dogs in the heat

I wanted to share a quick story about Cairo from the weekend. I took her to a charity dog walk on Sunday. It was about 95 degrees and very humid but the walk was only about a mile, and through the shady woods. I didn't have any problems doing the walk but Cairo seemed increasingly like she was shutting her brain off. She didn't want to listen to me, didn't want to walk next to me, and just wasn't herself. At times she flat out ignored me, which is really not like her. She refused to drink any water even though the dog walk organizers set up lots of different water bowls for all the dogs. They also had a little kiddie pool set up, filled with water, and I made her get in it and then splashed water all over her belly and ears, and then dried her off to try and cool her down. Toward the end she started foaming at the mouth from panting, and looked so uncomfortable that I took her straight home, leaving the event early. I was so worried about her. She got home, drank an entire bowl of water, and then spent the rest of the day in our bedroom, which is the only room in the house with A/C. She seemed mopey and lethargic for the rest of the day but perked up yesterday and was her normal zoomy self.

Clearly she was overheated and I felt badly that I even took her on the walk in the first place. I will pay better attention to her in the future. She's got such short hair and is bred to withstand high temps, but she wasn't used to weather quite like that.

Anyway, just a reminder to be careful with your pets in this weather. I am glad Cairo is ok but I read a horror story today on COTH about a young dog who died of heat stroke after playing fetch for a very short time.