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Due to my husband's recent diagnosis of lung cancer, surgery to remove a portion of his right lung and a nasty case of pseudomonas pneumonia picked up at the hospital, I haven't been home much to play with or exercise Scooter. Add the horribly hot weather to the mix and he's starting to get a little antsy. I was wondering, if I sprayed him down really good, would it keep him from getting overheated on an evening walk? That's about the only time I have right now, but even at night, it's in the mid-80's. He needs the exercise for his hip dysplasia. Any suggestions? We don't have access to a place for him to swim. :rolleyes: He's being such a good boy about the disruption in his routine but I can see he's getting a little anxious and keeps lying in the foyer waiting for DH to come home from work. Poor guy. :D I'm hoping things return to some sort of normalcy soon!

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Down here in AZ we spray down to keep cool before playing and it seems to help. I would just make sure you walk close to home at first so that if he starts to get too hot you aren't far away from a cool repreive.

 

I'm sorry to hear about everything your husband and you are going through.

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What about a child's pool to splash in? If he gets his feet, legs and belly wet, that should cool him off and he can lie down in luxury...

 

Hot here too! I wish we could store some of it up to temper the cold in January

 

Best wishes to your husband, Scooter, and you!

 

Liz

 

Due to my husband's recent diagnosis of lung cancer, surgery to remove a portion of his right lung and a nasty case of pseudomonas pneumonia picked up at the hospital, I haven't been home much to play with or exercise Scooter. Add the horribly hot weather to the mix and he's starting to get a little antsy. I was wondering, if I sprayed him down really good, would it keep him from getting overheated on an evening walk? That's about the only time I have right now, but even at night, it's in the mid-80's. He needs the exercise for his hip dysplasia. Any suggestions? We don't have access to a place for him to swim. :rolleyes: He's being such a good boy about the disruption in his routine but I can see he's getting a little anxious and keeps lying in the foyer waiting for DH to come home from work. Poor guy. :D I'm hoping things return to some sort of normalcy soon!
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Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery for your husband!

 

I can empathize between being torn between needing to exercise a Border collie and deal with a DH recovering from surgery. My DH had to have open-heart surgery (replacement of a defective aortic valve) this past January. There was no way I could manage the pup's normal 2x/day long walks and also be there for DH (not to juggling mention my job and riding [some semblance of] herd on our two boys). We were able to hire someone to come walk Duncan each day - a huge relief on my personal stress front.

 

These days, with the economy being what it is, there are many high school and college students in search of ANY kind of employment. I put up an ad at the boys' school's listserve this June seeking a petsitter and had scads of highly qualified applicants within 24 hours.

 

I would be willing to bet that you could post an ad and in no time find someone willing to take Scooter for a nice long early morning walk on a regular basis. All those high school/college athletes are just dying for a chance to get some exercise themselves while it's not too hot.

 

Failing that - I've found as long as the temperature is below 90o, Duncan is well enough acclimated that he doesn't overheat during an evening walk. I'm just careful to bring water with us and to keep an eye on things.

 

Hang in there - things WILL become easier!

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My dog gets VERY hot, but he's a non-swimmer. So, I do spray him down with a hose before we take a walk during the hottest weather. Seems to work OK. If I walk for an hour, he's usually dry again before we get home.

 

Good luck with your husband. Much strain there!

 

Mary

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For walks when it's hot, I like to plan my walk on the local college campus to swing by the drinking fountain locations, and I carry one of those little fold-up pocket bowls. Well, actually, sometimes I forget the bowl, and I improvise one from a plastic bag (I never forget those!). Daisy insists we walk on the shady side of any street. She has a heavy coat, she gets hot easily, and she's quite smart. If we are active in hot weather, like playing games etc., I feel much safer having a cool-down tank. A kiddie pool is fine. However, for something tougher you can get the tubs that are used for mixing cement at Home Depot. Juno just loves to jump in and lay down in the water, but Daisy is so innately conservative that she had to be trained to get in. Didn't take long, what with some treats and encouragement, but it did require a bit of patience.

 

I'm very sorry to hear of the difficult times you and your husband are going through. I hope recovery from the surgery and treatment for the pneumonia (insult added to injury, seems to me!) leave him feeling better soon.

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Here in Fort Stinkin' Desert, AZ I run Cerbie every evening with the Chuckit. I wait until the sun is low enough that ground clutter shadows everything and I always make sure he has a lot of ice water to drink. Since panting is his main mode of cooling, I figure cold water will bring his core temp down more quickly. On the hotest days I also spray him with a spray bottle to get a bit of evap going. I'm also cautious to listen when he says "its hot, let's go home".

 

Given all that, I still firmly believe that acclimation is 75% of why he does so well. He goes out 7 days a week and has had time to get used to the heat this spring.

 

YMMV

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Given all that, I still firmly believe that acclimation is 75% of why he does so well. He goes out 7 days a week and has had time to get used to the heat this spring.

 

YMMV

I agree, and might even say that acclimation is closer to 100% why he does well. My dogs go on walks multiple times a day in high heat and humidity. They also have to work at times, though I try to time the work for early morning or closer to dark. For example, today with the heat index the temp will feel like it's more than 100 out there. You step outside and it feels like stepping into a sponge, or a steam bath. I have a ewe with mastitis that needs treatment, so we can't choose not to work. So I try to gather the flock and do treatments, etc., early or late, with early being the preference, unless what I'm doing requires twice-a-day treatment. We also go jogging or biking early in the morning.

 

Of course I need to be very frugal, so the a/c is seldom run, and I wouldn't even be running it now except that my really old animals (14-17.5) really suffer in weather like this. But even then, the thermostat is set at 84-85. So it's by no means chilly in here.

 

I can go out in the middle of the day and do a 20 minute walk with the dogs kicking a basketball the whole way (with them chasing and retrieving it), tossing pine cones for them to chase, etc. I'm dying out there, and they're having a blast.

 

So really the key is to acclimate if you can. The only critters who can't likely be acclimated are the very young (lack of good internal temperature control), the very old, and the ill.

 

BC4Ever,

I'm sorry to hear about your husband, and I hope he recovery goes well. Unless Scooter has a health issue, I don't think he should overheat in 80+-degree weather on a walk (unless he's had overheating issues in the past).

 

J.

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I was going to say what Julie just mentioned. I don't see why Scooter wouldn't be ok with a nice walk in the evening, even with mid-80s. By all means, spray him down if you think that would make him feel better, though. We took two of our dogs for a walk the last two evenings. I don't know the temperature, but imagine it had to still be in the mid to high 80s. They did fine, and the two that didn't go with us got to play ball in the backyard for a few minutes. I also agree with acclimation being key.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your DH. :rolleyes: I hope things return to some normalcy for you all soon.

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I agree, and might even say that acclimation is closer to 100% why he does well. My dogs go on walks multiple times a day in high heat and humidity. They also have to work at times, though I try to time the work for early morning or closer to dark. For example, today with the heat index the temp will feel like it's more than 100 out there. You step outside and it feels like stepping into a sponge, or a steam bath. I have a ewe with mastitis that needs treatment, so we can't choose not to work. So I try to gather the flock and do treatments, etc., early or late, with early being the preference, unless what I'm doing requires twice-a-day treatment. We also go jogging or biking early in the morning.

 

Of course I need to be very frugal, so the a/c is seldom run, and I wouldn't even be running it now except that my really old animals (14-17.5) really suffer in weather like this. But even then, the thermostat is set at 84-85. So it's by no means chilly in here.

 

I can go out in the middle of the day and do a 20 minute walk with the dogs kicking a basketball the whole way (with them chasing and retrieving it), tossing pine cones for them to chase, etc. I'm dying out there, and they're having a blast.

 

So really the key is to acclimate if you can. The only critters who can't likely be acclimated are the very young (lack of good internal temperature control), the very old, and the ill.

 

BC4Ever,

I'm sorry to hear about your husband, and I hope he recovery goes well. Unless Scooter has a health issue, I don't think he should overheat in 80+-degree weather on a walk (unless he's had overheating issues in the past).

 

J.

 

Yep. Honestly, the heat slows me down more than Mick. He has a kiddie pool and if he gets too hot, he'll dive into it for a minute, then be back in action. Sinead's pretty lazy about the heat, but she has less endurance than Mick overall, so it's not really a surprise there. But I've seen no indication that the heat bothers him. Just like in the winter, he will happily spend a whole day out in the snow and freezing temps.

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Hi All

I was going to ask about my 1 year old BC and hot temps in NJ in a new thread, but since some of my questions were pretty much answered here, I'd just like to make a comment.

 

As a new BC owner, common sense pretty much told me running around in a heavy fur coat would be a problem in high temps, but getting him wet makes a huge difference. He can sprint at high speeds playing frisbee for hours on the beach with the frequent dip in the water, but at the park without the dips, he only lasts about 20 maybe 30minutes. I try to give him water, but he most often refuses, I'm guessing because he is so focused on playing. So when he seems to be at that point, we go home where he goes straight to the bowl and drinks quite a bit. Then sprawls out on the cool floor in the kitchen.

If he was a working dog, I could only imagine this being a problem, but perhaps the livestock is also so beat by the heat that its not that big of a deal.

 

 

Jim

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Hi All

I was going to ask about my 1 year old BC and hot temps in NJ in a new thread, but since some of my questions were pretty much answered here, I'd just like to make a comment.

 

As a new BC owner, common sense pretty much told me running around in a heavy fur coat would be a problem in high temps, but getting him wet makes a huge difference. He can sprint at high speeds playing frisbee for hours on the beach with the frequent dip in the water, but at the park without the dips, he only lasts about 20 maybe 30minutes. I try to give him water, but he most often refuses, I'm guessing because he is so focused on playing. So when he seems to be at that point, we go home where he goes straight to the bowl and drinks quite a bit. Then sprawls out on the cool floor in the kitchen.

If he was a working dog, I could only imagine this being a problem, but perhaps the livestock is also so beat by the heat that its not that big of a deal.

Jim

 

I've got my dogs trained to drink on command. I just basically did it by saying "go get a drink" or "go get water" while they were drinking. Now both will do it on command. It's helpful if running them in hot weather, or if I'm in a hurry and just want them to drink on a stop.

 

They'll also stop drinking on a "that's enough" command. I don't let them chug too much during/after heavy exercise cause they end up puking it back up.

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