Hot days...........

In Texas, it is not uncommon to break 100 F (38 + C) in July and usually August. One to two big bowls of water, in the shade of the patio. A cooler mat I got a month ago from Dog.com. I have a large freezer and I can freeze it nearly flat. Otherwise, he is inside in the air conditioning as often as possible. Shorter walks. Frequent, yet short play times.
 
Shadow loves the white stuff.
 

We try to get our walk in early before it gets too hot. Triple digits aren't unusual here, sometimes for days on end. [&:] There are more people walking dogs at 9:30 - 10:00 p.m. than there are earlier in the day.  I have floor fans in the living room and family room and ceiling fans in the bedrooms.  I put ice in Max's water and if the sprinklers are on anywhere, he runs through them.

Joyce & Max

Today was the hottest day of the year here, the bank said it was 96! It will get up to 100 or over in the summer, but not too much. The thing is that it is pretty humid here, unlike, say Arizona, where we go to visit, where it is mostly dry heat, but gets up to like 115 or so.

Anyway, I do not like the heat! We don't have AC in our house, but have a ceiling fan and a couple of regular fans. I make sure the dogs get lots of cool water, inside or  out. There is a lot of shade outside, and Cassidy sometimes prefers laying under a bush in the dirt to being inside when it gets hot. I have a kiddie pool for the puppy, Mirelle, in the yard, and she'll hop in there to splash around. When it's hot, I don't really limit the activites that Cass does ( when we stay home) , because she'll let me know when she wants to stop. And then we will go back to the woods and take a swim in the creek! ( Yes, we've got a nice shady creek in the back [])  Usually I will combine her exercise, and toss her stick in the creek and she jumps in there and swims; keeps her cool and gets exercise! During the summer I will usually go out to the creek with her about once a day, but she has access to it whenever she wants to cool off. I'll take Mirelle out there now that I've got her, as well.

Once it gets dark here, Cassidy likes to stay outside ( because its cooler outside than in, even with the windows open , when it's dark out!) to cool off, until bedtime. And I don't take the dogs very many places in the summer unless I have plans to keep them cool, and certainly don't leave them in the car by themselves!

I guess that's pretty much all my advice. If your dog will eat ice cubes, those are nice to chew on. Cassidy will just leave them on the floor to melt, but I think Mirelle likes them.

ORIGINAL: LoveMyDogCassidy

Today was the hottest day of the year here, the bank said it was 96! It will get up to 100 or over in the summer, but not too much. The thing is that it is pretty humid here, unlike, say Arizona, where we go to visit, where it is mostly dry heat, but gets up to like 115 or so.

I was in Arizona two years ago, during the hottest week of the year. July. It was so hot, When I got off the plane, it was like 105degrees (usually the bay area it around 80) I got tired really fast. But I love the weather tho. I love hot weather.

I just looked it up and the humidity today was 83%.  I think Im used to living in soup by now tho.
 
I think its a nice treat to blend some fruit and freeze it in ice cube trays for them.  Wouldnt help too much on your walk tho[]  The spray bottle is a good idea.

hehe...........I guess some of you got use to the hot weather already.  I find myself having trouble breathing when it's hot/humid outside.  So just like every summer, I usually stay indoors except for walking to work and home.  As for JJ, she stuck her tongue out during our walks.  Stinky butt wouldn't drink the water I give her.  [&:]  With everyone here in the city turning on the ac, I have to cut back on watching tv.   []  Don't want another blackout......[:-]

Sara has a canopy set up for her. There is always such a nice breeze here. She also has a kiddie pool in the shade.

Angel, be sure that you change and clean out that pool every day or two.  They get stagnet FAST in the heat, and make a great place for skeeters to breed.

Oh yes it is dumped every night, because of skeeters. Plus I want the water to be cool for her. If it sits, it's just yuck. She drinks from it too, so I would not let her drink if it was not fresh every day.[]

Wow! I feel sorry for you guys that have to deal with high temps AND humidity.  Here in the valley it often gets over 100 in the summer, but we don't have humidity except once in a great while.  On the coast where it is humid, they don't usually get the really high temps we do here.

Joyce & Max

My air conditioner has a dehumidifier in it, great for my asthma but it does make it harder for me where my plants are concerned. I have to water them every other day and as many as I have, it takes me filling up a gallon milk jug 5 times to water all the plants in my house.

This will be my first summer with Aspen & I'm concerned about keeping him cool.  Shaving him is not an option.  We have some nice big shade trees that the boys love to hang out under.  Of course there's always plenty of water there.  Grady has his pool to lay in & they also seem to know to take things slower.  When it gets really hot & humid (gak) they stay inside with me in the a/c.  Grady likes to lay right in front of the a/c with it blowing on his belly.  He's not stupid! ~L~

I get a empty half galllon milk carton, fill it halfway with water, freeze it and then peel the cardboard off, throw it on the grass and let her go to town, it only last a while but she sure loves it. Obviously thats not my main way to keep her cool but its a fun treat!

Annie, I wondered the same thing about Gracie too. Boss' fur is thin and he doesn't mind getting wet at all, but Gracie is not too keen on the water thing, but I hosed her anyway! By the end she did stand still and let me just hold the hose over her.

I think it was Huskymom that told me about freezing water in a bundt pan and then centering it around a stake. They can't tip it over and they have cold water all day.