The summer heat

[Senator Cody Wilson]

Now that the hottest part of the summer in the northeast is here, I was wondering how cool you keep your home when your pup is home during the day.

I live close to work so I can come home at lunch and turn the AC on for Cody if the temp gets too hot. As my home has nice east to west shade, there is a great cross breeze when we open the back and front windows. When it is simply too hot outside like it was today, I leave the AC on low speed with a medium temperature setting. My AC keeps the entire front of the house around 73 and he seems confortable. I know that a dog's natural temperature is around 101 so I am not sure if this is cool enough. He usually finds a shady place on our kitchen floor to sleep during the day as it is tiled and not carpeted like the rest of the house. This saves us a ton on our electric bull as the AC is not running nearly as much on a lower setting.

We do keep the house cooler when we are home at around 70 but again I am not sure if the few degrees cause him any discomfort. I don't find that he drinks any more than usual during the day but he seems sluggish when it is humid out (aren't we all though).

Any comments would be welcomed.

[Eliz222]

We are in the MIdwest, so it is hot here all summer long. Very rarely do we have the AC off. You keep your house very cool! We keep the house at 78 when we are home. We have dual units, so I can tun the upstairs AC off during the day and just keep the downstairs on. During the day, we keep the AC at about 80 to 82. The puppy is kept in the basement (finished) and the 2 year old, Scout, can go downstairs if she wishes. The temp in the basement stays about 75. They don't seem uncomfortable at all.

[bradl]

Our AC is set at 78 all the time. Other than slightly increased beer consumption in summer, we see no signs of discomfort on the dogs' part.

Just kidding about the beer. They prefer Scotch on the rocks.

[kayharley]

The cooler the better for me. I can take our New England winters alot better than the humidity we get in the summer. My bedroom AC is set at 66 (during the winter I close off the heating vents and may have a window cracked open) Living room area is a bit warmer....maybe AC set at 68. If it's not humid, I love to run the AC with some windows open (do that in the car too.....AC/windows/sunroof) Hubby has a fit so when he's expected home from work I close the windows!!

[Toto times 2]

I keep my place about 72 (more for me than the dogs) Smokey like to stay in but Ghillie likes to go out and lie on the deck in the sun even when it is in the 90's. I drag him in after about 20 minutes.

[Guest Tototoo]

Inside our dog seems to handle the heat just fine and we don't have any AC. Although when we are outside and he is playing ball, he'll jump into the kids wading pool and lay right on his belly down in the water. They manage to find away to stay cool.

We once had a dog a old english mix and he would beg at the freezer for ice cubes when it got real hot.

Another dog used to climb the ladder into our four foot deep pool as we were swimming he would swim for a few minutes then climb the ladder and jump down.

Dogs are like people if your hot, he's hot and just make sure he has plenty of cool water (try putting ice cubes in it before you leave for work) and find a fun way to enjoy the summer!

[CarCarDawn]

Hi! Our average temperature inside on a really hot day is around 66-70 degrees. Riley seems to adapt well to this but has a really hard time when we have to walk outside - - - and then come in again - - - he is really pooped and usually takes a nap!!