Dogs left in cars!

When I take some of my dogs they are left for a very short time with the engine running....we are talking an Excursion with dual air conditioning......that thing runs cooler than any place anyone could be at any time......[]

with my breed it would be completely and utterly insane to leave them in a car all alone. either the car would over heat(because i have that kind of luck) someone would try to steal my dogs, or the dog would bite someone for trying to steal them OR the dog would give some innocent person a heart attack by doing the "SURPRISE HERE'S A BIG BULLDOG" bark as they are passing by too closely.... nope.... i'll either leave them at home or stay out in the car with them.. besides... i have this fear of them eating the car like the dog in Turner and Hooch.... but.. only because i have that kind of luck..

I had to do this yesterday actually.
 
Strauss and I were at club and I was running late for an appointment I had to keep.  I had the Suburban (Had it been my Toyota I would have just said "Screw it" and took him home), so I went to my appointment.
 
However, because of the heat, and because I'm not a dipstick of a dog trainer, I had a water dish, spray bottle, and big jug of cold water with me.  He also had his kennel in the back of the car.
 
I jumped out of my car, rolled all the windows down half way, open the top half of the hatch, sprayed down my dog right quick, and went to my appointment.  The car was cool, my dog was safe and hydrated, and he was in a kennel.

I would call 911 and if I felt that the dogs lives were in jeopardy, I would break the car window without hesitation.

 
Last summer I was in Petco and there was a commotion outside.  A lady had left her child, an infant, in the car and went shopping in another store--our Petco is in a strip mall type place.  And, a guy coming out of Petco saw her and broke the window to get to the baby before the police and ambulance got there.  They found the woman and do you know she was yelling and screaming about her window being broken??  The police basically told her too bad for her and arrested her.  And, the baby went to the hospital alone. 

Just yesterday I was running into wal-mart on my way home from work for a few things.  As I was walking up to the door there was a car arked in the handicapped spot with a lab-type looking dog in it, a pretty large black dog.  Yesterday was about 85 here at that time.  Thankfully, standing right outside of the car were two women on a cell phone.  As I passed them I heard them talking to who I assume to be either AC or the police.  They were reporting the license plate, type of car, etc. 
 
I smiled, and planned on thanking those women if they were still out there when I came out.  They weren't, and the car wasn't there either, but still, I'm really happy they were doing something about it.  I'd have done (and have done) the same thing.

Kramer goes all the time with me when the top is up on the jeep if I plan on taking him. He has a problem with anyone coming near the jeep thinking it is his property, I know there are other reasons but when I stop to get  milk or something small I always stop and park where I can see him. He has the car running with the air on and I have a paw on the back that says you may get in but you won't get out. The other dogs only go when it is cool becasue I lock the door, they would get right out and have a good time in the parking lot and I think they would go with anyone.

That make me laugh! My idiot Uncle left a Springer in the car in New Hampshire when he and the ex wife went to the top of a mountain looked through one of the scopes they have on top only to see the car in the parking lot and the dog eating the dash board! By the time they got back to the bottom the dog was taking a nap.

Well, my dogs have water in the back of the Escape, and I have left them for short periods with the air running full blast.  I once came out of PetSmart to a man writing a nasty note to leave on my truck...he didn't realize the vehicle was running.  When I opened the door to a frigid blast of air and two SHIVERING chihuahua's (although everyone else was happy) he looked rather stupified.  I don't leave them for long by any means, but there are times they can't go in, or not all of them.

ORIGINAL: Hunterwayit

I have only seen one situation with a dog in a car that I was unhappy about and when I rang dog control. They asked a few questions then to my surprise told me to smash the window and rescue the dog. He was very dehyrdrated by the time I got him out. The owners came back not long after I had got the dog out and gave him a drink. They were shocked and thought I was crazy. They had been gone for 20 mins in the middle of summer I don't think I was mad I was looking out for their dogs welfare! Of course dog control turned up just after they were having a go at me good timing I thought hehe. I felt very akward standing their holding their dog with my tool kit next to me.

The temperature in a car on a sunny day rises about 19 degrees in 10 minutes.  Twenty minutes in the car with an outside air temp of 85 degrees, gives you 125 degrees.  Dogs will not survive that....

ORIGINAL: paulaedwina

1. There is a dogs in cars law in Maryland (where I work), but I am not sure about Pennsylvania (where I live).
2. If I see a dog in a car I'll time it. For example, I pulled in to Home Depot and saw a dog in a car (summer - heat). So I said to myself, if that dog is still in the car when I come back out (I was running in to get a thing that would take a few minutes), fair enough I'm calling the cops. The dog was still in the car when I came out and I called the police.  Police came - people got in trouble.

It was not by any means the worst case. Once I was having dog play date with a friend on a day so hot we kept calling the dogs inside for breaks. Her yard was up on a slope and backed up to the parking lot of a Red Lobster. Much to our surprise there was a car with two beagles in it! I don't know why people need to bring their dogs to a restaurant and then leave the dogs in the car and go in to eat! Anyway, like I said, it was a hot as heck day. I called the police right away and kept an eye on the beagles until they there. I figured if the dogs stopped panting (they were frantically panting) I was busting a window!

3. Use sense. I know, despite our planning, there is going to be a time you dog is going to be stuck in your car long enough for you to do a thing - whatever. I lock the car with the spare key, leave the engine running and the AC on, and I'm still just running in to get something.

Paula

If they stopped panting, they would probably die from heat stroke anyway. 

ORIGINAL: Xerxes

ORIGINAL: Jen D

What are some of the things you have done or someone you know when you see a dog left in a hot car? Do they have laws in the states you live in to protect them and does the authorities care in your area?

I leave my boy in the car all the time.  Though the car is on and the a/c is running full blast.  Heck it's usually about 30 degrees cooler inside than out.

What happens if the engine stalls, from a broken fan belt, or some other malfunction of the air conditioner? 

I have gone into a store and had an owner paged and walked them back to the car[:@] and I staked out a car with someone else at a hot ballfield to see if it was a kid drop off or someone staying for the game. Yeah, he was staying for the game and didn't appreciate the woman (who helped run the league!) saying anything about his dog. "Hello, local police???" [] 
 
Once I helped someone unlock a car with a golden x in it to give him water. She had a bowl, I had a bottle of water and the dog was very sweet.
 
You might find this info on temperatures in parked cars published in Pediatrics: The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics  helpful. I find that when you can cite an official-sounding journal it stumps people who deny it gets "too hot" in their car. [sm=devil.gif]  Basically, they parked cars in the sun on a clear day and tracked the temps to see if cars get too hot even on days when temps seemed mild. I have clipped from their abstract which can be found at:
[linkhttp://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/1/e109]http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/1/e109[/link]

 
Heat Stress From Enclosed Vehicles: Moderate Ambient Temperatures Cause Significant Temperature Rise in Enclosed Vehicles
Catherine McLaren, MD*, Jan Null, CCM and James Quinn, MD*

* Division of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
Department of Geoscience, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California
 
......We demonstrated that on sunny days, even when the ambient temperature is mild or relatively cool, there is rapid and significant heating of the interior of vehicles. On days when the ambient temperature was 72°F, we showed that the internal vehicle temperature can reach 117°F within 60 minutes, with 80% of the temperature rise occurring in the first 30 minutes. In general, after 60 minutes, one can expect an 40°F increase in internal temperatures for ambient temperatures spanning 72 to 96°F, putting children and pets at significant risk. We also determined that cracking open windows is not effective in decreasing either the rate of heat rise or the maximum temperature attained.

 
So take whatever the outside temp is and add 40 degrees in a hour---most (80%) of which happens in the first 30 minutes or less and cracking the windows a couple of inches doesn't really help. Running the a/c (and shutting it off) before leaving the car doesn't help much either unless you are only gone for five minutes.
 

  The effect of air conditioning the vehicle before start of measurements was negligible. In preliminary measurements, the vehicle consistently reached ambient temperatures within 5 minutes of the air conditioning#%92s being turning off and then would heat up at a similar rate to non–air-conditioned cases.

 
Boy I get geeky sometimes with these answers[8|]

I find this conclusion highly suspect.  My car has never been 120 inside when the outside temp is 72.  I wonder what conditions they used to get a car that hot on a 72 degree day.  A dog will be fine in a car for a few minutes (always crack open your windows).  Anyone who has ever had to fill up the gas tank has done this

Leaving the car running sounds like a really bad idea.  It is not only illegal in many places it is not safe.  .

ORIGINAL: Pwca

Some jerk broke the window of my friend's car back in March when she ran in to drop off a rent check at the leasing office, and then had the balls to scream at her about what a horrible pet owner she was for leaving her dogs in the car.

I definately agree that dogs shouldn't ever be left in the car unattended when it's hot but for the love of little grene apples, COMMON SENSE, PEOPLE.

Man that would be annoying.  Did the person breaking the window get charged or have to pay for damages?

They wouldn't die instantaneously from heat stroke the second they stopped panting, no. I think between my friend the nurse and my tech experience we would have saved the dogs.  I think it was a reasonable threshold for causing destruction on someone's vehicle. We'd called the police and were awaiting their arrival with this secondary plan in mind.

Paula