Dog Daze

This is going to sound almost obscene given where I came from, but dang, it's been hot.  We were all bemoaning the heat the other day, which was in the lower 90's, and then my boss, who is in Plano, told me it was 106 there.  I felt stupid for complaining, but it's all relative I suppose.  And comparatively speaking to how it normally is here in late May/early June, it's hot.

After my dad passed away, my mother came back here to live for awhile, and it was inevitable that every conversation I had with her at some point came around to her complaining about the humidity.   Living in Austin, TX at the time, which I thought was humid because I'd come from the very dry air of Montana, I'd just laugh like she had no idea what she was talking about.  As I've often admitted in the seven years I've been in Pittsburgh, the joke's on me.  I live in a city with three, count 'em, three rivers.  With a higher total annual rainfall than Seattle.  It's humid, sure enough.  Really humid.

I worry about climate change for a lot of reasons - mainly Baby H, who will inherit the planet we leave behind, but I worry also because I have three collies.  Rough collies.  With a LOT of hair.

So my next big challenge as the "general" in the Collie Army is to decide how best to keep the dogs cool.  I checked in on some collie forums (mostly border collie forums, but I figured that was close enough because they are also active dogs with thick coats) to see what the suggestions from other owners were, and I was delighted to find I was doing everything but one, which is shave their underbellies.  We'd gone that route with our collie-x in Texas, and it helped, so if the summer keeps up the way it's starting, I might have to do that, but I hate to mess with their coats that way...

Trying to get some cool morning playtime in

Anyway, other dogs owners are consistently chatting about the same things you'd think they'd suggest:

• Make sure the dogs always have ample fresh water (sort of a no-brainer, right, but with a toddler who likes to stick both hands in the dog water, that's been harder to do than you'd think)
• Give them access to air conditioning or fans (Sirius likes to sleep next to the air conditioning vent in the kitchen, which is also tiled floor)
• Let them play in water, like a wading pool or sprinkler (capital idea, but only Sirius will do it - I think the other two worry it's a trap and there will be a bath involved)
• Don't do midday walks 
• Use a cooling pad

So the cooling pad was a new concept for me.  I had never heard of them before, but I saw one listed on Zulilly not too long ago and immediately got one to try out.  I got a large, which was the biggest size they had available, and it's maybe half a collie, so that's maybe a large if you're talking cats, but dogs...yeah, not sure who sized these exactly, but maybe they should come meet my actual large dogs.  But it is as advertised otherwise - really cool to the touch.  So I thought it would be a fan favorite in no time.  Yeah, not so much.  Geddy is having more fun on the traditional dog bed I bought at the same time.  Baby H likes the cooling bed though because it's slippery.  It's a great play mat. And I suppose if it keeps him cooler, than it wasn't a waste of money.

But if you're looking for a solution for your own furbabies, it might be worth a try.  I noticed it was on the list of asked for supplies for war dogs.

And of course the midday walk thing is easy to comply to for working families, and I have pushed the evening walks as far back as I can given the toddler schedule, but the real bummer is it's the time of the year I wanted us to be an inclusive family and take the dogs with us on outings.  But I left them behind yesterday when we went to the Three Rivers Art Festival because it was just too humid for a big ball of fur to handle.  Other dogs were down there, so I kept second guessing myself and wishing we'd brought at least one of them.  Maybe we'll try again today.  If you see us down there, be sure to say hi.

Of course I say all this and it looks like we're in for a break over the next several days.  So, enjoy it while you can, pups and peeps!  We're potentially in for a long, hot summer.