What do dog walkers do in this heat?

[SpanielsAreNuts]

Just wondering, especially since most dogs get booked for middle of the day.

I don’t have a dog walker, but big walks are early morning and late evening

He comes to work with me during the day and we have a little mooch around mid morning and late afternoon - work is quite rural and we back on to a wood with some large ponds so we have a wee wander in the shade and he swims in the ponds for half an hour or so

Woodland for shade and water or very early /late walks when it is cooler

My two were out for 7 hours straight today with my friend and her dog. Tearing around like lunatics in our town park which is huge, it stretches for miles. They must have swam a good half mile of it in the lake, drank gallons and had an hours lie down when we stopped for lunch and were up and raring to go again before we were. Been home barely 2 hours, devoured their dinners and now lying in the hall, looking hopefully at the front door and lunging for the leads every time I get up to go to the loo. I'm bloody shattered. They'd both happily do it again. Pretty sure Ddog1 is 11 next month too. She doesn't think so though, she reckons she's still got it and behaves like a puppy. Some dogs can just handle it. It's not irresponsible to take them out if they are happy and not overheating.

I’ve struggled with this so much. My dog usually has a midday walk but dog walker has been offering 9/10 am walks by water and in shaded woods. My dog is getting older and he can’t cope with the heat at all but if I’m working, it isn’t easy. I’ve had to stop walks, even the morning ones because it’s hot. I try to work from home and have a friend drop by and top up water but it’s been stressful. Occasionally, he’s been left longer than I would like :( but it’s for his own safety.

My dog goes to day care three times a week. The owner is the outdoor type and always keeps the pack busy in the woods, swimming thru lakes and rivers etc We are very lucky that we are surrounded by woodland.

It's much cooler in the woods than in the garden (or the house at the moment).

My friend is a dog walker. In weather like this, he takes the dogs on much less strenuous walks in the woods. They go along the shallow river and dogs spend most of their time in the water. His van is fully air conditioned so they don't get hot on the way there/back. Its more like hanging out and paddling for a couple of hours than a walk really.

I don't have a dog walker (don't tempt me) because I need the exercise myself. I take the pooch around a local reservoir at around 6:30AM. So it's cool. Even so Ddog has several swims to cool off before we get round.