Comments on: Heat Exhaustion http://boknowsonline.com/2008/06/17/heat-exhaustion/ Funny dog blog written by a dog. Hilarious commentary on daily animal news stories. Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:11:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: mali http://boknowsonline.com/2008/06/17/heat-exhaustion/comment-page-1/#comment-468 mali Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:27:10 +0000 http://boknowsonline.com/2008/06/17/heat-exhaustion/#comment-468 thanks for all that you said..i've grown to love the pool.i now just hop right in and lay down.feels really refreshing.i rolled over one time and got water in my eyes and i didn't like that.and yes i LOVE my frosty paws, my favorite is peanut butter and i share them with my best friend jack, a 2yo jack russell. thanks for all that you said..i’ve grown to love the pool.i now just hop right in and lay down.feels really refreshing.i rolled over one time and got water in my eyes and i didn’t like that.and yes i LOVE my frosty paws, my favorite is peanut butter and i share them with my best friend jack, a 2yo jack russell.

]]> By: BBird http://boknowsonline.com/2008/06/17/heat-exhaustion/comment-page-1/#comment-429 BBird Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:36:08 +0000 http://boknowsonline.com/2008/06/17/heat-exhaustion/#comment-429 Thanks for posting this!  Whether or not clipping off double coats makes dogs more comfortable in the summer is a matter of heated debate amongst professional pet groomers.  I am in the camp that believes that the dog's coat provides insulation for the body, and that stripping it off can make the pet more vulnerable to heat stroke.  I have owned a number of dogs over the decades, including a Chow Chow, Bichons Frise, and a long-coated (wooly) Akita.  The one that was most miserable and overheated the most easily was my sleek coated Doberman.  She would become sizzling hot and had to be brought home from hikes on more than one occasion.  There was NO undercoat! Dogs as a species are more vulnerable heat stroke than others.  Humans are cooled by the evaporation of perspiration over their bodies.  Dogs don't sweat, except on the pads of their feet and their noses.  They are cooled by the evaporation of air over the tongue and airways while panting.  It is a very inefficient system, that is often not up to the task.  The heating up can easily overtake the cooling down mechanism, especially in an environmment of high heat and high relative humidity. As a groomer, what I offer undercoated pet owners as an alternative to removing the whole coat, is to remove all the excess loose undercoat (we call it a "deshedding" service) and clip the tummy area or even the whole underside, to provide a means for the dog to lie on a cool surface and cool off.  For Golden Retrievers and others with a long coat, we can use a snap-on comb over a clipper blade to take off some length on the chest and rear end, further "summerizing" the dog's coat. Thanks for caring, Barbara Bird, Certified Master Groomer Thanks for posting this!  Whether or not clipping off double coats makes dogs more comfortable in the summer is a matter of heated debate amongst professional pet groomers.  I am in the camp that believes that the dog’s coat provides insulation for the body, and that stripping it off can make the pet more vulnerable to heat stroke.  I have owned a number of dogs over the decades, including a Chow Chow, Bichons Frise, and a long-coated (wooly) Akita.  The one that was most miserable and overheated the most easily was my sleek coated Doberman.  She would become sizzling hot and had to be brought home from hikes on more than one occasion.  There was NO undercoat!

Dogs as a species are more vulnerable heat stroke than others.  Humans are cooled by the evaporation of perspiration over their bodies.  Dogs don’t sweat, except on the pads of their feet and their noses.  They are cooled by the evaporation of air over the tongue and airways while panting.  It is a very inefficient system, that is often not up to the task.  The heating up can easily overtake the cooling down mechanism, especially in an environmment of high heat and high relative humidity.

As a groomer, what I offer undercoated pet owners as an alternative to removing the whole coat, is to remove all the excess loose undercoat (we call it a "deshedding" service) and clip the tummy area or even the whole underside, to provide a means for the dog to lie on a cool surface and cool off.  For Golden Retrievers and others with a long coat, we can use a snap-on comb over a clipper blade to take off some length on the chest and rear end, further "summerizing" the dog’s coat.

Thanks for caring,
Barbara Bird, Certified Master Groomer

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