Warm climate breeds??

 Just from observing dogs around here I think smaller dogs and lighter colored dogs seem to do best in the heat.  As others have said none of the short nosed breeds do well and surprisingly many double coated breeds do better than short coated breeds. Its my understanding that the double coat acts as insulation from heat and cold.  One of the larger breeds that seem to do well here (NC) are golden's.  My neighbor's huge golden will lay on the concrete in the sun all summer very happily.

Bugsy is horrible in the heat and surprisingly good in the cold and snow - his coat is VERY short and his underside very sparse.  He will do whatever you ask in whatever weather so we need to not ask much in the heat.  In fact if it is full sun I don't like to walk him if it is over 75* or so if possible.  I do his main exercise at about 6 am to avoid the full sun.  The two extremes he doesn't seem to care for are over 100* or once last winter we had a very windy, 10* day and he was not interested in going out for anything but his business LOL

 Dogs without insulation (single coated and hairless dogs) tend to do poorly. Certain breeds (Labs are known for being heat intolerant, there's a heat exhaustion condition they get and I can't remember what it's called but some of them have serious issues with it), and certain physical traits (flat faces, extreme chests, etc) have a harder time coping with heat.

Emma (who has a double, light colored coat) does great in the heat, but sun burns on her belly, nose, and ears. Ena Bean (with her ability to sweat, but literally no coat to protect her) melts in the heat, but has enough drive that she wants to do it anyways. 

Timmy doesn't do that well in the heat. He overheats fairly quickly being a large black dog. Although I think a large part of his overheating is due to the humidity.  It is only really hot here for two months of the year, the rest of the time the temperature is a lot more moderate. He does great in the snow.

We are careful to watch him, because he wants nothing more than to be around us all of the time, so we look out for shade patches for him to lie in if we are outside working, and we take him swimming almost every night in the summer, around 6 pm when the sun has gone down a bit. He loves water. 

BlackLabbie

erica1989

Greyhounds really don't handle heat very well - they need to be monitored closely when they are outside in the summer.

See now I thought they did OK because they have such little body fat.

  All the ones I know did fine outside in the summer time. They never needed to be "monitored closely" other than the normal precautions one would take with any dog (with the exception of the sunburning on light colored ones). The only dogs I can think of off the top of my head that need to be closely monitored outside in the summer would be the brachycephalic breeds, especially the ones with extreme heads such as Bulldogs. And very overweight or obese dogs of any type.

Of all the dogs in our kennels - the ones that couldn't be left out for very long were the greys. They would overheat very quickly from being out in the hot sun. They also do not do well in cold weather - poor guys.

There were a few that enjoyed playing in the pools - but even those couldn't tolerate the weather for too long before having to go back inside in the AC. We had little neck coolies for them to try and keep their body heat down.

I've had Labs for years, mine were always black and they did fine in the heat.  Of course, they were completely acclimated to it and did not spend all day inside air conditioning.  Any dog will overheat in extreme temps if it's exerting itself. I am very cautious because I do live in such a hot, humid climate and have seen many dogs collapse from heat exhaustion because their owners didn't realize that the dog won't necessarily quit when he should.  Jenny, are you referring to exercise induced collapse?  That's not a heat issue although it looks like the dog is collapsing from heat exhaustion. 

Jackie, my uncle's lab is the same way, though she is small and field bred.  Crazy drive even compared to GSDs.  And like you say, she's a working, outdoor dog.  She lives either in a kennel run outdoors, in her dog box (set in the shade or on the bed of my uncle's truck) or just running loose on their property.  I only ever see her in the summer on vacation, she doesn't seem the slightest bit effected by heat and will swim for hours (and the lake water can be 85 degrees!).

 Border Collies can work when it's quite warm out. They need breaks and it's pretty foolhardy to work any dog in temps when it's dangerous for people, too, but many work on farms where there's no choice but to get all the work done when it's already in the nineties with high humidity (like on my friend's cattle farm).

BCs may also be prone to EIC. They are looking into it - it's only popped up now that most of the breed is in a "weekend warrior" sort of lifestyle. It is, as someone said, not heat related, however. It seems to happen with really tightly wound dogs in high pressure situations. Sports training ups the training pressure constantly, so it's most commonly seen there.

I had a young female with it, but she "outgrew" it when she settled down to the workin routine. It was a constant danger though, any time we got into a tough situation.

brookcove

BCs may also be prone to EIC. They are looking into it - it's only popped up now that most of the breed is in a "weekend warrior" sort of lifestyle. It is, as someone said, not heat related, however. It seems to happen with really tightly wound dogs in high pressure situations. Sports training ups the training pressure constantly, so it's most commonly seen there.

 Belgians also seem prone to this, although I have never seen it first hand.

  Erica - interesting about the Greys at your work. I worked at a doggy daycare and was around a lot of Greys there and none seemed to be overly sensitive to heat. Most of those specific dogs were outdoors most of the day year round without a problem. But I also went to more than one lure coursing event that was held in the summer and none of the dogs seemed to have major issues with the heat there either.

As many may know, EIC is a problem in Labs and other breeds.  The good news is there is a DNA test now and the responsible breeders are sending in DNA and testing their breeding dogs.   Anyone considering a Lab should ask the breeder if the parents have been tested.   I have a friend who owned a Lab with this condition and I witnessed one of the collapses while we were training.  Looked just like a heat collapse at first but we knew the dog was not overheated. 

 Unfortunately with BCs, it's still unclear whether it's the exact same problem, and also whether the genetic marker will be identical. They are still looking into it.

 Maze (black lab mix) love the heat.. To a point. When she was a puppy she got heat stroke really bad because I didn't know any better, having never owned a black dog before.  She has a single coat and hates water so I try and keep her exercise limited during the day. Unless she has to go out then I make sure I bring a large bottle of water, frozen bandana and lots of breaks.

Sandy (JRT) couldn't care less about the heat. She just only started panting yesterday and we had some pretty hot days last week. But she'll also regulate her self and stop running if she get to hot. Plus I can just toss her in the kiddie pool and soak her underbelly. Lol. Can't do that with Maze.