As most of you know, I have a choc Labrador who goes everywhere with us. We have to adapt our car to accomodate him and cope with the heat.
This weekend was very interesting.
We had to go to town to the mother-in-law's as she was having electrical problems in her flat. As usual we took the dog with us in the Laguna estate. When we parked we left all the windows down and the sunroof wide open. Then we put a 6" fan on in the dog area and left the rear estate window open, we also put reflective sun blinds around the sunny side of the car to reduce the sun intrusion. Finally we left him a bowl of iced water to drink while we sorted the electrical fault which took 30 mins. I then took Ted for a swim in the river alongside the houses and put him in the back yard of her groundfloor flat to dry off. Meanwhile I had left the car open and shaded with the fan running to keep it cool for when Ted returned to his boot space.
Within the hour there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find a policeman there. He asked if the laguna was mine to which I said yes. He then explained that a neighbor had reported a dog in the hot car. I showed him the car which was cold inside the dog boot, then explained about the dog going in the river to cool off and then being in the back garden waiting to dry before going home. He was more than happy to see what we do for our dog with the car. Not so happy though when a wet 40Kg Labrador jumped up at him.
He went off to explain to the neighbor, who by the way could of averted wasting police time if they had read my message on the boot lid which includes my mobile phone number.
I'm quite happy to show people my car and what we do for our dog if they ask. But to ring police without looking first realy doesn't help people who do care about their animals.
We don't go out in the mid day sun unless it is an emergency as we do not want to put our dog through the heat.
What a lot of people forget is that a closed up car can be as hot as an oven on gas mark 8, they open the car and then let the dog in first. So he cooks for 10 mins while everyone else waits with car doors open for it to cool down!!!
Dogs can and do die in hot unventilated cars. Even the police have first hand evidence of that, but pet owners taking appropriate precautions can avert this.
Another point also is why do people without dogs in their cars hogg the tree shaded spots in the supermarket carparks? Next time you hogg a spot in the shade, spare a thought for a car with dogs stuck in the sun because you are inconsiderate towards mans best friend.
Atb Steve L.
This weekend was very interesting.
We had to go to town to the mother-in-law's as she was having electrical problems in her flat. As usual we took the dog with us in the Laguna estate. When we parked we left all the windows down and the sunroof wide open. Then we put a 6" fan on in the dog area and left the rear estate window open, we also put reflective sun blinds around the sunny side of the car to reduce the sun intrusion. Finally we left him a bowl of iced water to drink while we sorted the electrical fault which took 30 mins. I then took Ted for a swim in the river alongside the houses and put him in the back yard of her groundfloor flat to dry off. Meanwhile I had left the car open and shaded with the fan running to keep it cool for when Ted returned to his boot space.
Within the hour there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find a policeman there. He asked if the laguna was mine to which I said yes. He then explained that a neighbor had reported a dog in the hot car. I showed him the car which was cold inside the dog boot, then explained about the dog going in the river to cool off and then being in the back garden waiting to dry before going home. He was more than happy to see what we do for our dog with the car. Not so happy though when a wet 40Kg Labrador jumped up at him.
He went off to explain to the neighbor, who by the way could of averted wasting police time if they had read my message on the boot lid which includes my mobile phone number.
I'm quite happy to show people my car and what we do for our dog if they ask. But to ring police without looking first realy doesn't help people who do care about their animals.
We don't go out in the mid day sun unless it is an emergency as we do not want to put our dog through the heat.
What a lot of people forget is that a closed up car can be as hot as an oven on gas mark 8, they open the car and then let the dog in first. So he cooks for 10 mins while everyone else waits with car doors open for it to cool down!!!
Dogs can and do die in hot unventilated cars. Even the police have first hand evidence of that, but pet owners taking appropriate precautions can avert this.
Another point also is why do people without dogs in their cars hogg the tree shaded spots in the supermarket carparks? Next time you hogg a spot in the shade, spare a thought for a car with dogs stuck in the sun because you are inconsiderate towards mans best friend.
Atb Steve L.