So I just got back from Canada yesterday at 11pm, I was stuck at the border in line for about 5 hours in my air conditioning free car -_- Ryuk stayed back in MA for this trip with my housemates and his cool shading crate with a fan....


While I was there there was a Mal making rounds with his handler checking the cars in line....It was also INSANELY hot yesterday and while I was glad to see him be pulled away for frequent water breaks and to be wet down a bit (everytime he reappeared he had a wet chest) I noticed he was hotfooting his way across the pavement and around cars. He was doing his job but I did notice he was seeking shade to walk in and was trying to hop from car shadow to car shadow to give his feet some rest.


Is there nothing in place for dogs who have to work in the heat on pavement when it comes to foot protection? I know pawpads can get toughened up but only goes so far, and this dog was CLEARLY feeling it....For the average dog on a walk it may not be a big deal but this is a dog who works on pavement, there isn't really any grass around the border crossings...

anyone know anything about this?

I would have thought they would have put some boots on him. Ruff Wear makes some Vibram sole boots for dogs that are fantastic. Poor Malinois!

Dogs don't need boots. Five years after invading Iraq the military manual for working dogs simply says the vet determines the acclimation period for dogs in hot environments.

As we enter our fifth year of Jager working as my service dog here in the Phoenix metro area I can attest that those leathery pads are well suited to heat & cold. Lili sliced off a thin layer of two of her pads and when I looked at them under a magnifying glass they looked like foam rubber with thousands of tiny air pockets.

I placed Jager (without any particular command) in the bed of my old truck when the bed measured one hunderd and thirty-seven degrees and timed hime for how long it took him to move on his own. He stood still for almost two minutes. Another test at one hundred and forty-eight saw him move around after one minute. I made a heat shield for the bed of my jeep that unknowingly backfired and was a heatsink and Jager was walking around on a surface that was one hundred seventy-eight degrees. (I since re-engineered it and it's now one twenty-something at the hotest).

As long as they keep moving the dog will be fine; with the caveat that they avoid superheated fluids like oil or antifreeze. These products won't evaporate and will stay on the dogs pad and can continue to transfer heat to the pad while it would otherwise be cooling in addition to getting on skin as opposed to pad.

We need to remember that there are over two hundred varieties of fur bearing mamals in the Sonoran desert. A dog's fur is insulation and insulation works for heat and cold. I wore insulated boots in the Mojave and was much cooler than my peers who wore jungle boots.

If the dog is a heat injury and you decide to wet it down you must keep running water on the dog or fan it (if evaporative cooling is efficient where you are) as wet fur is a blanket and your life saving steps will kill the dog. Just as we advocate communicating with your dog in dog terms we must avoid putting human physiology and dealing with heat in human terms.

Last week we had a day that reached 103. I know that's cool compared to the Phoenix heat! I went out on my wooden deck to sit for a few minutes in the shade under the umbrella. My dog came out with me. He stood in the sun next to my shaded chair for a few moments, then he started lifting his rear legs alternately. He only did that a couple of times and then moved to the shaded area of the deck.

I had never seen him do this before, and I was curious, so I took off my sandals and stood barefoot on the wooden deck. It was so hot I could not stand there for more than about five seconds.

I recognize that the bottom of a human foot is very different from the pads of a dogs foot, but maybe dogs have differing tolerances depending on the individual, or maybe it even has something to do with their breed. I know my dog seemed uncomfortable.

Just food for thought.

Well, the operative word is "acclimated" because down here in Texas our pavement gets pretty darn hot here and if a dog has not acclimated to this kind of heat, you will see burned pads as well as heat stroke.

Just the other day I was talking to someone whose dog got burned pads from walking on the cement around her pool deck. The dogs feet got tiny blisters!
Indoor dogs, especially the little ones can be at risk, if they have not built up a thick callus on the pads.

The difference between a desert animal with paws is that their paws are designed for the heat on natural ground. For example, if you pick up a fennec's foot they have a lot of fur growth between the toes. Some dogs do have that, many MANY do not (after all, it's not exactly a trait we've selected for in many breeds) I've found my dog has no issue walking on hot sand, rock, or dry grass. On pavement even in the hottest times of summer he will walk if I walk or tell him to stand on it...but if I turn my back for even a second he's lifting his paws, so I don't make him do it. I walk everywhere barefoot, I can tolerate midsummer pavement for about 10 minutes if I'm moving, but if given the option I won't walk on it, and I don't think my dog should have to either if its causing him discomfort (no matter how well he hides it when I'm looking at him)

While I wouldn't say "dog boots should be standard issue" I was surprised that there isn't that option when this dog CLEARLY objected to the heat on his paws. This was not a longer haired dog that has the feathering between the toes (I've seen some shepherds that have this, as well as border collies and other medium to long haired breeds). Anthropomorphizing is one thing (like that horror a while back with a bunch of animal rights nuts getting the city to make a company put its carriage horses in heated barns at night), but this dog was actively uncomfortable and for a dog doing an important job, I don't think doing something to stop his obvious discomfort may be a good idea, I'm wondering why there wasn't something in place for that and if that was common or not.


For cooling his chest was wet, the top of him was not, It looked like he was rubbed down with ice or had an ice collar, that was taken off each time he went out to do a round. I'm pretty sure heatstroke avoidance was taken seriously there, the one other dog I saw at the border while my car was being taken apart was in the back of an air conditioned officially marked car looking very content.

We had to have our AC repaired last week in the midst of the heat wave.. The technician took the temp of our asphault driveway... 155 degrees. Ouch. I sure would not parade my dogs up and down that surface during the heat of the day.

You nailed it Jamie! It's that fur protection between the toes- I didn't even think about that part of it.

Become acclimated is a big part of it- but for a heat wave like much of the county is having, animals and people alike have not had the chance to become acclimated.

Dogs, just like people, have variations in heat tolerance, pain tolerance, etc. Just because one dog can do something doesn't mean every dog should be expected to do it. I've seen dogs that tender footed across a gravel driveway, and these weren't house dogs. I've seen dogs that wear their pads raw pacing in a kennel, while the dog next to them paces just as much with no visible wear or tear.

Like someone said, they do make boots, which it sounds like this dog would appreciate. And actually having boots might help their feet to acclimate a little more, the feet will get tougher with some irritation, but past a certain point the irritation is just going to make the feet more tender, not less. The boots could help with this.

Jamie:
I should probably have made it clearer when I talked about wetting down a dog that was a heat injury. This would have been a dog that had collapsed, or was unsteady and would have been laying still. If the dog were able to shake out it's coat and the excess water that would have matted the fur would be removed.