CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => General Cocker Spaniel Discussion => Topic started by: abkb on May 23, 2012, 08:09:54 AM
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After this lovely weather, I've noticed that Molly really doesn't seem to be coping with the heat, particularly at night. She lies on the cold slate floor in the kitchen rather than in the lounge with us, and she pushes her vet bed and blanket out of the way in her crate, to lie on the cooler plastic bit.
What are your cockers like with the heat, and how do you cool them down? Obviously ice cubes etc but for Molly it's more at night when she can't get cool. Are there any cooler crate beds I could get to replace her vet bed?
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Well she's been looking a bit fluffy so we had a tidy up last night whilst sitting on a bench in the shade in the garden. She doesn't like the heat so am hoping less fluff will help a bit. She will generally just find damp grass in the shade and lay down in it on a hot day. And we walk early and later before and after the sun does it's stuff.
.......I'm enjoying it though :lol2:
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Coco has a cooler, cotton bed for the hot weather - she had a haircut at the weekend and doesn't seem to mind too much. If it is too not she will just lie in the shade on the paving slabs to cool down.
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Here in Sydney in the summer if you don't want to give your cocker a full shave and clip ( which I don't) the groomers shave the tummy leaving all the coat and feathering, so the cocker looks fully coated and pretty. Apparently dogs cool down by pressing their tummy on a cool surface, and if the tummy is shaved all the cooler.
In summer here Flo spends her time when in the house in the rooms which are aircondioned or in the bathroom lying tummy spread out on the tiles. Mind you we are looking 30- 40degree days in summer not a lovely 28degrees that I see London had today, we had 28 last week in autumn and Flo didn't seem at all in difficultly, and the aircondioning only goes on if it's over 32 in our house. We don't change her bed from season to season, she seems to be able to find how to make herself comfortable, even by pushing cushions of the leather sofa so it's cooler for her.
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I keep a lot of the windows closed in the daytime then open pretty much all the windows and doors at about 8.00pm to let some cooler air circulate around the house. I keep them open until I go to bed. By then the house is a lot cooler.
William and Louis have unrestricted access to the hall, kitchen and study so if they're hot they find a cool spot on the wood floor in the hall or the kitchen vinyl and stretch out there.
In the daytime we do a short walk fairly early and a longer one in the evening. Summer evening walks in the New Forest are my favourites :luv:. The dogs sometimes stay in the house a lot when it's hot outside or find a shady spot on the patio at the side of the house.
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Odie kept pulling me into the shadows of the trees on our walk yesterday which is most unlike him :-\ However, I think it may have something to do with his meds as we are still trying to adjust them to the right dose (he also has other un-Odie like symptoms). He's never really had a problem with the heat before and loves nothing better than lying on our marble hearth :lol2:
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Lily seems to be a bit of a sun worshipper and tried to spend all day yesterday on the doormat in the full sun :doh:
I kept bringing her in and every time I turned my back she was back on the door mat!!
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I keep a lot of the windows closed in the daytime then open pretty much all the windows and doors at about 8.00pm to let some cooler air circulate around the house. I keep them open until I go to bed. By then the house is a lot cooler.
That's what we do here, keep the heat out during the day and let the cool evening air :luv: circulate.
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We don't walk in the hottest part of the day and change our route to where there's plenty of shade.
Indoors Morgan will frequently lie on the slate hearth in the sitting room or on the (ceramic) tiled kitchen floor. We have an enormous window half-way up the stairs (north facing so never gets the sun shining in) which we have open and we get a good cross-current of air if the east-facing sitting-room window is also open. The French windows face south so we usually have the curtains closed there and we also use a fan to help with air movement. There's also a plinth heater in the kitchen which we switch to "cold" and that gives a lovely icy blast at ankle height. Even when the temperature outside is over 30C, it's always cool in out house.
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Odie kept pulling me into the shadows of the trees on our walk yesterday which is most unlike him :-\
Flo does that here in summer and most of winter, even when I'm stopped chatting to someone and she's on lead she will lye in my shadow .... They're clever little comfort seekers :luv:
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We don't walk in the hottest part of the day and change our route to where there's plenty of shade.
Yes, our street is heavily tree'd so in summer cool and lovely, the street parallel behind us has no trees along the road , so when walking Flo and my daughter to school I walk on my street in summer and the street behind in winter. Also choose different field/park walking spots summer to winter, for my comfort and for Flos
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Archie is up and down like a yoyo all night at the moment. He's having a haircut today so he should feel more comfy. Unfortunately for him he has to live with someone who has the worst circulation in the world - I'm still wearing tights and a thermal vest :-\
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Lily seems to be a bit of a sun worshipper and tried to spend all day yesterday on the doormat in the full sun :doh:
I kept bringing her in and every time I turned my back she was back on the door mat!!
Another one here, :005: Honey can't get enought sun, :doh:
poor Holly really found it yesterday she was so sick last night and
just wanted to sleep. I
have stripped them both really short
to help them stay cool.
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I keep a lot of the windows closed in the daytime then open pretty much all the windows and doors at about 8.00pm to let some cooler air circulate around the house. I keep them open until I go to bed. By then the house is a lot cooler.
That's what we do here, keep the heat out during the day and let the cool evening air :luv: circulate.
Same here as well - and in addition to keeping the windows closed I also draw the curtains on the side of the house with full sun (front in the morning, back in the afternoon) in the way of mediterranean households - and in some rooms have invested in blackout/thermal blinds which also help. I hasten to add this is for the dogs - Alice in particular does not enjoy excessive heat and as he has matured Louis seems less fond of it as well - and me - I like the sun but prefer cool breezes and the warmth of spring and autumn rather than the stifling heat of summer ;)
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well i have just done cleaned all my garden furniture and arnie was getting under the hose pipe i did not us the hose pipe long just to get the bubbles off the chairs
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Well according to the OH my girls have just had a luffly swim in the lake to cool down :luv: But he also told me that its just as well I wasn't there as Bella (practically blind rescue baby) has just swam out with Tessa my Springy about 30 metres across the lake :o but as Tessa picks up her dummy and turns round then so does Bella :luv: :luv:......OH would have been going for a swim otherwise :005: This is one example of how Tessa looks after Bella and its lovely to see how they work together :luv:
Poppy....well she likes to splash but not swim too far :005: :luv:
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Smudge just moves about in the garden and bungalow to where he feels most comfortable - changing from sun to shade as the mood takes him.
I have also taken him out later in the day - we usually have a breeze in the East, so that helps keep the temperature down too.
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My guys go in the burn on their walk to cool off, they then spend their time either in the steading or the house to stay cool. Zen and Lottie have been clipped and bathed today so feel much better. ;)
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Lily seems to be a bit of a sun worshipper and tried to spend all day yesterday on the doormat in the full sun :doh:
I kept bringing her in and every time I turned my back she was back on the door mat!!
Another one here, :005: Honey can't get enought sun, :doh:
poor Holly really found it yesterday she was so sick last night and
just wanted to sleep. I
have stripped them both really short
to help them stay cool.
Snap! Brodie would spend all day flat on her back in the sun if I let her, she loves the heat. Unfortunately she doesn't understand why I can't let her so she spends a lot of time moping at the back door >:D. Poor dog was born in the wrong country, since it always rains here :005:
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For those that find it difficult, come to Southport, summer hasn't got here yet, it has been misty foggy and quite cold here all day!!
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I have a quarry tile floor in 1 room and like others I keep the curtains closed but to be honest even though its warm there is a breeze so not a problem really
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I bought Ellie a cool coat at a country show last year. She loves it, it works brilliantly. You soak it in water and it cools the dog without making them wet. I think a few people on here have them.
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If my girls are looking like they feeling the heat i soak a large bath towel in cold water...wring it out...and place in shades area....they both then stretch out on it to cool themselves....also have a large basin of cold water in the garden that Erin will go stand in for a few minutes.
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Ours love to be out and running around so we struggled yday, they normally have an hour 2-3 times a day but yday after 15-20 mins they were shattered with there tongues hanging out.
Once home i put the sprinkler on (No hose ban here) and they just lay underneath loving the soaking.
There in for wash tomorrow so may get little trim for them :D
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My two are both clipped off so at least they feel a little cooler. We take them out in the morning and usually around 3-4pm and just across the road from where we live is a river so when it's as hot as it has been recently both make a beeline for the water and go for a nice cool swim. As we both work from home I sometimes do take them out at lunch time aswell but we make sure we stay in the woods (again just across the road).
Holly likes to sit outside on her bean bag so i make sure it's in the shade (i put an umberella over her bed) and Henry likes to stay inside on his beanbag where it's cooler. We have wooden floors downstairs so when they are both too hot they lie on the wood and the other day I even found Henry asleep behind the tv where it is cool but i've never seen him do that before.
I fill their water bowls (one inside and one outside) with ice cubes in the water and put it in the shade, and I also give them ice cubes to munch on as often as i can. If I'm feeling soft I also give them a vanilla mini milk ice-lolly which they love (only 30 calories too).
I also make them special cocker ice-lollies. After our evening meal (hooman) if I've grilled some meat or fish I add water to the dirty pan and get up all the bits of meaty stuff, then I put it in the fridge and when it seperates the fat will float on the top; scoop the fat off then it's just plain meat juice. I then put it into little ice cube bags or little plastic containers and freeze. They love their meaty cocker ice lollies.
I also read somewhere that if the dogs are really hot then wet a hankie or tea towel in cold water and tie it around their necks.
Fingers crossed this sunshine lasts until our NW cocker walk on Sunday ;)
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Same here clipped short and walks when it is cooler.
Charlie spends a lot of time sitting in the shade under the hedge and on my plants !! :shades:
He had raw carrot from the freezer yesterday, just a couple of hours made it lovely and cold, he loved it.
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Well according to the OH my girls have just had a luffly swim in the lake to cool down :luv: But he also told me that its just as well I wasn't there as Bella (practically blind rescue baby) has just swam out with Tessa my Springy about 30 metres across the lake :o but as Tessa picks up her dummy and turns round then so does Bella :luv: :luv:......OH would have been going for a swim otherwise :005: This is one example of how Tessa looks after Bella and its lovely to see how they work together :luv:
Poppy....well she likes to splash but not swim too far :005: :luv:
What a clever girl Tess is Jen :luv:
Pops sounds just like Lill - knee deep only :005:
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Alfie's a pretty hairy boy and doesn't like the heat. He likes lying on the doormats back and front to keep cool inside, while outside he has a network of holes dug behind bushes which he settles down in, but his favourite place in the heat this week has been lying in his sandpit (bought for excess digging), which is in the shade for most of the day. I looked out the window at teatime and he was lying there looking quite chilled out.
(http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz62/siam17/IMG_2297.jpg)
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We have a tiled kitchen floor and the kitchen is also a room that doesn't get too much sun so they lie on the tiles to cool down. I do also have cooler jackets that I put on them if they go for a walk or if I'm going to spend all day in the garden (because they'll stay with me regardless of the temperature.
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I keep the curtains/blind closed in the kitchen/living room during the day which keeps the sun and heat off.
Normally they're not too bothered, but they seem to be feeling it more today and are lying on the laminate floor rather than the sofa or their bed. Dexter has taken to throwing himself on the floor in a very dramatic fashion as if to point out how hot it is :005:
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I've just been to asda and bought a paddling pool for my two, the water that has been in it all morning is now like a hot bath though :005:
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It was about 33 degrees in my area yesterday and although we have air conditioning throughout the house the dogs were out sunbathing on the deck. Generally they aren't bothered by the heat as long as they're not overexerting themselves.
We only do night walks or late night chuck-it runs in the summer and take the dogs for water retrieves in the afternoon. The spaniels are kept in full coat year long and as long as we pick appropriate activities for appropriate times of days they don't have any issue with the heat and it can get awful hot where we live.
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I took mine out this morning at 7am and again at 9am and that will be it for today they had a good hour each time, and they are in and out of the garden at the moment and then on the kitchen tiles when they get too hot they also had a ice cube each to lick which seemed to cool them off , yesterday i saw a woman walking a husky on a leash at the beach at lunchtime it was absolutely scorching and the poor thing couldnt even wet his paws and she was walikng him on the pavements too as she didnt have a car and i passed them on the way home >:D
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It was about 33 degrees in my area yesterday and although we have air conditioning throughout the house the dogs were out sunbathing on the deck. Generally they aren't bothered by the heat as long as they're not overexerting themselves.
We only do night walks or late night chuck-it runs in the summer and take the dogs for water retrieves in the afternoon. The spaniels are kept in full coat year long and as long as we pick appropriate activities for appropriate times of days they don't have any issue with the heat and it can get awful hot where we live.
Same, can get very hot here in Sydney in summer also, and walk early in the day or on dusk, if in middle of the day it's in shaded areas or near water. Have always given ice for a treat ( started when Flo was a teething puppy) cold carrots, and always access to loads if drinking water. We don't shave our cocker in summer, in fact some people are of the opinion that the full coat is self regulating in keeping the heat out :huh: but do have the tummy shaved in summer to help cool the dog. They are very good at working out how to be comfortable.
I grew up in Queensland ( Brisbane) , which is much hotter than Sydney, and my childhood cockers were just fine in working out how to cool off without air-conditioning, and in those days no one shaved their dogs, but my childhood cockers always got overly excited when going to the beach! And now I think it was because if the delight in getting cooler.
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We try and find a shady area to walk in early morning and evening.
I had to go to the village at lunchtime yesterday only a 5 minute walk and it was to much on the pavements. I did touch the pavement with my hand and it was scorching also the tar on the road was melting a bit in places. So we turned back as George had laid down in a shady bit and refused to budge. He had more sense than me.
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We also do longer walks early morning and evening and just a trip to the garden and round the block walk at lunchtime. We bought Pippa and Barney a paddling pool yesterday but they don't like it. :dunno: We tried throwing treats in. Barney reluctantly stepped in to get them but once they were gone hopped straight out and rolled on the grass to dry off. Pippa only fished gingerly from the side. OH and I enjoyed paddling though. :005: