Last week at least three very sad and preventable incidents occurred due to people leaving dogs in vans/cars during the very hot (90s) weather.

Last Sunday night a “handler” (a person who shows dogs for other people for a living) got home late at night and according to the news stories decided it was too hot in the garage she kept clients’ dogs in so left them in the van they had traveled in. Supposedly there were fans on the dogs with windows, side doors left open.
7 out of 8 dogs in the van died.

Read the latest article about this tragedy.

Also last week a man decided to take in a movie while leaving his Lab in his car with no windows open.

See this article.
I just wish someone had broken the window out as soon as the dog was noticed — his temperature was 111 at the vet clinic where he died. The owner is being prosecuted.

Closer to home I got an e-mail Friday evening that made me ill — an agility student e-mailed me to tell me she would no longer be at classes this summer because she forgot she had left her two dogs in the car when she got home and both dogs died of heat stroke. Knowing these dogs, it made me very upset to think about them suffering and dieing in their own driveway. I don’t know exactly what happened and probably won’t but I do know I would have trouble forgiving myself if this happened to any of my dogs.

PLEASE don’t take your dog with you when it is hot outside. Even when it is 70 degrees outside a car sitting in the sun can heat up quickly and soon be over 100 degrees inside. Since dogs wear fur coats and don’t sweat they can only expel heat through panting and a little bit of sweating through their paws. Their body temperature can heat up to over 108 degrees in 5 minutes in those temperatures then they can have seizures and die. These are deaths that all could have been prevented. Say a prayer for those owners that loved their dogs, hug your dogs and leave them home in the air conditioning unless you can take them inside whereever you are going.

The My Dog is Cool Campaign operated by United Animal Nations lets people know that leaving a dog in a car for even “just a few minutes” may be too long.

To order or download educational fliers and posters, or to enter your zip code and find out if it is too hot to bring your dog in the car, visit:

www.MyDogIsCool.com

There is a temperature monitor and alarm you can put in your car, truck or motorhome that will cause the horn to blow if temperature is over or under a certain range. It is made by Safe Home Products. It isn’t cheap but in all of these cases it could have saved the dogs involved.

Written in memory of Kitzel.

Kitzel