Keep Your Older Dog Cool This Summer

How To Protect Your Old Dog This Summer: 11 Essential Care Tips

Older dogs can’t cope with high temperatures as well as their younger counterparts. Very often, senior dogs also suffer from arthritis, a condition which can be even more uncomfortable in hot weather.

It’s easy to overlook the additional needs an older dog has. We have to take special care of all of our fur-babies in the heat of summer, but even more so in the case of the oldies.

Here are some ideas to help you make sure that your elderly pooch doesn’t suffer from over heating this summer.

11 Summer care tips for senior dogs

Make up freezer ice-cube treats or pupsicles.

We have lots of quick and easy recipes for frozen dog treats – they can be eaten by us humans too, so why not whip up a batch of summer treats that you and your dog can enjoy together when the temperatures soar?

Minty summer pupsicles

A simple, 2-ingredient recipe with natural, unsweetened yoghurt or kefir. Improve your pup’s breath too by adding some chopped mint – but not English Pennyroyal mint which is toxic to dogs. Use spearmint or peppermint, or lemon balm. See the recipe here.

Blueberry ice-pops

Blueberries are a nutritional powerhouse and so make an excellent treat for dogs – especially senior dogs. Get the recipe here.

Get your pet a cooling mat or cooling jacket.

Offer your dog the option of lying on a cooling mat when he’s outside. Cooling mats and jackets are an effective method for helping to avoid heatstroke in dogs. They are now widely available in all pet shops, online and even in some supermarkets.

I prefer the mats, which I put in shady places around the garden. When I’m outside, my dogs always want to be outside as well. As long as they have somewhere cool to lie down and shelter from the sun, they can enjoy being outside too.

If you have a small fan, you could always set that up outside to give your dog a gentle breeze too.

Provide your pooch with a shallow paddle pool with water in it

Not all dogs like the water, but if yours does, give it hours of joy cooling down in its own pool – it doesn’t have to be an actual pool: an old, sturdy plastic pool liner or sand tray is perfect. Be careful with an older dog to make sure it can get in and out easily.

Don’t fill it up too much either – your pooch doesn’t need so much water that he can’t stand up in it. Just lying in cool water will help a dog avoid heatstroke. Make sure it does not have a slippery surface.

Make a game of spraying your dog down with a hose

But be careful not to overdo the physical exercise! Older dogs get tired much quicker and short, regular bouts of exercise are better than one long play period.

Also beware of overdoing it with water games and swimming – when your dog takes in too much water it can lead to water intoxication, a potentially fatal illness. Read this article for more information.

Ensure there is always fresh, cold water in your dog’s bowl

Of course, there should always be fresh water available for your dogs. In warm weather though, like us, our mutts will drink much more.

Try adding some ice-cubes to the water bowl to keep the water cool. You might find your dog likes to play with them too.

Recognise the signs of heatstroke in your dog

Know what to do when you see the symptoms of heatstroke – swift action is needed to help your dog our of danger.

Symptoms of overheating and heatstroke in dogs

Unlike people, dogs can only sweat from the pads on their paws and their noses, so they can’t can’t cool down as efficiently as we can. Dogs regulate their temperature by panting, but when it’s very hot, panting can’t cool them down quickly enough.

How do you cool down an overheated older dog?

An overheating dog needs its temperature lowering urgently, but you have to do this gradually not abruptly. Doing it abruptly might cause your dog to go into shock.

Overheating or heatstroke?

If your dog’s temperature reaches 109°F / 42.8°C, serious damage is starting to take place in its body. Unchecked, it can result in the brain swelling, seizures, irreversible kidney damage, and ultimately, death.

Is your dog conscious and responsive to your voice? Can it stand? If not, you need to call your vet immediately and let them know you’re on your way with an emergency.

Don’t over exercise your dog

Short, bitesize periods of movement paced through the day are much better for an older dog than one long walk a day. As much as possible, restrict walks to the coolest parts of the day – early morning and later in the evening.

If you tend to throw a ball for your pooch on his walk, bear in mind that all that exercise will tire him out much faster in hot weather. Too much active game playing on a warm day is often a pre-cursor of heatstroke in dogs.

There are lots of other gentle forms of exercise that your elderly dog can enjoy in the safe shade of the house or garden during the day. ACE Free Work is a fantastic activity for dogs of any age, but especially useful for providing calm and gentle mobility exercise for senior dogs. It’s easy to do with things you have at home – see instructions here.

There are a whole host of rainy day games that you can do inside with your dog too – they are just as relevant on a hot day!

Is the ground too hot for your dog to walk on?

We don’t realise just how hot the ground is because we don’t generally walk around barefoot. But under the heat of the sun, pavements, road surfaces and sand heat up massively.

Put your hand on the ground – can you hold it there for 7 seconds or is it too hot? We forget that our older dogs tend to walk more slowly and stop more often. Prolonged contact with hot surfaces can cause burn injury to dogs’ paws.

If it’s too hot for you to keep your hand on it, it’s too hot for your dog. Leave the walk for later.

Protect your dog from sunburn

We put sun protection on ourselves when we go out in the sun, but what about our furry family members? The exposed parts of a dog’s skin – such as their noses and the tips of their ears – are susceptible to being burned.

White-coloured dogs and breeds with fine or very little hair will also suffer more in direct sunlight. Try using a sun cream specifically for pets to protect your pooch, or alternatively, provide him with shade or keep him in a cool, quiet area indoors.

Does your dog struggle to get up and move?

Make sure that if your dog has mobility problems, he can move himself out of the sun. For older dogs that struggle to get up from a lying position, there is a risk that they will spend too long in the sun and overheat.

Never leave an elderly dog outside unsupervised in hot weather – if he can’t get up on his own, he will be forced to suffer the sun.

NEVER leave your dog in the car on a warm day.

A healthy, younger dog can die in less than 20 minutes in a hot car. A senior dog will suffer heat exhaustion much faster

Leaving the window slightly open IS NOT effective at keeping a car cool. Heatstroke in dogs occurs even with windows left open for them.

Conclusion

We need to take extra special care of older dogs in hot weather. However, there are lots of things we can do to make sure they are comfortable and not suffering in the heat.

See a more complete article here on how to protect your dog in the summer heat.