Monday, June 3, 2013

SociaBulls: Walking When the Weather Gets Hot

While our group was able to successfully make it through the cold of winter, we are now being faced with a new challenge: the heat. Here are some things we take into consideration that helped us all walk through last year's hot summer:

Starting Early
All of our walks start early in the morning before things become too warm.. While this helps us with the temperatures, the extra bonus is there are less people out and fewer chances of running into off-leash dogs.

Adjusting Location
We choose summer walks in more shaded areas. We also choose locations that have an option of a shorter walk in case it is too hot and humid.

Preparing Well and Stopping Often
Our members all do a good job of preparing by bringing extra water and often bandanas that can be soaked in water or cooling collars. We always stop to take water breaks and in warmer weather we add an extra one.

What are some other things you do to help your pups comfortably walk in warmer weather?

Plus, join our Chicago SociaBulls  Facebook page for more photos and information about group walks. And check out the Hikabulls page where we first learned about the benefits of group walking.

Also:
Remember when it was like this?
What really happens on the water breaks
Keeping our momentum

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just on our regular walks we've been using some gear (mostly for Jake) and the one that seems to make the biggest difference is his cool collar. He can stay out for almost triple the amount of time without...honking!

Anonymous said...

Just on our regular walks we've been using some gear (mostly for Jake) and the one that seems to make the biggest difference is his cool collar. He can stay out for almost triple the amount of time without...honking!

kimba said...

Our Jim is a very fuzzy border collie mix, and he gets hot very easily. We've found that this vest works really well keeping him cool.

Two French Bulldogs said...

It is amazing to us how people do not realize how heat effects us. It is very important to be aware of the heat
Benny & Lily

Hannah@Eriesistibull said...

Tess is pretty good with the heat (although we're still careful), but Ed gets overheated so easily -- and he will never stop on his own!

We have our walks at a bad time for heat, so as the temperature goes up, we'll have to look into our schedule. We looked at doing earlier, but we wanted to make sure people had plenty on time to get out of church.

We make sure to take a few extra bandanas for a cool down, plenty of water, and Musher Secret to battle hot pavement!

Have you ever cancelled because it's "too hot"?

Two Pitties in the City said...

@hannah, we have weather watchers looking to see if it is too hot to walk. We haven't canceled yet, but it is a consideration during the really bad weather.

Dobermom said...

Make sure what you're walking on isn't too hot, like asphalt. That wouldn't feel too good on their paws.

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