How Hot Is Too Hot to Walk a Dog?

Above eighty five degrees Fahrenheit, skip the walk. Between seventy seven and eighty five, walk short, walk early, and stay on grass. Below seventy seven, most healthy adult dogs are fine. Those numbers shift downward fast with humidity, and they shift downward a lot for flat faced breeds, seniors, puppies, black coated dogs, and overweight dogs.

Then use the seven second test on the pavement every single time, regardless of what the thermometer says. Put the back of your hand flat on the surface. If you cannot hold it there for seven seconds, your dog cannot stand on it.

The pavement is the part people get wrong

Air temperature and surface temperature are not close to each other. On a seventy seven degree day, asphalt in direct sun can reach one hundred twenty five degrees. At eighty six degrees air temperature, asphalt can hit one hundred thirty five. Skin damage begins at around one hundred twenty five degrees within about sixty seconds.

Asphalt is the worst offender, followed by dark concrete, then artificial turf, which gets hotter than most people believe. Grass and dirt stay close to air temperature. Sand at the beach is a genuine burn risk.

Pavement also holds heat for hours after sunset. An eight in the evening walk in summer can still be on hot ground, which is why the test matters more than the clock.

Humidity changes everything

Dogs cool almost entirely by panting, which is evaporative. When humidity is high, evaporation slows, and the cooling system stops working. A dog in eighty two degrees at thirty percent humidity is in a completely different situation from a dog in eighty two degrees at eighty percent humidity.

A rough rule I use: add the temperature in Fahrenheit to the humidity percentage. Under one hundred twenty is fine. One hundred twenty to one hundred fifty means shorten it substantially. Above one hundred fifty, do not walk.

Dogs that need lower thresholds

• Flat faced breeds. Bulldogs, French bulldogs, pugs, boxers. Their airways are physically less able to move air, so panting is less effective. Subtract about ten degrees from every number above. Above seventy five, I would not walk a bulldog.
• Seniors and puppies. Both regulate temperature worse than a healthy adult. Subtract five degrees.
• Overweight dogs. Fat insulates, and the dog is doing more work to move. Subtract five degrees.
• Black or thick coated dogs. Absorb more radiant heat. A black dog in direct sun runs meaningfully hotter than a light one beside it.
• Dogs with heart or airway conditions. Ask your vet for a specific number rather than using mine.

The warning signs, in order

Heat exhaustion comes on faster than owners expect and the early signs are easy to dismiss.

• Early. Heavy panting with a wide flat tongue, slowing down, lagging behind, seeking shade, excessive drool.
• Middle. Bright red gums or tongue, wobbly gait, glazed expression, refusing to move, vomiting.
• Emergency. Collapse, seizure, gums turning pale or blue, diarrhea with blood.

If you see the middle group, stop immediately, get into shade, and start cooling with cool, not ice cold, water over the belly, armpits, and paws. Then go to a vet. Heat stroke has a serious mortality rate and the internal damage continues after the dog looks better, so a dog that recovers on the way still needs to be seen.

What to do instead on hot days

• Move the walk to before sunrise or well after dark. Five thirty in the morning is the honest answer in a Florida summer.
• Split it up. Two ten minute walks beat one twenty five minute walk in heat.
• Swap exercise for training. Fifteen minutes of obedience or scent work indoors tires a dog more than a slow hot walk does, and it costs nothing.
• Scatter feed and use food puzzles. A dog's whole dinner scattered across a lawn in shade at dusk buys you twenty minutes of low intensity work.
• Use water properly. A kiddie pool in the shade, or a hose in the yard. Swimming is the best hot weather exercise there is if your dog enjoys it.
• Skip the shave. Double coated dogs are insulated by that coat against heat as well as cold, and shaving usually makes them hotter and burns more easily. Brush the undercoat out instead.

The two rules I would not bend

Never leave a dog in a parked car, at any temperature above about seventy, for any length of time, with the windows cracked or not. Interior temperatures climb around twenty degrees in ten minutes.

And do not let a dog decide. Dogs will keep going well past the point of safety, especially retrievers and working breeds, and especially beside a bike or in a game of fetch. The decision to stop is yours, and it needs to come earlier than feels necessary.

Ready to train your dog?

Every drill in this article comes from the WorldWide K9 Academy course library. If you want the full step by step system, start with the $5 intro course.