Cooling a dog on a hot day

[keh]

Because the title “Cooling a hot dog” might be confusing:lol:

Does the same principle of evaporation apply as it does to horses?.. Once the horse is sprayed, the water absorbs the horse’s heat and becomes warm. In order for evaporation to occur effectively, this warm water must be removed.**If the water is not scraped off, it acts as an insulating layer and actually makes the horse hotter than*when you started.

I often hose the pooch down when it’s hot…wondering if I should scrape that water off.

[S1969]

Yes, I think so. When running dogs in field events, it’s not generally recommended to wet their backs if they become very hot and/or are in danger of heat stroke…but to cool their feet and bellies, head and ears.

I don’t usually wet my dogs down to cool them, but make water available to them (kiddie pool or shallow tub) instead. What kind of dog and what type of coat? I think most dogs can shake themselves pretty vigorously (maybe moreso than horses can) to get excess water out of a coat - so I wouldn’t really worry that much unless you’re worried about heatstroke.

[GoForAGallop]

With temps in the upper 90’s for over a month here (very unusual) my two fluffy dogs were pretty bad off just going for their usual walks.

I froze chunks of watermelon and strawberries that I then gave to them after walks, which they loved and seemed to cool them right down. (Panting stopped within minutes, vs half hour +) Plus I knew they were getting some extra water in them.

[Canaqua]

I have a large, hard plastic, kiddie pool that I fill for the dog when it’s hot. She gets in and lies on her belly in it, sometimes more than once. She gets out when she feels better, then shakes. Although her coat is long (BC mix), it is not heavy and her shaking removes most of the water.

I figure that she knows what she’s doing, so I just provide the water. After a walk on a hot day, she makes a bee line right for that pool.

[Man_in_Black]

[QUOTE=GoForAGallop;8779832]
With temps in the upper 90’s for over a month here (very unusual) my two fluffy dogs were pretty bad off just going for their usual walks.

I froze chunks of watermelon and strawberries that I then gave to them after walks, which they loved and seemed to cool them right down. (Panting stopped within minutes, vs half hour +) Plus I knew they were getting some extra water in them.[/QUOTE]

I do the frozen watermelon, as well as carrots. He makes a MESS with ice cubes in his bowl, so we only do that outside since I don’t like to wear shoes in my house and slip in the slime (UGH).

My guy is a Spinger, so super high energy and will go all day in the hot sun without taking a break if we let him. I shave his belly right down in the summertime since he likes to lay with his legs completely splayed out. His “grandma” also bought him a cooling pad from TJ Maxx. He enjoys snoozing on that.

We also have a hard plastic pool that he lays down in and he freely swims in the pool when I lay out (concrete so no worries about him ripping the lining).

I usually try to scrape him off though when his back is wet for the same reasoning as the OP stated; assuming that’s what happens to dogs as well as horses.

[keh]

Thanks guys. It’s a mini schnauzer with a soft coat (I shave her opposed to stripping the coat). She has overheated in the past so I worry about that. She loves to run around the barn with her dog friends, until she’s too hot. She always has water & I’ve been periodically hosing her…which got me to thinking perhaps I’m doing more harm than good by hosing her entire body & not scraping.

[Bluey]

Our Saint Bernard spent a good 10 months of the year inside a horse trough, submarine style, all you could see is the top of her head and nose.

Regularly she would come out, shake and go for walks, then back to the trough to soak some more, even when it had ice in it and snow was on the ground!

Our border collies, when working, would use every chance they had to jump in troughs to soak and we never had one overheat.

With dogs, our vets taught us that you can tell how hot they are getting when panting by how wide the end of their tongue is getting, that may show before any other symptoms.
The wider the more the dog is overheating and needs to be attended to so it starts cooling down.

I don’t think soaking your dog is harming it any, but do run that by your vets, see what they think would be best, they know your dog.

[Man_in_Black]

[QUOTE=Bluey;8779997]

With dogs, our vets taught us that you can tell how hot they are getting when panting by how wide the end of their tongue is getting, that may show before any other symptoms.
The wider the more the dog is overheating and needs to be attended to so it starts cooling down.[/QUOTE]

That’s interesting. I’ll keep that in mind! Thanks for sharing!

[bdj]

Not exactly the same thing, but a month or so ago, the oldest member of my crew (12-13yo Cardi) got an emergency trip to the vet’s office because he was running an elevated temp - vet advised that we NOT give him a cool bath/hosing because (like a horse), if you don’t scrape them dry, they’ll just get warmer and also because if they’re having trouble thermo-regulating already, you don’t want to cool them down, then bring them into the AC and get them chilled. She recommended alcohol swabbing his ears (because there are capillaries near the surface) and cooling his underbelly - so I bought a box of the one-time-use cold packs and tucked them under his groin for the drive home, and set him up on a cooling mat (like this one: http://www.khpet.com/cool-bed-iii.html ) with a fan until his temperature came back down.

With my performance dogs, on hot days, I encourage them to hop in a baby pool and wet bellies (where the coat is thinner) and paws, offer plenty of water (doctoring it up with powdered chicken if necessary to get them to drink) and make certain that crates have shadecloths and fans (I use the cheap battery powered ones from Walmart) running as much as possible. I’m also keeping a few of those instant icepacks in my gear bag, too - they’re not that expensive (if you buy by the box), and they work for dogs AND people.

In your case, OP, I’d focus on cooling her underside (like a hot horse - focus on armpits and groin areas), and (because she has a history of overheating) limit her barn time on hot days - sometimes you have to protect them from themselves! (If she has to go to the barn, set up a “cool room” for her - ex-pen or crate with a shadecloth, and a cool bed or fan somewhere safe, with water and a fun chewy or toy away from the other dogs to keep her comfy and calm.)

[PoeKnee]

We have four 1+ acre fields, with 4-10 Labs in each.

The field with 10 has its own spring-fed pond for swimming (we had to run the invisible fence across the pond because some smartie-pants figured out that they could swim across and they were Freeeeeeeee!!!

We have the heavy-duty plastic kiddie pools in the other 3 fields so they can run through, sit in, lay in, play in, dig in, etc. cool water all day. I’ve found that if I can put the pools in the shade, I only have to scrub and re-fill every 3 to 4 days. If they’re in direct sun, I’m scrubbing and filling every morning because the algae grows like gangbusters. But I am extremely anal about water buckets (and pools!).

The flimsier plastic pools are too easy to puncture, chew pieces off, etc.

I know this is a bit off topic, but I am a firm believer in the pools. Some of our Labs don’t completely shed out in the summer. The really crazy thick coated ones we will shave before a heat wave (90+ degrees and 90%+ humidity), but even they are OK with access to the pool.

And yes, I think scraping the water off the coat as you would a horse would definitely help pull the heat off the dog.

[Renn_aissance]

I bring ice packs to the dog park in a cooler. On our way back, I sandwich them between two towels in the backseat, and our double-coated dog lies down on top of them. She thinks it’s great and it helps bring down her core body temp.

[4Martini]

I think the dog shaking is more effective than scraping. Our black lab in summer only runs with us along the creek where she can jump in every so often to cool off. It’s a huge difference if you run by the creek and let her jump in every ten minutes vs trying to run somewhere else- she just conks out.

But she gets a lot dryer shaking than my horse does my scraping.

[Altermyne]

https://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=3208&ParentCat=5

[Foxtrot_s]

You can buy cooling mats and vests for dogs.

[snowrider]

My one part husky dog will cool off by standing in water belly deep and refusing to leave. I assume it gets all the major blood vessels? Once she’s cooled off she’ll come out and be ready to keep running. She’s generally a very smart dog and there is definitely a method to her madness when it comes to cooling off.