Hot weather from a dogs perspective 🐕🐕

 Wise advice HD, walks this week have been early morning and evening.

Sage advice. My Dogs when panting but not drinking will chomp happily on a bowl full of ice cubes. It cools & hydrates. 

I was at the Aire on Dieppe prom for a couple of hours on Saturday in 32 degrees waiting to go round to the ferry terminal and watched in dismay as several people walked along the prom and then down the beach with their dogs and no sign of any water, drinking bowls or sunshade being carried. The dogs were already struggling on the hot beach pebbles - especially those with short legs.

At home I put a large bowl of water at the end of my drive so that the dogs out on walks can have a slurp. 

It's thoughtless to torture animals that way when you consider for example that if a wet T shirt was laid out in the sun for say, half an hour, it would become as dry as a bone.

Good advice HD. Another thing that dogs will appreciate, and not only the ones who actually like water, but if you can cool them down either by using cold, but not freezing cold water, soaking their coats so that it cools the skin, then this could be a life saver in certain circumstances. Only takes a bucket, soak an old towel and drape that over them, or if they love water, then hosepipe, dip in the sea, whatever, gives immediate relief from overheating. 

We have to be very careful with our Cockapoo, Meg, because she has a very dense coat and has to be clipped every six weeks,  She's due to go on Friday so this hot weather has come at the worst time for her.

As well as liking the damp towel (we use one of her microfibre ones which retain a lot of water), we also have a cool mat which we bought for a few pounds from one of the cheapo shops.  I don't know how it works - it's just a plastic 'sandwich' with some sort of gel in it which is always cool to the touch without having to put it in the fridge or anything. Recently, I've been making sure it's on the floor of her cage when she's in the car.

Good advice HD.

I have just got PNUT and Fraggle pet passports but after this week, I am really worried that they will not tolerate the temps in southern France. 

Whoever is reading this thread, has anyone done it? How did you keep fur babies cool and has anyone used those 'gel' mats.

sorry to commandeer your thread HD 

No worries arty , any advice that keeps our pets cool is good to share 

I have just come back from a pretty hot France and was concerned for my fur babies - I don't really know what the answer is - my older dog is really struggling at home now.  Mine shy away from water but I could try the damp towel trick. It surprises me how many people expect their dogs to get along.  I saw my sister in law's car in full sun outside the French hospital - and pointed it out to her "oh no its in the shade it just looks like the sun is shining on it"!  She did however go and move the car with the dog in a few minutes later to full shade! 

We use the gel mats. They do warm up after a while but they work really well. I bought a huge one for two small dogs so there's always a cool bit for them. 

Worth every penny.