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Warm Weather Awareness For Dogs: Keeping Your Canine Friend Cool And Comfortable

As the summer sun finally graces us with its presence, it’s essential to remember that our furry friends can struggle with the heat more than we do. Dogs don’t sweat like humans and can easily become overheated. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to keep your dog cool during warm weather, recognise signs of heatstroke, and engage in fun, safe activities that avoid the risk of overheating.

Top Tips to Keep Your Dog Cool

1. Hydration is Key: Ensure your dog always has access to fresh, cool water. Consider adding ice cubes to their water bowl to keep it colder for longer.

2. Shade and Shelter: Provide plenty of shaded areas where your dog can escape the sun. A cool, well-ventilated shelter is ideal.

3. Avoid Midday Walks: The temperature is highest between 11 am and 3 pm. Opt for early morning or late evening walks when it’s cooler.

4. Cooling Mats and Vests: Invest in cooling mats or vests. These can significantly lower your dog’s body temperature.

5. Paddling Pools: Let your dog splash around in a shallow paddling pool. It’s a fun and effective way to stay cool.

6. Fans and Air Conditioning: Keep the indoor environment cool with fans or air conditioning. If these aren’t available, create a cross-breeze by opening windows.

7. Grooming: Regular grooming helps to remove excess fur, which can trap heat. However, avoid shaving breeds with double coats as their fur protects them from sunburn.

Fun Activities to Keep Your Dog Cool

1. Indoor Games: Play games like hide and seek, tug-of-war, or interactive puzzle toys that stimulate your dog’s mind without the need for strenuous activity.

scentwork

2. Scent Work: Set up scent work activities indoors or in the garden. This low-energy game is excellent for mental stimulation and keeps your dog cool.

3. Frozen Treats: Make DIY frozen treats using dog-friendly ingredients like peanut butter, yoghurt, and fruit. **Important**: Ensure the peanut butter you use is xylitol-free, as xylitol is toxic to dogs. Frozen Kongs are also a hit.

4. Agility Course: Create a mini agility course in a shaded area or indoors. This keeps your dog active and entertained without exposure to direct sunlight.

5. Water Games: Apart from paddling pools, you can also use a garden hose or sprinklers for some supervised fun in the water. **However, be cautious when using a garden hose. Ensure your dog doesn’t inhale too much water at once to avoid water intoxication.**

Recognising Signs of Heatstroke

Heatstroke in dogs is a serious condition that can be life-threatening. It’s crucial to recognise the signs and act promptly:

– Excessive Panting: While panting is normal, excessive and rapid panting is a clear sign of overheating.

– Drooling: Increased salivation and drooling can indicate your dog is too hot.

– Lethargy and Weakness: Your dog may seem unusually tired, weak, or unable to stand.

– Vomiting and Diarrhoea: These can occur as your dog’s body struggles with the heat.

– Red or Pale Gums: Check your dog’s gums; they may appear bright red or pale and tacky to the touch.

– Confusion or Dizziness: Disorientation and stumbling are severe signs of heatstroke.

– Collapse: In extreme cases, a dog may collapse or have seizures.

What to Do If You Suspect Heatstroke

1. Move to a Cooler Area: Immediately bring your dog to a shaded or air-conditioned space.

2. Provide Water: Offer small amounts of cool (not cold) water to drink.

3. Cool Down Gradually: Use cool, damp cloths to gently lower your dog’s body temperature. Place these on their neck, underbelly, and paws.

4. Seek Veterinary Attention: Contact your vet immediately. Heatstroke is a medical emergency and requires professional treatment.

Conclusion

By taking these precautions and being mindful of the signs of heatstroke, you can ensure your dog stays safe and comfortable during warm weather. Remember, keeping your dog cool isn’t just about avoiding discomfort—it’s about protecting their health and well-being. Enjoy the summer safely with your canine companion by incorporating these tips and activities into your routine.

An enrichment activity to get the dogs nose engaged in finding his dinner in the garden, a way of promoting calmness and rest in your dogs on those warm days

Scatter feeding

Stay cool, and happy tails!

By Jane Burton|2024-06-23T09:16:42+01:00June 23rd, 2024|Facebook|2 Comments

Mental Health Awareness week and our dogs!!

This week in the UK is Mental awareness week 18^th to 24^th May and this year they are focussing on Stress.

I believe this is such an important topic and I think pets can help you through the bad times and definitely have a link to our mental health. This year more than any with the lockdown in place people will have been feeling isolated, depressed, and lonely. How many of you have felt having your dog, cat, or other pet at home is helping you through all this.

Research as shown that two-thirds of us experience a mental health problem in our lifetimes and the common factor is stress. If we can get Stress under control this can go a long way to tackling mental health problems such as worry and depression.

They say a certain amount of stress is necessary and even good for us but it is how we cope with the stress that seems to be important to how badly it affects us.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, dogs are our heroes they offer us unconditional love are there for us when others are not, they truly are our best friends.

How do our dogs help us with our Mental health and reducing stress?

Studies show that dogs reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, ease loneliness, and improve our health overall.

Dogs give us a reason to go out and exercise, dogs need exercise, so we go out with them too and give us that reason to get out of that house and breathe in some fresh air. Exercise increases endorphins which help to fight depression.

Because pets especially need to go out and exercise, need care, and need feeding at regular intervals this helps us build a routine instead of it being a one-off activity. Research has shown that having a routine can help reduce stress levels and lead to better sleep patterns as I’m sure some of you have noticed that during the current COVID situation where we have had no routine our sleeping pattern has been completely out of sync.

Dogs give us a reason to talk to people, other dog owners when in the park, people may stop and chat about our dogs, or just say good morning as we pass. This can help to ease the loneliness you can feel at any time but especially at the moment. Socialization with others especially face to face remembering the 2-meter rule at the moment has been shown to ease symptoms of depression.

Having a dog or cat in the household can prevent depression from worsening as giving care to an animal gives you a purpose, a reason to get up in the mornings, it can also make you feel needed and wanted and stops you from concentrating too much on your worries and depression.

Dogs will be there for you too.

Someone to spend the day with and make us feel loved. They can pick up on our emotions, knowing when we are down and can read our body language much better than we can read there’s and then give us that extra comfort if we begin to feel low, maybe snuggling up to us at these times. Dogs can even be there as someone to talk to, you don’t have to worry about confidentiality or judgment, and they are amazingly comforting and supportive. The next time you find yourself like me chatting away to your dog remind yourself it is a good thing and its actually helping your health.

Dogs can make us feel proud which in turn improves our self-esteem for example if we train our dogs a new trick and practice it whilst out on the park and other people comment on it or just smile as they walk past it really gives us a boost.

Dogs can keep you calm especially those with anxiety and can add comfort to our lives. Research as shown that just simply being with a pet can lower stress hormones.

Dogs bring happiness into our lives and depression is often no match for the unconditional love and joy they provide.

I would always talk to your doctor or mental health provider before getting a pet as you do need to be able to make sure that you can provide for them it does have to be a 2-way street.

The ideal situation though is you and your pet looking after each other, the way it is supposed to be.

By Jane Burton|2020-05-17T15:35:23+01:00May 17th, 2020|Facebook|0 Comments

Well that’s summer gone and what looks like to be a warm but wet beginning of Autumn as arrived.

Autumn is a beautiful season and is the most colourful season of the year with the gold and red hues of falling leaves and the foraging squirrels hiding their nuts but as Dog Walkers and Pet owners that brings a new set of challenges especially when the clocks go back.

I am writing this blog to give you a few tips on keeping you and your pets especially dogs safe during this season.

For all pets

A change in any season can bring on skin conditions breathing issues allergies and aching joints so its important to keep monitoring your pet’s health and to seek veterinary advise if you see any changes.

Slug pellets are poisonous to all pets so be careful of popping them around flower beds, signs to look out for are twitching or fitting, diarrhoea and vomiting, excessive panting and uncoordinated walking and hypothermia, if you see any of these signs seek immediate veterinary help.

Antifreeze and screen wash have the same dangerous life threatening effect on pets made worse with the fact that there is a substance in them that makes both Antifreeze and Screen wash palatable, its sweet tasting to our pets but even a small amount can cause serious kidney damage and be fatal. Antifreeze can leak from a cars radiator a dog or cat can walk on it then go to lick their paws and become intoxicated. The first signs of intoxication can be that dogs appear drunk. If you know your dog or cat as ingested antifreeze or screen wash contact your vet without delay as the prognosis becomes less good the longer the delay.

Seasonal canine illness there is a lot of research going into this mystery illness but not a lot of answers as yet, it usually rears its ugly head between august and November, case have been reported around the uk this year. It can affect any dog of any size breed age or sex and does cause dogs to become very ill very quickly after being walked in woodland areas. The most common symptoms you will notice are sickness, diarrhoea and lethargy. If you think your dog is showing signs of SCI and you’ve been walking in woodland areas go immediately to your vets.

Conkers as much as we love to go and collect these with our children who have hours of fun with them, ingestion by dogs can cause gastro-ingestional signs such as retching, drooling, vomiting diarrhoea and stomach pain. The conkers case and the conker itself can also cause intestinal blockages. Dogs usually vomit any ingested conkers quickly so treatment to control vomiting may be needed.

Acorns contain tannic a cid which is thought to be poisonous to dogs and can cause damage to the liver and kidneys and can also cause an intestinal blockage. Signs to watch out for are vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and lethargy. Watch out for what your dog is picking up among the leaves and maybe distract them with a treat or a ball if they are prone to gathering.

Rat Poisons most contain an anti-coagulant compound that interferes with a rat’s ability to clot its own blood. Repeated exposure to products bought in shops or exposure to professional rodent baits can cause disruption to a dog’s blood clotting ability too. This can result in massive internal bleeding. The effects may be delayed for several days -blood clotting tests are often required to determine if the dog is at risk of developing problems. Treatment involves giving an antidote and in severe cases transfusions of plasma or whole blood.

Luminous necklaces and glow stick the chemicals inside these products is very irritating to gums if dogs ingest them and cause drooling frothing and foaming of the mouth, vomiting and abdominal pain although the symptoms can look bad thankfully ingestion is unlikely to cause any long-term problems.

Fallen leaves can develop bacteria and mould so can lead to gastrointestinal upsets if ingested by our dogs

Chocolate is around more at Halloween time and we must remember it contains a stimulant called theobromine that’s poisonous to dogs, the darker the chocolate the more theobromine it contains. Theobromine affects the heart, central nervous system and the kidneys. Symptoms usually start to appear within 4-24 hours of ingestion, increased heart rate and you may see vomiting, diarrhoea, hyperactivity, restlessness, rapid breathing, muscle tension and seizures. Keep chocolate well away from dogs.

Raisons and grapes, we don’t know what the toxic substance in these are, but it can cause kidney failure. dogs with health problems are at even more risk of a serious reaction so ingestion of these should be avoided.

Toadstools and Mushrooms some of these are highly toxic to dogs but its hard to tell which ones are and which are not so its best just to avoid your dog having any.

Fleas and Ticks increase over the autumn period especially peaking when we start to turn up our central heating make sure you use flea and tick prevention and check your dog and cats’ coats over regularly. If you see a tick, make sure you use the correct tick removal tool. Using a household flea spray in your home can help as well.

Exercise and nutrition with the dark night and the cold wet weather you may find that your dog is not getting as much exercise as he would normally. You need to keep an eye on his weight during this time as if he’s exercising less and still eating the same amount of food he could easily put weight on, if you see this happening you need to reduce his intake of food accordingly and monitor. You could always employ a dog walker like us at Paws 4 A Break if you really don’t want to go out in the cold or rain. If walks are getting less frequent there are other ways to exercise your dog’s mind and body:

Play scent games in the house

Feed some or all of your dog’s dinner in Kong’s or on licki mats

Make your own interactive puzzle toys

Teach your dogs some basic tricks

Play hide and seek in the house and garden

Play fetch or tug sensibly

Go to training classes

Many more

If you are walking your dog in the early morning or after work, invest in a reflective vest for yourself and a reflective collar for your dog. If you take your dog to a safe are where you can let him run off the lead you can buy flashing lights that you attach to a collar or harness so you can see where he is and also if he stops to have a poo. The flashing lights come in different colours so are great if you have multi dogs. But a good quality torch with a decent beam or even better a headlight so you can be hands free.

Keep your personal safety in mind when walking in the dark, only walk in areas where you feel safe and have some light such as streetlights. Always tell someone where you are going and how long you will be. Carry a mobile phone in your pocket in case of an emergency, but don’t be constantly on it. Keep vigilant. It’s always best whenever possible to walk with someone else or use a dog walking service, if it’s too dark for your own comfort, some will do early morning and Evening walks, I know we at Paws 4 A Break do. You could always set up a walker’s group too with other walkers you know.

Fireworks can be really frightening to your dog and cause lots of issues and with the firework season just becoming longer and longer dogs need help. If this is an issue you would like to resolve as its causing lots of distress for yourselves and your dog contact our in house dog trainer at http://www.pawspositivedogtraining.co.uk for help. She recommends training as soon as possible before the fireworks begin its also advisable to have a training session with puppies to try and prevent the fear occurring in the first place.