With the recent spell of warm(er) weather we have had, we thought it would be a good idea to share our top-tips on how to help keep your babies nice and cool when the Sun puts his hat on 🌞
Admittedly, he does seem to have disappeared for now 😩but we want to make sure we are all fully prepared for the summer to come! 🙏🏻
If you have followed us for a while, you know that we always have our own plan of action to ensure we can walk your babies in the warmer weather in the safest way possible – rest assured that we will always put the health and safety of our fur-babies before anything else! However, we do quite often have people asking for tips on how they can help make sure that the pup’s are comfortable and cool, so we have popped together a bit of info 🐶💦
Change your routine – introduce early morning and late night walks! Don’t get me wrong, some dog’s will be fine to go without a walk on a hot day, but some of our more energetic and working breeds will still need to burn of some energy. Get yourselves up nice and early and enjoy a Dawn walk, just as the day is breaking, or if your not an early bird, stay awake a bit later and enjoy a stroll after Dusk. It is essential to avoid the hottest part of the day no matter where it is you go for your walks.
Get off the “beaten track” – switch up your walking routes from open parklands to shaded river walks or wooded areas. Canopies of the trees provide natural shade and walking alongside rivers/lakes/streams provides your doggy the perfect opportunity to paddle their toe-beans and help keep their body temperature down (Did you know? Dog’s sweat through their paw pads, so helping keep these nice and cool will ultimately help keep their body temperature down!)
If you do decide to go out for a walk, take some water with you – think how often we need a drink ourselves after walking in the heat, our dog’s are using massively more energy than we do and are also wearing a coat! You can get collapsible water bowls, in which case you could take a bottle of water to share between yourself and your dog, or you can buy specific doggy water bottles complete with a drinking cup. It is so, so important to keep hydrated to help prevent heat stroke.
You will know your own homes, and know which way the sun comes across and through the windows dependant on the time of day. If you are heading out to work – it would actually be better to leave blinds/curtains closed to prevent the heat coming into the house. Most modern homes are incredibly well insulated to keep the temperature inside regulated. It’s so easy to throw the windows open early in the morning before we head out, but actually after a few hours when the sun starts to shine, the outside temperature becomes much hotter than the inside of our homes so it would be beneficial to actually leave the windows closed! If it’s hotter outside, leave your windows closed. If it’s hotter inside, get those windows open. Typically you should open your windows late at night/through the night to cool down the inside temp of your home.
Avoid leaving dogs in conservatories! – this one is a biggy! It is the same principle as leaving your dog in a locked car. Whilst we might enjoy sitting in there as a sun trap, we have the freedom to leave and move when we get to hot! A lot of people like to leave their dog’s in conservatories as they are close to the garden/low maintenance to clean, but please, please re-think this! Even on an averagely warm day of 14/15 degrees, the temperature in these glass rooms can sore very quickly!
Always make sure your dog has access to water! – Always! If your dog has freedom to roam the house, fantastic! We see quite often dog’s are crated when they are home alone (absolutely nothing wrong with this! In fact, all dog’s should be crate trained as you never know when you may need to use one!) but they have no access to water. Yes, they may only be in it for 30 minutes/1 hour, or it could be 4 hours. Imagine someone telling you, you can not drink for 4 hours. We wouldn’t do it to ourselves! You can’t force your dog to drink, it’s all good and well offering your dog a drink after a walk before crating them, but they quite often don’t take it, or don’t take what they actually need as it is just an initial slurp. It is very common for dog’s to lie down and pant after exercise – panting assists in lowering body temperature! Your walker (unfortunately) doesn’t have time to wait 20/30 minutes to ensure your dog has a drink before we leave, so please make sure that you are leaving water in your crates for your dog to freely access.
Have fan’s / cool mats around the home for your dog to use. You can pick up self-cooling mats relatively cheaply on the high street. Just double check the box to make sure that the gel in the mat is non-toxic! This will make sure that your baby is safe should it decide to take a little nibble when it is left unattended. Having fans (or air-conditioning if your fancy 😉) left on will help to circulate air for your pooch.
Create frozen enrichment treats! – Yes, i’m sure your thinking “but my dog can’t have frozen treats!” There is nothing wrong with giving your dog frozen treats UNLESS it is already suffering from heat stroke. It is absolutely fine to give your doggy a dog-friendly ice cream, or create your own frozen enrichment treats. You can easily do these with the use of ice moulds. Frozen fruit in ice cubes are great to add to your dogs water bowls. Create “gravy” flavour ice-lollies for your dog to enjoy on a hot day. Silicone baking tins are fantastic for filling with your dogs favourite fruits/veg. Once they are frozen these larger treats will work as great enrichment for your dog. They will use their noses/brains and work out how to get the goodies out. Enrichment ideas like these are great for burning up some of your dogs mental energy, helping to keep them tired out even though they are not able to get out and exercise.
Oh, and of course, we don’t need to put this one in surely, but NEVER leave your dog locked in a car. Not even with the windows open. Not even whilst you “pop into the shop”. Not even just for 5 minutes. NEVER.
So, get your thinking caps on, plan ahead and prepare yourself and your fur-baby for the (hopefully) sunny summer to come!