To tell you not to bring your dog out in the extreme heat

[MarySmit]

It's over 30c during the day here, and yet people are still taking their dogs out during the midday heat. This includes brachycephalic dogs, like French Bulldogs and pugs, who are particularly vulnerable. I know a vet nurse, who has seen dogs die recently of heat stroke. Yet people still take them out.

Mines going out at 5 am and 8 pm still a bit warm at 8 so she has her big walk in the morning
I work in a very touristy village and so many poor dogs were being walked in the middle of the day panting and struggling

My girl has a vet visit next week at 9.50 I'm hoping it cools down a bit

I've just got back from Italy where it was almost 40 degrees every day. I saw loads of dogs being walked during the hottest time of the day. I'm not saying it's right but people seemed to have no qualms about it. Is it possible that dogs in hot countries become acclimatised to the extreme heat?

I've just taken ddog for his walk, the amount of people I've seen walking them in the middle of the day is just daft. I wfh and face the street so I see..

Same here!

6.15am alarm for a 6.30am walk tomorrow. This mornings was cool and misty. Bliss!

I saw a woman standing outside Aldi with a husky at 3:30 today. It was 32 🤦🏻‍♀️

This. 30C is hot, but it depends on your dog, where they are being walked and what steps are taken to keep them cool. It was fine where I am until 11am or so, but was 30C by about 2.

It's hot for the UK, but it's not objectively that hot.

As every time the sun comes out, social media, especially the local Facebook groups, is awash with people saying the same thing, one can only assume that the people you are addressing are either not on social media or are ignoring you (and all the hundreds of other too-hot-to-walk-dogs messengers) so, yes, YABU.

You can just not bother posting on social media and you’ll still see 10 or more messages a day saying the same. It’s not working, is it?

If you really care, rather than gratifying yourself with a bit of quick and easy virtue-signalling, maybe have a think about something actually useful you could do instead of typing the same few words on social media that the world and his wife have already typed hundreds of times this year.

Honestly angers me so much.

I saw somebody on Monday running with a dog on a lead being dragged along on the pavement. Headphones in otherwise I'd of shouted to her from the car that she needs to leave dog at home.

We have a sprocker spaniel (high energy) and he's going nuts not having his usual walk for a couple of hours sometime between 11am and 2pm (I'm on mat leave).

We've been taking him at 7:30pm over to the field with the baby in a nappy in her pram so her and the dog can cool down, it's hotter indoors right now.

My sister is a dog trainer/walker and does dog sitting and she's cancelled all of her clients walks from 10am and offers slots for group dog walks at 7am and 8:30am in the woods or a home visit instead. The amount of people who are not happy with this is insane.

So dogs in Spain, Italy and the south of France (amongst many others) should just not get walked for many months of the year?

Someone was walking their HUSKY on the school run yesterday 🤦 I have huskies, they were at home on the wooden floor of our nice cool house, not pavement walking at 3pm on a 28-30c day!

I'd imagine people in hot countries and dogs that live there, have different habits and lifestyles and avoid the hottest times of day as best they can.

Walking dogs before sun up and after sun down. They might have pools in the very hot countries or a paddling pool for the dogs to cool down. Or sprinklers.

I think some people are probably capable of thinking their dog doesn't need a 2 hour mountain walk in 35c heat at 1pm when they could have an hour at 6am and an hour at night in a shady forest.

Wow, you are a horrible person. I haven't seen this on social media. Clearly lots of people don't know about this, given the number of dogs out.

My Peke has not been walked all week. Yorkie mix went yesterday morning but that’s it until it gets cooler after the weekend.

Wouldn't dream of walking ours in these temperatures. We have a big garden and she has spent 3 days playing in her swimming pool .

I'm in Melbourne and in hot weather walk my dog at 6.00.a.m. He needs two good walks a day. The afternoon/evening one is the problem in Melbourne, as the hottest part of the day is 3.00 - 6.00. I test the west-facing patio outside my house and if it's too hot for bare feet it's too hot for paws. Often walks have to be delayed until 7-8 in the evening which is hard on the dog as, like all dogs he has an internal clock. I'm fortunate in living close to the sea, so go to the dog beach on hot evenings.

Meh. I lived in Hong Kong for years, it’s really hot there and dogs get walked any time of day, and get out on big hikes up the mountains too.

Before that I grew up in Canada in farm country, lots of farm dogs are never allowed inside even if it’s -30C outside.

I’ve spent long periods in Turkey and France, saw lots of dogs in 40C heat in both places.

Dogs are much more adaptable than you think. I’m not talking about the bulldog types that have been bred to extinction, but generally speaking. For instance, I’ve seen lots of Huskies in Hong Kong who were all doing fine. Funnily enough, in Hong Kong there are “extreme cold warnings” urging you to keep dogs indoors when the temperature drops below 15C. That must be a real bummer for huskies.

I think you should perhaps mind your own business and consider that different people have different perspectives, and maybe they know their dogs better than you do. Or they’ve had dogs in different countries, and they know that dogs are not as susceptible to heat (or cold) as you think.

We saw a big husky dog with a big white fluffy coat the other day. It had just laid down on the floor, panting, and was refusing to move with its owner trying to coax it up. They didn’t seem to have brought water for it or anything 😢 😢 The poor dog was basically wearing a fluffy puffa jacket out in the heat, walking on tarmac, whilst the owner was in shorts and a tshirt. No wonder it didn’t want to move, I felt so sorry for it.

Generally warmer countries don't have the same cheap tarmac as we have (one of the big issues with walks aside from overheating is burning their paws on the paths/roads etc), walk at cooler parts of the days, dogs like other creatures acclimatise and you tend to get breeds who can better cope with it, places are usually better served by air con. People who walk their dogs here when it's roasting hot are irresponsible but are either ignorant or don't care. This doesn't apply to those who have to take their dogs out to the vet or whatever else who make a balanced decision and know it's important they go.

I think you should perhaps mind your own business and consider that different people have different perspectives, and maybe they know their dogs better than you do. Or they’ve had dogs in different countries, and they know that dogs are not as susceptible to heat (or cold) as you think.

Yes we should all turn a blind eye to animal abuse and ignorance which causes harm. Its strange then isn't it by your logic that vets see tonnes of heatstroke and other related illness and injuries in dogs in the summer in this country.

Yanbu

My golden retriever has an early morning walk involving water - a river or the sea. And a flop in the shade in the garden if he fancies it later on. But the fact he is volunteering g to go indoors while I garden tells me it's too hot in the middle Of the day for him.

Some people shouldn't have dogs.

Also, in much hotter countries, the dogs (like the people) acclimatise.

Short bouts of intense heat (such as what happened as the English schools went back) are much harder to cope with when you're furry with limited sweat options.

Some dogs do need to pop out for toileting (provided the pavement isn't really burning hot) but that should be as short as is necessary with as much shade as possible and water to hand.

DDog is a bit fed up as she's only getting one proper walk a day at the moment (we're just back in from it)

I think it's good OP has started this thread and cannot understand some of horrible replies on here

Have to take mine for a check up this afternoon and it’s a vets I always walk to (don’t drive) for routine appointments. Dreading the accusing stares but the dog needs to go.

Ordinarily I’d never take a dog out when it’s this warm.

I still walk my 2 bichons in the woods.
When I was in Spain recently there were all sorts of dogs out on walks, in towns and on the beach in 35c heat. I do think we massively exaggerate everything in the uk.
Probably not a good idea to take your dog sunbathing but it's fine if there's sheltered spots. 30c is really not that hot.

Why not take him once the subs gone down? Don't get it??