Dogs in Hot Weather: Pavement Temperatures, Cooling Treats and When Not to Walk
British summers catch dog owners out because they arrive suddenly. Here is the seven second pavement test, the signs of heatstroke, and what to do while you get to a vet.
British heat catches people out precisely because it is not constant. Nobody in a country with reliably hot summers walks their dog at two in the afternoon in July. Here, three warm days arrive in May and everyone carries on with their normal ten o'clock walk.
Research into UK cases has consistently found that exercise is the most common trigger for heat-related illness in dogs, ahead of being left in cars. Which means the most useful thing in this article is simply: do not walk them.
Dogs cannot cool down like we can
Dogs barely sweat. A little through the paw pads, essentially nothing elsewhere. They shed heat by panting, which moves air over wet surfaces in the mouth and airway.
Panting is much less effective than sweating, and it becomes less effective as humidity rises. It also does not work well in short-nosed breeds, because there is less airway to work with.
Highest risk: flat-faced breeds like bulldogs, pugs and boxers; overweight dogs; thick-coated northern breeds; puppies and older dogs; and any dog with heart or airway problems. A significant number of UK heat-illness cases involve flat-faced breeds, and for some of them a warm day genuinely is dangerous rather than merely uncomfortable. If your dog is carrying extra weight, summer is one more reason to look at lower calorie treats.
The seven second test
Press the back of your hand flat against the pavement and hold it there for seven seconds.
If you cannot keep it there comfortably, it is too hot for paws. Tarmac absorbs heat all day and radiates it well into the evening, so a pavement that scorched at three can still be too hot at seven. Grass is far cooler.
Burned pads are painful, slow to heal and entirely preventable.
When to walk
Early morning is best. The ground has had all night to cool.
Late evening is second best but check the pavement rather than assuming, because tarmac holds heat for hours after the air has cooled.
On genuinely hot days, skip the walk. A missed walk harms nothing. Do enrichment indoors instead: scatter feeding, a snuffle mat, a puzzle, training. A dog who has used their brain for twenty minutes is more settled than one who has trudged around a hot park. If you are scatter feeding, use part of their dinner rather than extra treats, because the 10% rule applies just as much on a hot day.
Signs of heatstroke
Learn these properly, because it escalates fast.
Early: heavy panting that does not settle, drooling more than usual, bright red gums and tongue, restlessness, seeking shade or cool floors, slowing down or lagging behind.
Serious: vomiting or diarrhoea, wobbliness or stumbling, confusion, glazed eyes, gums that look pale or blue-ish rather than red, collapse, seizures.
Heatstroke is a genuine emergency with a real mortality rate. Do not wait to see whether it improves.
What to do
Stop everything and get into shade.
Start cooling immediately. Current veterinary advice is cool water over the whole body. The older guidance to avoid cold water has largely been revised, and evidence now supports rapid cooling, including cold water immersion for dogs where that is practical. Pour water over them, get air moving with a fan or a breeze, and wet the floor they are lying on.
Offer small amounts of cool water to drink if they are conscious and able. Do not force it.
Ring the vet while you are cooling, not after. Cool first, transport second, but get the call in immediately.
Keep cooling on the way. Wet towels laid on rather than wrapped tightly, windows open, air conditioning on.
Dogs who appear to recover still need seeing. Heatstroke causes internal damage that can show up hours later.
The car
Never. Not for two minutes, not with the windows cracked, not in the shade.
The inside of a parked car climbs dramatically within minutes on a warm day, and cracked windows make almost no difference. If you see a dog in distress in a locked car, ring 999.
Cooling treats
The nice part.
Frozen chews. Soak a natural chew, freeze it, hand it over. Lasts longer, cools them slightly, and dogs love the texture. Freezing adds a fair bit to how long a chew lasts.
Frozen lick mats. Smear something soft on a lick mat and freeze it. Twenty minutes of calm licking.
Ice cubes in the water bowl, or as treats in their own right for dogs who like them. The old worry that ice causes bloat has no good evidence behind it.
Frozen carrot, cucumber, or blueberries. Almost no calories. Check which human foods are safe for dogs before you start freezing anything else from the fridge.
A paddling pool in the garden. Cheap and reliably popular.
Frozen kong or filled bone, plain natural yoghurt or wet food inside.
Give cooling treats in the shade, on grass or a hard floor, and take stubs away as usual.
Most of our chews freeze well and last considerably longer for it. Comment SUMMER on our latest Instagram post and we will suggest a few that work frozen.
