Running with your dog in warmer temps

[amekler]

Hello.
As a runner and dog mom one of life's true joys is to run with my pup so I truly get why others would want to do the same. I was recently asked by a runner friend about do's/don'ts for running with one's dog. I do understand every dog is different and to watch out for signs - tongue out to side, heavy panting, glazed look, falling behind. But when faced with temperature guidelines I came up empty handed (empty pawed?). I recall reading once that if the sum of temperature (in F) and dewpoint was greater than 130 then it was too hot but I have no idea where I found this. Also if it is a northern breed the cutoff was lower at 110 (and clearly no running with brachycephalic dogs).
Help!

[David Lane]

I'm not aware of any cutoff stats, and would hesitate to rely on that relative to monitoring whether the dog is showing symptoms.... but then again I am Canadian and hide as soon as it gets warmer than 27 degrees. I have seen overheating though in dogs in the high alpine running on snow, with low temps but beating sun, so again I hesitate to use ambient temperature as a sole consideration.

Cindy Otto's group (Penn Vet working dog research facility) did work on Texas patrol dogs and dehydration, looking at the best way to prevent it, and found that having the dog pre-load with flavoured water - something so tasty that they drink more than they need to in order to satisfy immediate hydration needs - was the best way to prevent dehydration while on the job.

Another study found that cooling off in water was helpful after exercise helps return normal temperature sooner. I'm sure that information comes as a surprise to no one.

[David Lane]

I'm not aware of any cutoff meteorological stats, and would hesitate to rely on that instead of monitoring whether the dog is showing symptoms; I have seen overheating in dogs in the high alpine running on snow, with low temps but beating sun, so I hesitate to use ambient temperature as a sole consideration. For example, thermoregulation is greatly impaired with even minor dehydration.

Cindy Otto's group (Penn Vet working dog research facility) did work on Texas patrol dogs and dehydration, looking at the best way to prevent it, and found that having the dog pre-load with flavoured water - something so tasty that they drink more than they need to in order to satisfy immediate hydration needs - was the best way to prevent dehydration while on the job.

Another study found that cooling off in water was helpful after exercise helps return normal temperature sooner. I'm sure that information comes as a surprise to no one.

[lehughes]

I did a FourLeg Newsletter on this topic: March-April 2018
https://www.fourleg.com/media/7(2)FourLegNews.pdf

It includes a few of the articles by Cindy Otto & her research group.

It's a good place to start... as this was all I came up with when I did my search for information!

Cheers,

Laurie