools down more otherwise i'm leaving him to sleep
