How do you keep pets cool?
I am looking to be a full time RV'er by this fall and will be traveling with my Schipperke (small, black, furry dog). I'm curious how other people deal with preventing over heating in their pets if th...
Forum Discussion
dturm wrote:skipnchar wrote:
Dogs (like humans) have survived for thousands of years without air conditioning. Open some windows.
Not to be too argumentative, but they don't always survive. Given hot conditions animals seek shade, cool spots - some way to mitigate the heat and are not locked in a metal box in the middle of an asphalt field.
Dogs and cats (a little less sensitive than dogs) don't do well when ambient temps are above 80 without some sort of relief. If there is any kind of medical condition there can be life threatening results.
We leave AC with generator when indicated by conditions.
Doug, DVM
Healthy dogs are fine when the ambient is in the 80s; I know this for fact since our milk house (kennel) is running in the 80s and none of our dogs (smooth coated and rough coated) are even panting. (The milk house needs to be this warm right now for the chicks we are raising.) The keys are our dogs are not in the sun and they are inactive.
Unhealthy dogs and certain breeds may not be fine when the ambient is in the 80s.
The problem with just opening windows (and running a fan) in a vehicle/RV is making sure the ventilation can offset the increasing temperature due to the sun and making sure the fresh air coming in is not hot. Power ventilated & insulated aluminum dog boxes work to keep dogs cool even in the bed of a truck sitting in the sun so it can be done.
BTW our house gets into the 80s everyday; we don't have central air and have not unpacked the window units.
