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Gratuitous wet dog-blogging and hot weather tips
By Gina Spadafori
August 24, 2007
Everybody reading this blog surely knows that dogs are not exactly the most heat-tolerant of creatures. And yet, many people who love their dogs still insist on running with their pets in the heat of the day or leaving them in cars “just for a couple minutes with the windows cracked” and so on.
Be cool, fool. And don’t let your dog get hot.
Check out Pet Connection blogger Kim Campbell Thornton’s MSNBC.com column on hot weather problems to make sure you have all the bases covered. For example: Did you know your dog may need sunscreen? It’s true! (And it may prevent skin cancer, which is not uncommon in white dogs or dogs with a thin hair coat.)
The top picture is my youngest retriever, McKenzie (a/k/a McKutie, McSilly and McFarty — don’t ask!), in our kiddie pool. I fill it up almost every day for a cool wallow for the retrievers. The other picture is Drew, my Sheltie. I call his expression, “What fresh hell is this?” with apologies to Dorothy Parker. Drew is so not a water dog.
McKenzie is named after Kathleen McKenzie, mom to Pet Connection blogger Christie Keith. McKenzie is also the first name of one of Christie’s brothers. Which means that when Christie and I are on the phone and something about a McKenzie comes up, we have to clarify, “McKenzie the dog? McKenzie your brother?” and so on.
Well, really, we don’t: The context usually clarifies. But it’s still funny, or maybe you have to be there. I think Christie’s mom is flattered that I named a dog after her. I think her brother isn’t so much pleased, I don’t know …
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Pepper (Border Collie) sends her sympathies to Drew — she does NOT go near water willingly and she can’t imagine living with (dumb) retrievers! ;-)
We tried joining the local dog hiking club, but almost all the other dogs were retrievers — when we walked by the creek — even though it was November, all the retrievers immediately ran into the creek and started rolling around in the water.
Pepper stood on the bank in absolute horror and refused to put so much as a paw in the water. I think her utter contempt for retrievers began at that moment!
No matter how hot it is, she will run if she sees me with the hose — I think she’s better with a quick wet-down, but she does NOT like it at all.
If it’s really bad, my husband will take her down to the creek and she’ll wade in quickly just to wet her belly — but that’s it — no water on her back EVER!
Comment by Dorene — August 24, 2007 @ 11:51 am
Can my kitty Teddy come over and play? He just loves water. Once in a while I put a couple of inches of water in the bathtub and let him splash around. I’d do it more often except that he takes great exception to being dried off. In his mind, isn’t that what carpeting is for?
Comment by Andrea 2CatMom — August 24, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
I realized I was calling the basset Stinkybutt a few too many times when he started answering to it. Oops. He will tell you his name is Rascal (which he lives up to), but Mr. Basset will do too. Change in dog food = serious gas.
Comment by Georg — August 26, 2007 @ 4:36 pm
On our farm where I often work at rehabbing the old farm house and barn Scoutie (my new young English Setter) runs endlessly about smelling everything and pointing at birds on the lawn or just running about in the hay field until he is just about exhausted.
I keep a bowl of water for him in the barn but often have to remind him to “get some water Scout!” and then reacts like - oh! I forgot and does a U turn to the barn or the house to get a drink.
We also have a creek that flows through the property a short distance from the house and if I take a step or two toward it he runs down to it and the last thing I see is his hind end flying over the cat tails followed by a splash.
He comes back out a minute or two later wet and dirty and grinning like an idiot.
Refreshed, he runs even harder than he did before.
Where he gets the energy, I dont know.
He looks skinny like a greyhound and I worry he is not eating enough but I feed him hot dogs and cheese burgers and left overs which he gobbles down. He looks even skinnier when he is wet, more like a drowned rat. ( a white one!)
He has lost all of his winter coat though and has only a thin layer left so I think his physical changes have more to do with that than loosing weight. That, and he constant running…
When I cant take him to the farm I take him to the Lake Michigan shore where he chases tennis balls and seaguls with largely the same effect.
Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — August 26, 2007 @ 8:04 pm