Dogs and heat - what is wrong with people

[honeyandbutterontoast]

I know this topic has been talked about a lot but I will never understand why people go out in the heat with their dogs.

DD has just phoned me in floods of tears over someone she has just seen out with their dogs. In a very nice part of London (not that it should matter I know), in about 32 heat. A woman striding along with 2 black pugs on the pavement, not on leads. One was visibly distressed but trying to keep up with her, the other quite a way behind who was drooling and stumbling. There were quite a few people staring but nobody intervened.

Why have a dog if you are going to cause it this kind of suffering?!

Wish your DD had approached the person and said something. Having a pug herself she knows how they suffer with their breathing let alone in this heat. If both dogs looked uncomfortable she should have acted. She may have got short shrift but far better to try and fail than not even bother trying.
She may be empathetic but she would have felt better than phoning you crying and worrying about it.

Not everybody has a garden and it's not possible to avoid the hot window between say 11am and 5pm with no toileting trips outside - especially when you're encouraging your dog to drink water regularly.

Because mine is an assistance dog, he goes everywhere I go so I do limit where I go when it's this weather. But I've been known to direct him to walk in the one foot of shade on the pavement we've got after a certain time of day. Or lift and carry him to the shade (we're both comfortable with this and I check the pavements to see if it's necessary before I do it). But I often cringe that passers-by might think I don't care about him because we're out when it's hot but I absolutely do know what I'm doing.

Exactly.

I don’t understand how it was too hot to walk your pug at 6am though.

It was 20 here at 6am. I dont walk mine over that temperature. Generally flat faced dogs should only be walked with caution over 20.

Dogs who live in these countries have time to get used to the heat (someone was talking about this the other day on the radio).
And even then they aren’t walked (by responsible owners) in mid day heat.
We rarely have long periods of 28/29 degree heat here.

You may think it’s not that hot at the minute, but a dog certainly does. Dogs can, and have died of heatstroke. Not having a walk has never killed a dog, but idiotic owners heat has.
I’d have been annoyed if I’d have seen this idiot walking her dogs in this heat and maybe when I was younger I may have been upset too.

Controversial, but I hate seeing people out running with their dogs being pulled along with them.
OK, I know there are far worse things that can be happening to dogs, but let them sniff, play and enjoy their environment folks. That's what dogs would choose to do, not be pulled 5 miles at fast pace on a power run! I watch the dogs desperate to sniff a wee or two but get yanked away.
Rant over 😇

Dogs need a wee. Not everyone has a garden,any inondin I've in apartments, also dogs acclimatise. I live in a hot country, at night it's hitter than most UK summer days. Dogs cope fine. If they were off lead they can walk at their own pace. Obviously dog owners have a responsibility to look after them well and avoiding the highest heat of the day is preferable but also allowing them a wee is good ownership

Owning a dog bred to have deformed airways is inherently cruel. And there’s been info on that around for decades.

We could extend this to cats, pigs, cows and sheep etc. Think of the poor sheep and llamas people, they're out in the full sun with woolly coats. Not all are shorn

I grew up in the tropics and knew many dogs and they were fine and it was a lot hotter than 25°. If you don't have a decent sized garden with lots of shade, you shouldn't have a dog anyway

This, in spades.

Wool is very well adapted for all weathers.

Yes it does - you’ve put an animal through that - having one keeps people breeding them

maybe that’s why your projecting onto others

Same. My partner leaves for work really early so always takes our OES cross (who is shorn very short) out before he goes. Midday I wouldn’t even contemplate it.

There was that knowledge 8 years ago

Paws are already pretty hardened, they’re nothing like the soles of our feet.
Before anyone jumps on me, no I don’t walk dogs in the heat of the day because of the threat of heat exhaustion but despite working with/knowing hundreds of people with dogs I’ve never heard of a dog burning it’s paws on the pavement in real life.
There was a random photo of a dog’s burnt paws doing the rounds on fb years ago (and nothing to say it was due to pavements) and it’s still the same photo being posted now.

Yes, because as we all know, everyone who runs with their dog only ever runs with them and never ever walks them or lets them explore their environment. Just like people who do agility with their dogs only ever do agility and never let their dogs sniff, play and enjoy the environment. And people who work their dogs in any capacity only ever work them.

My young spaniel runs with me several times a week. It's an entire sport called canicross. She is certainly not being 'pulled at a fast pace' or being 'yanked away'. The entire premise of the sport is that the dog should be pulling you. On an average week she gets 19 walks- three of those are runs. She gets plenty of opportunities to sniff and play.

Of course, nobody should be running with a dog in warm or hot weather, hence why canicross is primarily a winter sport.

Just having one of these flat-faced breeds is an act of cruelty. The years of selective breeding to achieve the "cute" appearance has resulted in a deformed respiratory system which means these dogs suffer every day of their lives through being unable to breathe properly. Hot days just elevate the problem to a critical level.

Again, I'm not trying to be horrible here, and I do respect the fact you have said you would make the same choice now, but to imply that it was a general lack of knowledge at large just isn't true. Pugs rose in popularity before that time due to celebrities and youtubers getting them and it was well talked about then.

I have rescue dogs. One is a pug. I am not going to put a dog down when I can give it a decent quality of life. I dont condone breeding pugs, or buying pug puppies, but neither do I want to see an ancient breed die out because stupid humans decided to flatten their faces at the beginning of the 20th century.

I will continue to save as many as I can.

My girl goes out really early or late, and has a cool coat, a cooling bandana and a cooling mat. Its madness to walk a pug in the middle of the day.

You’ll be hard pushed to find any breed of dog that doesn’t have a breed specific health concern. But I feel for pug and French bulldog owners because they get the brunt of the abuse when it comes to owning brachy breeds, despite there being loads of others.

My pug will confirm that I am an excellent dog owner, except when I am controlling his weight.

People are arseholes. I live in in a hot country and my dogs are walked early or late when it's cooler. I constantly see people walking their dogs in the daytime when it's really hot and it absolutely infuriates me. If they wouldn't walk barefoot on the ground why the fuck do they think its ok for a dog to do so? 😔

There's so many around here I put a massive bowl of water out for them today, poor dogs. Last year when it was roasting I put a dog paddling pool up as well in a shaded bit of my front garden and many a dog came in for a splash around.

My girls got waked at 4am, and have been laid in the living room with their air cooler on them all day, and will have another walk again in a bit. One of mine is St Bernard and absolutely hates the heat.

Pugs are fashion dogs for people who like 'insta!' and likely just like taking photos and are not really that fussed about the dog.
stop buying them and they will stop breeding them.

Tbh, you could be describing the two pugs I see round here in any temperature 🤷‍♀️ One constantly looks like it’s going to collapse, and you can hear them both coming a mile off- rasping away with their tongues lolling about.

Your daughter was right to be concerned, it's really dangerous in general, let alone for that breed.

It makes me so angry as it is completely unavoidable.

Same as young children out on beaches in blazing sun getting heat stroke - avoidable but people lose sense in heat.

When it comes to dogs, myself and my husband actively go up to people, especially if the dogs are clearly in distress. I would say 95% of the demographic are 50 years plus (not being ageist, it's almost every time). And again 95% look sheepish, squirm and then walk off or to their car driving off.

I keep seeing FB posts saying keep your dog at home.
My sister lives in a flat which identifies as a furnace - she can not leave the dog at home. Someone was really rude to her as she loaded the dog into the car but she couldn't stay in the flat any longer