AIBU to remind dog owners about walking dogs in extreme heat?

[caringcarer]

AIBU to Politely remind dog owners if they are going to walk their dog in extreme temperature of over 30 degrees to do it very early before 7 am as the temperature will make pavement hot very early in morning and by at 6 or 7 in evening the pavements will burn dogs 🐾's. To test place back of hand on pavement if it burns your hand it will burn your dogs paws. A cool mat, shelter from heat and loads of water for dogs. I know most dog owners will know this but if it saves even 1 dog from getting burned 🐾 I will risk being told to stop stating the obvious.

Unfortunately for some it’s not obvious.
Fur coat. Inability to sweat like us. Yet they still walk at lunchtime.
And if your dog is old, young, brachy etc then it’s even worse.

Thanks for that! I didn't know. First year as a dog owner and living in scandinavia. Not knowledge l would have suspected that I needed 😂. At the moment it hasn't been over 20 here, but maybe the heatwave will pass over next week.

I'm sick of seeing people out walking dogs in it. It's nothing short of animal abuse. I saw 3 dogs out this morning in 26c heat the poor dogs were puffing and panting.

This is a useful chart.

I'm checking temperatures to schedule walks, and Tuesday currently looks like a no walk day

Gives me the rage seeing people walking there dog at the hottest parts of the day - so selfish and unnecessary sadly you can’t reason with stupid

It depends so much on the dog (size, type of nose, fitness, fatness, coat), how acclimatised they are to the heat and where their owners take them and for how long.

You will have no idea how fit that dog is, how long it will be out for, how well it has acclimatised to the heat. Our dogs have been given a short lunchtime walk every day as the heat has built up and they are currently coping just fine. Didn't stop someone the other day having 'the rage' at DH and abusing him for exercising a dog in 24C. The dog had exactly ZERO ill effects from.

Strange to relate, we DO know what a dog looks like when it's starting to struggle and flag. We used to have a dog who as he aged couldn't cope with the heat. We knew this. We left him at home.

OP, YANBU to politely remind us all (and I don't know what we'll do on Monday, we'll play it by ear) but I just wish some posters could stop being so fucking judgemental of every dog owner they see walking their dogs when they wouldn't walk theirs.

I'm lucky to live rurally and to have nearby woods that are nice and cool. I still don't walk Ddog in the midday heat. It's not fair. Dogs love a walk and will happily go out, but it's too hot. A few days of less exercise won't kill them but the heat might.

@EdithStourton (you
probably already are but just in case) do the seven second test where hold the back of your hand to the pavement for seven seconds. That’s a good indicator whether your dog’s paws are risking burning.

Not everyone has a garden to take their dogs to the loo ... where I live everyone's having to carry them to the grass

( London , lots of apartment dogs )

My dog will not toilet in the garden. Like a poster on the same topic on the AIBU board I pop mine in the air conditioned car, drive him to the woods during the day so he can have a 10 minute toilet break once during the day because he can’t go all day without a toilet break. He wears a cooling jacket, even though the woods are significantly cooler than my garden

people will say oh that’s ok, but the problem with threads like this is they encourage people to get into a “you’re scum of the earth and deserve to have your head kicked in, I’m going to have a word” frame of mind. I have had people be really nasty to me and it’s just not on. And quite frankly I have a job to do, I want to get my dog toiletted, and go home not have to spend time justifying to strangers that we are only here for 10minutes, my car is just there, I’ve driven to avoid walking my dog down the drive and Road that will put him in the sun for an extra 5 minutes, he won’t go in the garden, yes if I leave him all day he might eventually get desperate enough to wet himself in the garden, but he’ll then get upset and have been uncomfortable for hours. I just want to get my dog in and out as quickly as possible

I walked my smaller dog between 11 and 12 yesterday. I wetted his coat thoroughly and he was still damp when we got back. The walk was half in the shade and half in the breeze, some road, some track, some grass. Mine have acclimatised over the past week or two. The only thing I do check is pavement temperatures in the early evening, but so far it's been fine.

My wee dog is in her element. It's not quite as hot here anyway but still been mid to late 20's. She chooses to lie in the sun in the garden or in a sun patch coming through the window and is still sleeping under my 13.5 tog duvet at night 😆. She's a 6 kilo short coated jrt so makes a huge difference to heat tolerance vs a larger, less free breathing or thick coated dog. She rarely pants - only if she's really been charging around. Interesting someone mentioned acclimatisation. We got her in the April of 2020 where it was an unprecedented warm and sunny spring and hot summer. I don't know when she first experienced rain but it was not for many months. She hides when it's raining in the hope you forget about her and don't drag her out. When it's grey and cold she stands there hunched and looking miserable. We're also lucky that I have direct access to tree lined paths with wide grass verges so tending to just mill around there atm in the day time . We don't have an enclosed garden but she won't do the toilet on the grass surrounding the house or in our street. I'd be a bit annoyed at getting dirty looks or lectures for taking her for a pee when she'd asked.

Another in the camp of 'my two males will not toilet in the garden'. Sounds useful, but a bit of a pain on days like these - particularly as I'm about to go away for three days, not great.

As with previous poster, our very hairy dogs will go from an air conditioned house, in to a pre-cooled air conditioned car, be driven to shady woods and walked for as long as it takes for them all to go to the loo, before the process repeats in reverse.

Have suggested to husband that if any do-gooders tackle him before assessing the comfort level of the dogs, he points this out calmly and walks away.

I’m so terrified of ‘Angry Do Gooders’ that I don’t DARE walk my dog! Some people are so vicious and enraged, they simply ‘See - Judge - Decide - and Shout!’… without a thought to what the reality may be! Good luck with the dog walking! 💝⭐️

We have two pugs and in the past two weeks they've only been out for a walk once. It's a shame for them but even low 20 is too much for them. Is much rather they be comfortable and we have been playing brain stimulating games and they've been having good runs around the house and garden when they want.

I live in Australia and my advice in extreme heat is if in doubt don’t take your dog out at all.

Mumsnetter are huge on walking every day whatever the weather but chances are your dog won’t have much energy in this weather and will be absolutely fine not having a walk for a few days.

Mine's another 'won't go in the garden' dog. And a double coated breed.
Alarm set for 6 am tomorrow and 5 am tuesday! Walked her tonight at 8.30 and she was fine as it was clouded over, so warm but pavements weren't hot and we headed for a copse where she did her business, hunted for squirrels and came home happy.
Tomorrow evening she will be driven to our local meadow... damp all year round and always at least 5 degrees cooler than anywhere else, for a sniffy free run at about 9pm. I see others at the same time, because we know it is cooler and safe there.

I so hope after the continual warnings that all the idiots of the day aren’t out walking their dogs tomorrow and Tuesday 🤦🏼‍♀️ Surely to god not but it’s inevitable that I’ll see the same posts as always of ‘I walked my pug along the beach for 3 miles, put her in the boot, drove home end she was dead when I opened the boot’ - that was an actual post from someone on my Facebook on the hottest day of the year last summer 😑 I don’t get what’s difficult to understand it infuriates me!

I've just taken my beagle out. We're in Cumbria so it's not that hot but it's already 22 degrees (was 18 when we left) and surprisingly humid and sticky!

I'm also a dog walker and won't be walking dogs today - I have one pop-in visit in a couple of hours and a horse to feed, and the same tomorrow but otherwise that's me done until Wednesday - it's just not safe.

It does not matter on size or coat. I saw a daschund overheating. I'm not sure if it survived it was 22c. Personally I would not walk any dog in over 20c heat. The owner in my opinion is a complete tool. The dog collapsed people were getting water for it and pouring it on the poor dog. He put it in his car and drove straight to vet. So when people seem to think it's just big dogs with furry coats that suffer with the heat it isnt.