AIBU to shut the stupid dog in the study

[ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine]

It’s been absolutely roasting here (south England) for days. Our dog is small (literally smaller than a lot of cats) and fluffy, and black. She’s terrified of groomers and clippers, so I have cut her fur as short as I possibly can with scissors without actually cutting her, but its still just fluffy by nature and I think probably keeps her warmer than if she was a short haired breed.

This afternoon the patio was too hot to stand on in bare feet, even for a second. Just walking across it hurt my feet. I found said stupid fluffy black dog sprawled out sunbathing in direct sun in the middle of the scorching hot patio. I picked her up and her body actually felt hot to touch. So I brought her into the study where we have an air conditioner and shut her in. I’ve stayed in with her (I had some work to do anyway). She kept going to the door and yipping to be let out. She did eventually settle down but kept giving me grumpy looks.

I promise this dog is absolutely loved to bits, but am I right in thinking she’s stupid? I mean, if a human did that we’d think they were stupid. I thought dogs were supposed to have better survival instincts, but honestly I was really worried when I first picked her up and she was so hot. Does anyone else’s dog do this? I’ve never had a dog before and neither has DH so we have no experience other than her, and I’m now doubting her doggy credentials.

That does seem particularly stupid ! My cats are quite good at finding the coolest spot .

If it wasn’t for humans, dogs would have gone extinct long ago. They eat stuff even though it can kill them and, like you, I have to bring my dog in or she’ll lay cooking in direct sunlight.

We don’t shave our dog because she’s a spaniel so double coated which naturally controls temp. So many people do shave them which stops their bodies natural cooling.

Oh yes, the eating stupid stuff! We’ve twice had to take her to the vets to be made to throw up something she’s eaten than could kill her. And she can’t even do that in normal vet opening hours, she does it out of hours so that it costs twice as much! 🙄

She’s half Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and half Poodle. Which did get us the best of both worlds with the lovely docile lapdog (I’m a wheelchair user) that I’m not allergic to. Unfortunately I think it creates the worst of both worlds when it comes to fur. It’s great for not giving me an allergic reaction, not so good for keeping cool. I can cut it to less than a centimetre long, but it just has the texture of cotton wool.

I've got one like this, a terrier who will wrap herself into blankets or whatever she finds and lay there and pant rather than just move and would lay in direct sunlight for hours if I let her.
It's not lack of intelligence because she's clever enough about other stuff but not when it comes to heat.
She's small and white with a short coat, but it's really thick even in summer, so she can probably withstand more than a bigger or hairy dog but I do think she'd make herself ill left to her own devices!
The other one, a Spaniel, is really good, stays in the shade, brings the energy down and will go and lay on her cool mat or the lino stretched out in hot weather. She's more trainable than the JRT but doesn't have the 'smarts' the JRT does, except when it comes to keeping herself cool in hot weather, but she grew up on a farm with essentially a pack, so maybe it's learned behaviour that my other one didn't get.

The spaniel however will eat bloody anything, and I mean anything. Luckily she's obedient and 'Drop' was the first thing I taught her. The JRT will eat things she shouldn't but you have to wrestle it away from her if you want it off her, though hers is food based where the spaniel is literally anything that takes her fancy.

TL;DR - yup, my dogs are idiots too! 🤣

Attention seekers - they do this sort of shit so we humans stop what we're doing to make sure they're ok. Because they know we love them and feed them and they love us back and more; the bastards.

Mine does this. I work on the basis that he will come in if he is too hot.

I have spent the past four days doing this with my dog! She is white and fluffy and will lie directly on the drive in the Sun panting her head of looking distressed and absolutely boiling hot! Even though the door is open all the time and they’re are loads of shady spots in the garden.

She has always been a bit thick!

Our last black lab would do this- just lay in the sun
cooking himself, our current one is much more sensible and finds somewhere cool and shady. Think some are just sun worshipers!

I feel your pain. I've lost count of the amount of times I've had to drag our Rottweiler out of the full sun and convince him to come inside where the fans are on. He'd rather lay in the full sun panting like a steam train 🙄

We have both stupid dogs and cats!
Our conservatory can get to 45/50 do all the animals want to sleep there yes!
The smallest cat does love to sleep on my bed as there's a window above my bed so gets breeze.
Stupid double coated Shiba inu dogs try to cook themselves!

Our dog loves to sunbathe but seems to know when she is hot enough and alternates between the shady cooler patio and the grass. She doesn't want to be inside although when it gets to 30 I do bring her in (and she sulks too).

My two are from the med - both rescues, one spent years as a stray in temps much hotter than this. Thankfully now he’s old he’s starting to realise being cooler indoor is better. The younger one is both the cleverest and most stupid dog I’ve ever known & wants to lay out cooking herself.
Last year when we had that run of 30C days she was throwing a full on tantrum that I wouldn’t let her lay out in it 😂🤦‍♀️

@ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine fun fact, it’s better to not trim the fur short as it’s their insulation and helps regulate their body temps in both cold and hot temps. The fur traps cooler air in the summer and provides good resistance against UV rays, sunburn etc.

Sounds like my Labrador. I live in a hot country so our normal summer day time temp is around what your temp is at the moment. And he has two spots he likes the most when it's really hot.

Outside on the grass, baking. Often laying on his back.

Inside (always in the way) in the kitchen on the tiles.

I reckon he bakes himself as natures way of getting his vit d dose. Also he is very arthritic and I always thought he's sunning his bones.

Then he moves into the cold tiles to cool off.

And repeat.

My cats will find shade but stupid creatures won't drink their water. So I lock them in 11-3 unless they've had an adequate amount of water

You were totally right, your dog sounds like a fluffy divvy. Keeps doing whats best for her even when shes grumpy about it

I had to laugh OP because I was just about to ask if she is a half Cavalier king Charles and half poodle (Cavapoo) and then I saw your update. My dog is remarkably stupid too and the same breed. She eats stupid stuff all the time, she vomits quite often and we see all sorts coming back up.. hair bobbles are a favourite. She can jump onto a kitchen counter in one leap so it's hard to keep everything out of reach.

They won't dehydrate, but I admit in summer I soak ddogs pellets in a bunch of water and add some more before I feed him. So it's more like cold soup.

I also give him 'ice cream bones'. I get raw marrow bones and freeze them and give him one every now and then. Cleans his teeth and cools him down.

Sometimes I freeze chicken feet, but I am not sure if that is something you can buy there.

I was glad when my golden retriever was a pup that I happened to mention this phenomenon to a vet when I was there for something else. I said that I assumed pup was fine in the heat because he would surely move when he felt too hot. No, she assured me, many dogs are utterly stupid in this regard and you must not assume they will do what is good for them.

Mine loves sunbathing, then goes into the shade then back to the sun and repeat. Maybe I need to stop this? She is double / triple coated though. Or maybe just stupid 🤷‍♀️

Another thick dog owner here. He’d be exactly the same 😁

You have described my JRT who lies in the sun panting and looking at me . I now take her indoors and abandon the garden because she is my shadow. So frustrating!

That reminds me of a reel I saw earlier 🤣 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLnFVYgtm5M/?igsh=ZGsxZnUyZ2p2bjBk

Leave them too it! Mine are exactly the same they come in when they are too hot. Mine go from hot back garden to cold bathroom floor on repeat. They are fine. They won’t overheat so longs as they have the freedom to move out of the heat.

Our dog loved sunbathing. She had the whole run of the house and garden, plenty of shade, shelter and a bowl of cool water and would choose to lie on a baking drain cover until she started panting. Then she'd take herself off somewhere to cool down only to return to the drain cover and repeat the thing over again. I think she just genuinely was a sun worshipper.

We had a cat years ago who would choose to lie on top of the boiler until she was sick on the worktop. Which is nothing compared to my mum's cat who once slept so close to the fire her fur caught fire and she ran up the curtains. She was ok. I promise I'm not making this up.

I did know that’s true for some breeds. I read something a while ago saying the spaniel/poodle cross was actually a problem fur wise. Something about the two types working against each other.