We are going to Colorado at the end of the month and taking the dogs with us. Are there any special precautions I should think about other than hydration? Does it affect their activity level or stamina like it does people?

Not that I noticed with mine. Being in the military, she flew with us around the world. Are you going from sea-level? Again, I didn't notice anything major. Time zones seemed to be the main factor I noticed, but I was usually jetlagged too.

Just a word of caution, if you have dogs that are predisposed to corneal pannus, you should limit their outdoor time. Some veterinary opthamologists believe it is related to UV-exposure
(which is higher at altitude).

Michael, are you driving? If so, I've read to keep the window cracked a bit so as to relieve ear pressure from the increasing altitude. Recently took my pup up about 3500 feet and he was fine, energetic and didn't miss a beat. More recently took him up past 5000 feet and can't tell you about that, except that he slept the whole way in the car until we ended back at sea level.

I make several trips a year from missouri out to wyoming mountains to chase jackrabbits with the dogs; I've never noticed it affected them at all. In the events in colorado and wyoming that I've attended, none of the out of state dogs seemed to have any problems with it (people do, though)
vickie

Dogs are far better at increasing their hematocrit (circulating red blood cell levels) than humans are to meet their body's increasing oxygen demands. Their spleen can squeeze out huge amounts of hematocytes in response to increased oxygen demands - I wouldn't worry about your dogs

In one of my animal metabolism classes at university we studied this in racing greyhounds. It's amazing what they're capable of; if you sample their blood right after an intense race, their hematocrit is so high that their blood thickens to the point of reaching the consistency of honey! They don't "bleed" anymore, they "ooze" their blood out...
Horses, especially the "hot blooded" ones, are equally well adapted in this area and are also considered to be super-athletes in the world of animal physiology (humans in comparison are pretty weak in terms of physiological athletic ability, lol).

Athletes who use erythropoietine (illegally) to increase their endurance experience problems with blood thickening. Of course humans can't deal with this as well as dogs can and will have problems with blood clotting, heart attacks, strokes etc. when this happens.

Point is, dogs are physiologically super athletes compared to humans - you'd be surprised what they can deal with

Thanks everyone. We will be driving to Colorado. Cool info Yuko. At the rate my dog goes sometimes his blood probably gets to the consistency of jello

if you are driving, i wouldn't worry too much. the increase in elevation will happen gradually, giving them time to adjust.

dogs can indeed suffer from altitude sickness. i lost a dog to pulmonary edema from too rapid an increase in altitude. he was 11 years old, and age is definitely a factor. people and dogs both lose their capacity to adapt to elevation gains with age.

if you get there and find that your dog is in distress, get to a lower elevation as quickly as you can. and don't expect them to do strenuous activity until they've had a day or two to adjust.

the same goes for you.