Twenty five families in Grand Prairie, Texas have lost their dogs because of heat-related deaths, one a day for 25 days, according to the Prairie Paws Animal Shelter. How people do not realize it is too hot for their dogs outside in during such a hot summer in most parts of the country is beyond me but for 25 dogs to have died due to exposure and not a single owner realizing that maybe the dog needs to be inside when it gets so hot is pure negligence. If it is too hot for you to be outside for very long then it is too hot for the dog to be outside.
These dogs all died because they were left outside without proper shelter and water in the heat of the day. Dogs living in a backyard with no shade or without access to the shade cannot regulate their body temperature when temperatures start to soar. Sure dogs are animals and wild animals live outside but they can also find shade or shelter so they don’t overheat. A wild animal will not sit out in the open sun on a patch of grass for very long in the summer when temperatures are hitting 100 degrees they probably will not be out much during the day at all.
“During days this hot, do not leave your pet outside,” she said in a press release. “If you have to, you must provide adequate shade, a bath of water — like a kiddy pool — in the shade, and plentiful drinking water. Make sure the water bowl is large and in the shade or the water will evaporate or become too hot for the dog to drink. Your dog could literally lay down and die beside a bowl of water that had become too hot to drink.”
Don’t use a metal dish for the water bowl left in the sun it will just heat the water up faster. Don’t tether a dog whether or not it is illegal in your area is another story but a tethered dog cannot move out of the sun when it moves around the sky during the day and can get tangled up and not be able to move out of the direct sun to try and find shade when the temperature reaches over 100. Shaving a dog and then leaving the dog outside is worse then just leaving the dog with its full coat. The exposed skin will burn in the sun just like with a person even more so because the skin on a dog is pretty thin and in most dog breeds not used to any sun exposure.
Not that any dog should be left outside but if you do leave your dog outside with proper shade and housing with full access to water for most of the year there has to be a plan in place when the temperature drops below a certain point or gets above a certain level. Your dog cannot tolerate being left outside in extreme conditions even if they are outside dogs or farm dogs or working dogs. They need a way to get out of the sun or snow and stay cool or warm during these times of the year. If the problem is that the dog hasn’t been in the house since it was a puppy and ate the furniture then maybe getting a crate for the dog to stay in inside while you are gone is what is needed. Even if you just leave a fan on pointing in a way so the dog can stay cool and turn off or push up the air and close the blinds while you are gone the dog will stay many degrees cooler inside then they would outside without being able to mess up the house.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Heat-Claims-Dog-a-Day-in-GP-126348718.html
Common sense, where has it gone?
How terrible and embarrassing. I see you got this off the local news but I haven’t seen it reported.
Debbi
Dallas, TX