Leaving dogs in the car.

I won't leave any of my quad in the car alone for more than 15 minutes. 
 

ORIGINAL: DPU

Sometimes at the Petsmart dog showings, dogs misbehave and are aggressive to others, e.g my Sassy.  Yes, I put her in the car (minivan) and I leave the car running and the a/c on.  eople still come by the car, look inside the car, and shake their heads.  It might be perceived that it is hot inside the car.  Thank goodness no one called the police because that would have been a total waste of an emergency resource.

 
While this is more than most people will do for their dogs, things do go wrong.  AC units malfuntion all the time.  You could even run out of coolant.  What may be cool when you leave could end up a tragedy in a short time.  Even K9s have died when the air conditioning unit in the squad car has malfunctioned.  Just be careful and check back on your dog often.

I agree with Royally Yours.  Leaving a dog unattended for more then 15 minutes even with Ac could have tragic results.  How many dogs have died in the back of squad cars?  Now if any of us had done that and our dog had died we would most certainly be up on some kind of charges. 

We had an A/C malfunction situation at our breed/obedience show that our club puts on a few years ago.  Our show is in Aug.(think: hot a heck!) and an exhibitor had a "dog van/camper" with one of those roof A/C units.  She left her dogs in the van overnight in the hotel parking lot with the A/C unit on and she spent the night in the hotel room.  Can't remember what breed she had, know it was a long coated breed though.  Her A/C unit stopped working in the middle of the night, all her dogs died.  Very sad.  Not sure why the dogs did not go into the room with her as the hotel accepted dogs from our show. 
 
I know they make alarms for those units, some of my friends have camper/dog vans that have an alarm with a key chain fob.  So if your dogs are in the van and you are for example, eating dinner and the temp reaches a certain degree your key chain fob will go off.  Pretty nifty, I think.

I leave my dogs in the van on a regular basis.  The Alzheimers place where we do monthly visits is almost an hour away on a side of town that I otherwise don't go to.  After our visit, I drop by the Humane Society (to drop off cans and check for breeds so I can contact rescue people) and I drop by the library which is closer to home.  If it's too hot or too sunny I skip the stops.  My dogs are in crates with water and I put the reflective thingy in the front window.
 
Dogshows.  My dogs are much happier in the van.  This year we haven't had any shows in July, Aug, Sept.  But in June the dogs were in the van with the rear door open, water, crate fans, opened side doors, reflective thingy in the front window and a shade cloth that covered the back and which ever side is towards the sun.  I also check on them often.
 
In either instance I have yet to come back to the car and find the dogs panting.  Of course the basenjis thing 90 degrees is perfect sunbathing weather and my choice might be different if my breed were a boxer, Sussex spaniel, or Malamute.
 
Now it's time for the opposite problem of leaving dogs in the car.  The time of year when at the shows the windows are closed, the snuggle safe is in the crate and I have to run the car 10-15 minutes every hour to reheat the van.  Of course if my choice of  breed were Samoyeds, I wouldn't have to do that.

Marty loves car rides and loves people.  We go to my parents' house because they have a fenced in yard a lot, or to the dog park.  So we have a lot of car rides.  He probably goes for a car ride once a day.
 
And yeah, he gets really anxious when left alone, so I take him with me.  But I only leave him in the car alone if 1) I can see him at all times from the convenience store/gas station where I'm stopping (I'd never take him along for more than a ten minute errand), 2) if it is not hot (65 or less), and 3) only if it is nighttime, so the sun won't heat up the car.  Even if it's cold, I still roll down the windows enough for him to get his nose out if he'd like, and then set the security system on the car.  With all these precautions in place, I think the risk of him being stolen/hurt is slim to none.  Not to mention, when he gets tired of waiting, he lets me know by beeping the car horn []

LOL, beeping the horn.  Smart dog!

I do not ever leave a dog in the car for one second alone. Even if the weather is COOL. They can be stolen, car stolen etc.
 
 

It's safer than leaving the dog on the street tied to a post...

I hope no one would do that either.
 

Why not? We do it all the time.

ORIGINAL: Firestorm

LOL, beeping the horn.  Smart dog!

 
I did not even teach him that.  One day, I was dropping off some things at a friend's house, and we were talking on the porch.  I hear my car horn beep three times, and I turn around, thinking my security system was going off.  But no, Marty was sitting in the driver's seat beeping the horn.  My friend and I spent so long laughing our heads off about it he beeped it four more times.  People in parking lots think it's hysterical, which it is!

I've done it too. They don't do so well under that cirucmstance (they bark) so I don't do it often, but where I live it's really common for people to tie dogs up outside stores. If I do it, it's only to run in to a store quickly and I tie them some place where I can keep a constant eye on them through the window. It's accepted practice here if your dog can sit politely and wait for you. Mine have limited ability to do that, so I usually don't even try, but I sort of wish they could improve in that department. It's incredibly frustrating to walk your dogs past the corner grocer when you know you need milk.

I cured that behavior in my first dog, houndlove. It took a little patience and a lot of help from neighborhood vendors.

I walked up to the store, tied the dog up, walked up to the door and just opened it, and while I knew he would still be quiet, I turned around and gave him treats and praise.

Then I inched up from there. Just went inside the door and walked right back out again, treats and praise.

In for one second... you see the picture. Tell them exactly what you want and set them up to succeed.

It took a couple of weeks, but was well worth it.

Thanks fisher! That is definately on the "to do" list (man, that list is long!) and there are some neighborhood businesses here that I'm friendly with and actually our vet is right around the corner and I'm sure they'd help. []

I have working dogs.  I have to take them with me for various reasons - to get to a job, or for training, or for competition.  I have a Suburban, and use crates.  I had, until very recently, a thermometer that hung in the window so that well-meaning people could see that if it was sixty degrees outside, with the windows down three inches, it was sixty degrees inside as well.  The volume of air in that huge car takes a very long time to heat up.

I don't take the dogs if it's going to be hotter than seventy five degrees and I won't be able to leave the truck open.  But most places I go are in rural areas so I can leave the windows all the way down.  If my truck is open all the way, it's cooler in there than outside - because it is shady in there.  I don't think this would work with a car, however.

I had a little kid once chide me for leaving my little Chinese crested in the car with the windows cracked only a little bit, while I was inside a feed store.  It was snowing.  I started to explain that my Crested would be more likely to freeze to death, but then I said instead, "You're a very smart kid.  Thank you for sharing that with me.  But trust me that my little dog is just fine."  I let him feel the air inside the truck and demonstrated that Zhi was actually a little cool, in spite of her little coat.