SAFETY - The Heat

Warm temperatures make it seem so easy to get outside and be with my dogs...because they do make it easy! The only thing I put on my dogs is tea tree oil spray (for mosquitoes, fleas and ticks) and out we go for hours of walking, weeding, picking up sticks, whatever. My dogs still have needs though, and I think I'm prepared for the "whatever" of the outdoors in the heat.

Having Labrador Retrievers, I learned they are prone to heat stroke. I've had a Yellow Lab and a Black Lab. This does not mean they had to stay indoors in air conditioning. This means I had to provide ways to keep them cool and safe, and yes, sometimes limit their activity because they don't know when to stop!

Satchel was over 90% Yellow Lab and he LOVED to be outside for any landscaping activity. While he was severely car sick, and hated being in a moving car, he LOVED tooling around the yard in the John Deere cart. To safely be outside, Satchel needed just a little bit of sunscreen on his nose and some shade. To be happy, he just needed his Jason.


Adorable, right?

For Luna and Foster, a Black Lab and a mix of dark dogs, they need just a bit more cooling opportunity. We provide a pool for cooling off! Foster doesn't love the pool as much as Luna, so I put what is called a "Cooling Collar" on him. It has some kind of gel inside that when soaked and frozen remains cool around his neck for about 2 hours. We also keep the garage doors open so the dogs can lie down on the concrete in the shade, and that is where their outside drinking water is kept. They get to participate in whatever we're doing (we were setting up for an outdoor party on the day these photos were taken), and I know that they're safe from the heat.


Luna LOVES her Puppy Pool


The actual temperature was over 90F with over 90% humidity. It was HOT.

We are fortunate to have access to a lot of lakes and boats, and people know that I will want to be with my dogs, so we are invited to bring them with us. With boats, comes my boater safety training, and that makes me think of life vests. Yes, my dogs have life vests.


Once again, Luna is ready to go!

I have been told that my dogs, my Lab in particular, can swim. This I know. I also know that accidents can happen, and even dogs can be knocked unconscious, or our kayak could flip while out on Lake Michigan and it's a long swim to shore. We have life vests for our outdoorsy life, and I'm not embarrassed to wear one, nor to have my dogs wear one.

I will "confess" that when Luna and I canoe on the Crystal River we don't wear our life vests. We love canoeing there. People yell from shore that Luna should have a paddle, and we smile and wave. It's so easy and relaxing. I know that you can drown in inches of water, but the Crystal River is like 2 feet deep in most areas so even if we "capsized," the canoe wouldn't even sink. I can't find the picture of my sweet canoe mate right now, but here's one of my tired girl with her favorite life preserver after a day of wave jumping on Lake Michigan.