Walking dogs in the sun

Meanwhile, not one person has shouted at me whilst out running with my Lab in any weather. I do however live in a small town in the countryside where people are a little more relaxed and mental in other ways instead. I bet all these keyboard warriors use the works "scum" at least once per post.

No doubt, roads and paved areas can get really hot, but just use your common sense, something we're not allowed to do of course.
 
Our usual dog walk is all fields, through shaded woods or down by the river. On days where the pavement is likely too hot I just carry her under the arm for a few minutes until she can be on the grass.

Some people really like to make things more complicated than it should be.
 
Junglist said:
Our usual dog walk is all fields, through shaded woods or down by the river. On days where the pavement is likely too hot I just carry her under the arm for a few minutes until she can be on the grass.

Some people really like to make things more complicated than it should be.
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Yeah I think people would struggle to carry a Doberman under their arm for a few minutes!
 
I tend to just put my hand on the darkest tarmac outside the front of my house for 30 seconds or so and see how hot it is, if I'm concerned. It's in direct sun for the majority of the day. If it's uncomfortable for me then it's a nope for the dog. Their feet are tougher than our skin, 23-25 is fine.

Once getting into the 30s I just avoid the hottest point of the day. Though most of the walk is on grass or dirt paths anyway.

I'd worry about more about temperature with breeds like Pugs because they cant get rid of the heat as efficiently, but mine doesn't care.
 
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Personally I prefer not to take my dog out in full sun if it's much above 20°C - that is a bit warm for me to be walking briskly too. We'll aim to go early / late instead, or drive to the woods rather than walk on the streets. Above 25°C I'd certainly be avoiding a walk in full sun or on tarmac etc.

I think it depends lot where you go though - dark tarmac and streets with buildings close on all sides can make it feel a lot hotter, as well as potentially blistering dog paws if it's really sunny (touching the tarmac with your hand for a good while to see if it's too hot is a good test). However if you're on dirt paths in fields, in and out of shade, or in the woods next to a stream etc then hot air temperature is a lot less of an issue.

It's a good point that dogs abroad seem to be out and about in full sun in much hotter weather and seem to be fine, so suspect we're generally over-cautious here! Probably does depend a lot on the breed though, and suspect my relatively long haired dog with black fur has much lower tolerance than a skinny short haired light coloured dog.

Also I just don't think my dog knows when to stop - I think if we were to throw the ball for him in a park on a hot day he'd probably just keep going until he collapsed!
 
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GreatAuk said:
It's a good point that dogs abroad seem to be out and about in full sun in much hotter weather and seem to be fine, so suspect we're generally over-cautious here! Probably does depend a lot on the breed though, and suspect my relatively long haired dog with black fur has much lower tolerance than a skinny short haired light coloured dog.
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The advice isn't really any different abroad, e.g walk at the coolest times of day, limit exercise in the high 20s etc. 23c is at the low end of the risk scale and it just ramps up from there.
 
Dup said:
Meanwhile, not one person has shouted at me whilst out running with my Lab in any weather. I do however live in a small town in the countryside where people are a little more relaxed and mental in other ways instead. I bet all these keyboard warriors use the works "scum" at least once per post.

No doubt, roads and paved areas can get really hot, but just use your common sense, something we're not allowed to do of course.
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Don't see scum very often on our local pages, "discusting!" is very much in favour though. Illiterate morons.
 
GreatAuk said:
It's a good point that dogs abroad seem to be out and about in full sun in much hotter weather and seem to be fine, so suspect we're generally over-cautious here! Probably does depend a lot on the breed though, and suspect my relatively long haired dog with black fur has much lower tolerance than a skinny short haired light coloured dog.
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It's not just the ground temperature, either. Heat exhaustion and heatstroke are still dangers even in the UK, with about 50,000 humans and roughly 400 dogs dying from it every year.
Dogs are very much like people, in that some are more susceptible to it than others, so pay attention to your dog. If they're showing excessive panting, noisy breathing, drooling or licking, seem to be sluggish or more irritable, seem to be restless, agitated or are pacing, these are some early signs.
This can happen surprisingly easily, even in the lower 20º range.

Just like with kids, if your dog doesn't know when to stop, it's on you to stop them. Make them sit down in the shade, get some water down them and keep them calm.
There are plenty of Cool Coats and the like to help dogs keep cool.
 
ttaskmaster said:
It's not just the ground temperature, either. Heat exhaustion and heatstroke are still dangers even in the UK, with about 50,000 humans and roughly 400 dogs dying from it every year.
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That caught my attention. 50,000 people. Was that a typo? Seems like a hell of a lot for the UK.

ttaskmaster said:
Dogs are very much like people, in that some are more susceptible to it than others, so pay attention to your dog. If they're showing excessive panting, noisy breathing, drooling or licking, seem to be sluggish or more irritable, seem to be restless, agitated or are pacing, these are some early signs.
This can happen surprisingly easily, even in the lower 20º range.

Just like with kids, if your dog doesn't know when to stop, it's on you to stop them. Make them sit down in the shade, get some water down them and keep them calm.
There are plenty of Cool Coats and the like to help dogs keep cool.
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I agree. It varies from dog to dog, even with the same breed. As always, the owner is responsible.

When I was a kid, we had a family dog. He was very tolerant of cold and rain, but not so much with heat. In summer, we went for walks when it was less hot. He liked the crack of dawn anyway. Day has started, time to be doing things!
 
GreatAuk said:
It's a good point that dogs abroad seem to be out and about in full sun in much hotter weather and seem to be fine, so suspect we're generally over-cautious here! Probably does depend a lot on the breed though, and suspect my relatively long haired dog with black fur has much lower tolerance than a skinny short haired light coloured dog.
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I've seen animal programmes on TV from cities like Phoenix in Arizona which is basically a desert city and it becomes a problem at temperatures of 35-45c not the 20c we get here. Pavements can get hot enough to burn paws but not here unless its an extreme heatwave
 
Angilion said:
That caught my attention. 50,000 people. Was that a typo? Seems like a hell of a lot for the UK.
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It was 56,000 heat-related/heat-caused deaths in 2022, apparently.
We perhaps have more fair-skinned, blond and/or blue-eyed folks here who may be more susceptible to sudden heat, and we also seem to have a population of disrobing nutters who like to hit the beach and bake themselves at the first sign of sunshine...
 
ttaskmaster said:
It was 56,000 heat-related/heat-caused deaths in 2022, apparently.
We perhaps have more fair-skinned, blond and/or blue-eyed folks here who may be more susceptible to sudden heat, and we also seem to have a population of disrobing nutters who like to hit the beach and bake themselves at the first sign of sunshine...
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Having searched "56,000 heat-related/heat-caused deaths in 2022" I found a 'Heat mortality monitoring report' on gov.uk for Summer 2022 that summarised:

During summer 2022, there were an estimated 2,985 (2,258 to 3,712) all-cause excess deaths associated with 5 heat episodes
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Also Mortality Insights from GAD April 2023:

The ONS and UKHSA research identified that during these 5 ‘heat-periods’, around 56,000 deaths occurred in England and Wales. This represents more than 3,200 excess deaths above the 5-year average for the equivalent days.
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I think 56,000 was total deaths of all causes during the heat periods, not deaths caused specifically by the heat. The excess of 3,200 roughly tallies with the estimated number from the earlier monitoring report.
 
Kenai said:
I think 56,000 was total deaths of all causes during the heat periods, not deaths caused specifically by the heat. The excess of 3,200 roughly tallies with the estimated number from the earlier monitoring report.
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Yeah, I've since found other similar articles that use the same numbers, but break it down differently to present different pictures. Some focus just on excess deaths during heatwaves, and assume all the excesses are heat-caused. Others look at heat impact on mortality, conflating heat-associated with both heat-related and heat-caused. I blame The Guardian.

Some also seem to differ on whether the 5 heat periods are UKHSA 2022 or 2023 report. The latter shows 3,165 excess heat-related deaths during 5 specific hot-weather episodes of 2023.
The most consistent presentation I found was 56,000 heat-related deaths for the entire year(s), not just focussing on the specific heatwave days. Overall though it seems the really hot days of 2022 still resulted in several thousand deaths directly attributed to the heat, as did 2023.

The important part is that you can get heat-stroke and heat-exhaustion even when it's not especially hot, and many people who go out hiking, shopping or undertake some exertive activity often start off wrapped up warm, but quickly go down if the weather suddenly picks up a bit - Vice-versa with hypothermia, really.
Dogs effectively are going out wearing a fur coat, without the ability to either sweat or take the coat off, so the same precautions apply to them.
 
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