It’s here! After what felt like the longest Autumn and Winter, the Summer is finally here! Whoop!
But alas, the Summer is not fun for everyone - whilst it might be lovely for us, our furry friends might feel otherwise. Who wants to walk in this heat in a fur coat? Not us that’s for sure!
Luckily we do have options so let’s explore what we can do to meet our dogs needs when it’s too hot for a walk.
If possible, get up for an early walk making sure the walk is done before 9/10am. This is usually before it starts to get too hot. Stick to the shaded wooded areas or the beach with a cool breeze. Dogs with heavy coats, those that have medical conditions or are elderly/very young then a walk even earlier is ideal.
In the middle part of the day, when it is at its hottest, there are plenty of things you can do instead of walking. You can also do these things in the evening instead of their second walk as recently it’s still been 21 degrees at 10pm.
If your dog likes water you can offer a doggy paddling pool in the shade or a water jet / sprinkler if they like playing with water jets.
Remember if your dog has gotten wet to cool themselves, they then need to stay in the shade. Whilst cooling with water is great, if they then sit in the hot sun they will potentially 'steam' and be hotter than they would be if they were not wet in the first place.
Use a cooling mat instead of a warm cozy bed and keep them in the shade.
Introduce fans in and around the home. If your dog is worried about these we can help you with a desenisitisation session.
Offer wet towels and flannels. If you have a really hot dog, the best places for wet towels are in the groin and armpit areas where there is less hair.
To stop boredom and potential for a rise in attention seeking and other behaviours you can use activity feeders such as Licki matts and stuffed Kongs, plastic snakes and buffalo horns instead of feeding them in their bowls. This can help to keep them mentally stimulated. Many of these can also been frozen to help. If frozen, it is best they enjoy these out of the sun / heat.
We like to do low energy treat training in the shade or cool of the house, teaching things like sit, down, stand and paw or creep are good to keep that brain busy. We are big fans of Gwen Baileys book ‘Training your super dog’. It is a great resource for more tricks and things to train, taking care to do the more high energy training when it is cool enough.
But above all we love a search game. For your free copy of how to train this, as well as a video, please get in touch with us!
The search game is the fastest way to tire your dog out without too much physical activity. It taps into dogs natural super skill and their joy of finding food!
Enjoy your Summer and stay cool! Love the Pet-Professionals team x