Pet Walking in Heat
A couple of my personal rules of thumb when walking pets are:
- Test the ground with my bare feet. If it’s too hot for me to walk on bare foot, then it’s too hot for them (including sand). Find an alternative like playing for awhile in the yard or house.
- During extreme heat go on shorter walks earlier in the morning or later in the evening when temperatures are cooler. Even though your pets are anxious to get out of the house, the heat can can cause heat exhaustion.
Of course it has been extremely hot here in So. Cal lately and the asphalt has been getting very hot to extremely hot.
I had an incident yesterday when I was walking a dog during my pet sit. She is a “golden ager” (senior) with short legs, where her body and head are in closer proximity to the ground. Keeping “my rules of thumb” in mind I had an agreement with Cammy (the dog) to go on a very brief walk as long as the asphalt wasn’t too hot for her paws. It turned out the asphalt wasn’t too hot on my feet and the walk was mostly off the asphalt. She was happy and excited to get going.
I noticed even the brief walk was beginning to be a bit of a challenge for her so we headed back to the house (less about 25 yards if that). Yes, like I said she is a “golden ager”and it is important to keep that in mind and watch the signs our furry friends are giving us. Although she wasn’t panting, she laid down saying she had enough for now. She then got back up and we returned to the house.
She has two other canine siblings (different breeds & younger) who get their walks together but after Cammy’s. When the three of us had returned from the siblings brief walk I noticed that Cammy had apparently just gotten sick. My thought was heat exhaustion just on that short walk. I kept a close eye on her the remainder of the evening and she was fine and great the next morning. What is important though and an oversight on my part…
One thing I had forgotten about was “Off-Gassing” from asphalt in heat, particularly extreme heat.
I shared the incident with my husband Gary this morning and he pointed out to me, that what many of us don’t think about is asphalt when it’s hot and the fact that is “off gassing”. And, those fumes then rise and are very toxic. So when it is hot it’s not the best time to walk a dog on or around asphalt the hotter it gets the worse it is. I thought this was a really good point!
I am so sorry Cammy for not keeping this in mind yesterday, and for skipping your walk this morning (for your well-being). You are getting love, lots of pets and massage to make up for it though! 🙂
Here are a couple documents that support Gary’s point so you can see it is a real issue:
Source for this document: http://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/0170.pdf
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