[Nancy Jocoy]

Swimming is great but I have seen dogs get too hot even swimming

I carry a cooler with the following in it just for heat but have not needed it too much - better safe than sorry It has:

Gel packs
Washcloths soaked in water and frozen in plastic bags (I love these!)
Ice water and a small mister in which I keep ice water - you can find it at garden shops - it is like a mini pressure sprayer.

After training mine get a long cooling spray between the back legs with an open spray pattern - in between a mist and a stream (I would not apply ice water directly to skin)

Also don't understimate moving air. Mine have both been fine in a vehcile that was 90-95 (that was the air temp, not like the car was adding) with fans on high -- crates are open wire - I am using the 02Coool fan hooked up to a 12 volt deep cycle battery just for the dogs (It moves a LOT more air than those chinszy 12volt car fans or those battery dog fans)

 

[Nancy Jocoy]

.......and there are several threads on the board on heat tolerance / conditioning.

As well as diet and heat tolerance.

what you don't want to hear is that if your dog is in the A/C all day and taken out to work in the heat .... that is harder on them than if they are in the environment in which they will be worked.

My compromise (when I can keep my family away from the thermostat) is to jack it up as high as I can tolerate (usually around 80) ...

 

[Nancy Jocoy]

That unit looks pretty sweet. I was looking at coming up with something with copper tubing and a water pump and an ice chesst to fit between the fan and the crate, but this looks a heck of a lot simpler - and you can put a PVC pipe on it to direct the air.

Going to have to see if I can make room for one . It is the all day weekend trainings that require the most vigilance.

For Stacia - watch this site, www.airnow.gov, (Actually anyone in NC or CA), NC from Charlotte West and down towards Atlanta has some horrible air quality so watch for Ozone. this site links to a Charlotte (and other site) where you can get air quality readings in real time.

 

[Nancy Jocoy]

Old thread but I just bought a thermometer and can do Grims temperature by myself [I think we prefer K-Y to Astroglide for this application]

Anyway - at training the other day he got up to 104.2-it was a hot day. At rest he was 101.2. At 104.2 he was showing no signs of stress

I have read stuff all over the place about rectal temperatures of working dogs.

This article says it very much depends on the breed and the individual dog with some temperatures of normal healthy dogs during work. So how DO you use a thermometer to guage level of heat stress other than relating it to the other visible signs?

http://www.sportsvet.com/11Nwsltr.PDF


Greyhounds (Rose & Bloomberg, 1989)
104° - 106° F
Labradors (Matwichuk, Taylor, ET al, 1999)
102° - 107° F
Pointers (Gillette, clinical field work, 1999)
103° - 106° F
Foxhounds (Gillette, clinical field work, 2001)
100° – 103° F