Exercise when it's hot?

[Laurelin]

It's been in the mid 90s this weekend and Mia's been disgruntled with our lack of walking. I went to swim today and brought them with me. I LOVE swimming but of course my dogs don't like it. Last year I was able to get Mia to where she liked being a floaty on the water but she still won't swim. She'll wade in puddles but that's no fun for me (plus none to be found). I wonder if she would wade in a kiddie pool?

I'm trying to be more creative but it's very hard when your dogs think they melt in the water.

 

[Tankstar]

lol i was going to say stay near water. But I guess hat doesnt work.

We exercise near water pretty much every time we are out. So we have no isues when its super hot out, both mine love water, Solo loves it even more and would swim for hours. Blaze is just a wader, sometimes a swimmer if there is just a stick he needs to have

 

[sassafras]

I cannot stress enough how unnatural this is for me, but I've been getting up at around 6 am to run the dogs on days when it fits my schedule and if it's going to be too warm later.

Fortunately when it's really hot and humid out, they seem to become somewhat somnolent anyway. A little bit of play time in the yard seems to poop them out.

 

[Laurelin]

I already wake up at 5 to run her down a bit in the yard but it's mostly the afternoons that she is getting really antsy. Been trying to up our amounts of training sessions too and that helps some. also been doing a trip or two to the pet store a week if I can and just pick up some chews or something like that for them. The other two are fine but Mia's not as easy going.

 

[CaliTerp07]

I bought a kiddie pool for $10 at walmart (the hard sided plastic kind) and brought out a clicker and shaped Lucy to get into the water and eventually even to lie down. You have to be very adamant about dumping out the water as soon as you're not using it though, or mosquitoes take it over.

She haaaaaaates her belly getting wet, but I got her to the point where she'll go up to her elbows without flinching.

 

[Teal]

Treadmill! They're truly amazing lol

Does she like a flirt pole or something you can play indoors with like that? Fetch?

 

[Beanie]

I just shaped Auggie to get in the pool too, and now he'll go get in the pool when he's hot, cool off, then get goin' again. It's kind of hilarious actually. He's SIX and we've had a pool for him I think ever since his first year with us. =P And he's just now figured it out, even though I've PLACED him in the pool before in years prior to cool him off...
Payton is the same. He knows when he's toasty and goes to hop in the pool (though he does it of his own volition and took no tricking to get into it LOL.) then away he goes, off to run more laps.

In previous years I just made sure Auggie was kept cool often, especially if we're doing agility, hose him down and make sure I get his belly. It doesn't really matter how early or late you get up here, it's already humid and nasty, so we just deal with it.

 

[MafiaPrincess]

Mine won''t touch a kiddie pool, not even a barely filled one. How do yours feel about shallow beachfront? Mine have been willing to 'puddle' for years near the shoreline, but have been disinclined to swim. Taken 8 years. Cider finally has decent form without a lifejacket and gets in Dekka's pond herself when hot. Been a long time coming.. Years of fetch just deep enough she had to push off shore in a life jacket to get a ball.. disgruntled swimming to people.. Like Dekka calling her, then holding her so she doesn't have to tred water, then I call so she swims back and forth..

Smudge happily puddles.. at 5 he puddles deeper than he used to lets more of himself get wet.. his form sucks though. He needs more time doing similar.. But their puddling looking in the water cools them down and seems to be mentally stimulating.

 

[JacksonsMom]

Ugh, I hear ya. Jackson just melts in the hotness + humidity. Today was 90 and easily felt like 100 with the humidity and he cannot stand it. Thank god he's a water dog because I don't know what else I'd do with him in the summer. But we only have my dads pool a few days a week. I'm thinking of buying one of those above ground filtered cheap-o pools for him at our regular house.

Have they ever been on a treadmill?

 

[Southpaw]

Ever since our heat exhaustion emergency last summer, I have been super careful when it comes to Juno and heat. Basically, if I think it feels uncomfortable outside, then we just don't go out. We just do what we can in the house - fetch, flirt pole, wrestling, hide and seek, treadmill. But honestly I don't feel bad if she goes a couple days without exercise.

I will take her out swimming if it's a day that isn't too miserable... but still hot enough that I don't want to go walking.

 

[kingfarvito]

zelda gets a 5 mile run before sunrise(6am ish) and a 5 mile run after sunset (either right after set or after I get off work at 11ish) before I leave for work she gets 30 mins of fetch and flirt pole. I also use toys for her instead of a food bowl and we do 30 mins of obedience drills through out the day. All time counted for this adds up to 2 hours, and I was already doing the running before I got her. My biggest concern is whats going to happen when we have 2 feet of snow on the ground.

 

[Shai]

Well two of my dogs swim obviously but Webby doesn't. If it's really really really hot he may wade. And he'll look at me as if he is performing the ultimate sacrificial act as he does so

Plus I can't take my girls swimming every day. Sadly.

So on sweltering non-swimming days I try to get the highest exertion exercise done as early as possible. Anything we do midday, I try to keep them out of direct sun as much as possible and wet them down with the hose if I need to. If we go for a walk we'll go to the wood where it often seems a little bit cooler just because we're always out of the sun.

Otherwise...well...there's always duration down/stay practice...

 

[Kimbers]

I just walk Kailey around the creek. (Lots of trees, lots of water.)
Unfortunately, the water is pretty dirty, which means frequent baths, which means lots of scratches on my back. Yeah, my dog's a big baby. She tries to crawl into my arms when she's getting a bath...
And Schaffer's always had his longer walks at night when it's dark. Much more comfortable and less stress on him because nobody else is out.

 

[Upendi&Mina]

I'm no real help because I just take them back to the pond and even though Cara and Upendi don't swim they will wade in when they get hot. (Mina of course loves to swim) In PA though when I didn't have access to the pond I'd just forcibly wet them down with the hose and make sure I kept them wet if they started to dry. They may not have liked getting wetted down, but they were much more comfortable afterwards. Cara and Mina actually grew to love 'hose games' as we'd call them, which more or less was just them chasing and biting at the water coming out of the hose. It was a great way to get them really running while keeping cool.

 

[RD]

I wound up having to exercise the dog in the heat and then show her that the only way to cool off was in the water. Even if she didn't want to swim, she would flop her belly down in a puddle or on the top step of a pool. Eve wasn't super fond of water at first, but she learned super quick that on hot days when she'd be out working sheep, the only relief was hopping in the stock tank to cool down.

 

[Cthulhu7]

I walk Cthulhu at 7am when its still cool. Later in the day we go to the park where its really well shaded. Avoiding heat in Texas is like avoiding cars on the highway

 

[Catsi]

One of mine doesn't really do water either. This is going to sound silly, but one thing she did like was a water container filled up and some ice cubes dropped in... she spent a long time splashing and digging at the water... :lol-sign:

In the heat of summer here (Australia, so it's nearly winter now) I usually walk dogs between 4 am and 5.30 am and/or after dark at night otherwise it's just too hot.

 

[Finkie_Mom]

Yeah we just go out as early as possible for a walk (7am at the latest) then come back for some training and fetch/whatever. Midday is usually just hanging in the backyard with a baby pool (though Kimma is the only one that uses it) and maybe a bit of fetch. Bubbles will just lay in the sun - she's a "one walk a day and I'm cool" kind of gal. We may have more time outside in the yard doing not much of anything, and then walks once it cools down and starts to get dark/is dark. More training throughout the day, too. I generally up the mental exercise a bit once it gets to be super hot out.

On weekends or when I have lots of time, I will go to a nearby state park to hike a bit and let Kimma swim. She's the only one that will actually get in the water, so she's the only one that usually goes with LOL.