One hit back: "I will ensure my girlie is kept cool with a cool coat, cool mat and frozen water bottles in her crate, I will also make sure she has plenty available to drink.
“Most people who show have far more common sense that your regular pet owner in the heat so please don’t slate us for doing something that we and our dogs enjoy.”
Another wrote: "The dogs are monitored very carefully and are just fine. People know how to keep their dogs cool.
“I’ve never known a dog get heat stroke at a dog show. Heat stroke normally happens when you exercise the dogs in the heat, at dogs shows they are mostly chilling out in their crates.”
I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. So I’m sitting on the fence a bit.
On the surface I would agree it is wrong to exhibit ANY animals in a heatwave as bad as this.
I also abhor dogs being dragged along on burning hot pavements on days like today. I would like to force the owners to walk over burning coals for miles with no shoes on to get more idea what they are doing to their dog.
On the other hand, I saw bits of this Agility show on the news this evening, and I did not see one single distressed dog.
Most of them were wearing those special ‘Cool coats,’ and there were a lot of big paddling pools dotted about all round the venue for the dogs to play in and cool down. One Collie was a right nutter, he was so excited playing and splashing the water everywhere.
Another thing that comes to mind is, in a way, I think the horse racing is far worse, and an utter disgrace in this weather. The main difference to me is, the horses are MADE to do it, the dogs are not. If the dogs didn’t want to do the course, they would just stop and refuse, and at least they are not being sat on and whipped!
At least the dogs don’t have to endure this sort of barbaric treatment!
I spoke to my vet on Friday & he said that they have had many pets brought in, who were suffering health problems from the heat.
One of my cats is kept in, owing to his asthma & the other 2 come in when I call them , so they are allowed out at 5am and come in around 8.30am. Cats are good at finding shade anyway, but they have learned that sitting on a comfy chair or bed, in a cool room is good.
It sounds like some of you, further south, are finding it a bit hotter than where I am though.
I just feel that if it’s too hot for us, it’s definitely far too hot for dogs. We can change our environment (remove clothing, have showers, put the fan on, sit in the shade, perspire) but dogs have furry coats they can’t take off, no protection on their feet, and don’t perspire they same as us…panting when the air is so hot, won’t cool them down.
Not sure if this will work for all houses, but it is cooler early morning so open you windows around 4am & pull back the curtains. As soon as the sun shows , usually around 9 am , shut the windows & draw the curtains to stop the indoor temp rising too high!
Drink water as cold as you can get it, because it helps to cool you as it uses your body temp to warm it to normal normal body temps. This probably helps your pets too, if they will drink it.
Dogs are good at drinking water, but many cats don’t, so one of mine is being force fed water with a syringe to ease his constipation… it seems to be helping!
