Allen:

I guess as we look ahead to the calendar you know Pugs are very sensitive to heat as we all know. What sort of advice can you give to Pug owners for keeping their dogs and their Pugs happy and healthy during these hot summer months?

   Dr. Dresser:

I think you have to be very careful as far as exercising if you tend to be a person who walks your dog; I would surely go early in the morning or later in the evening when it is cooler.

I wouldn’t be playing hard in the middle of the day and some of them aren’t real smart. They’re going to chase their toys until they drop so you’d certainly have to cut things off. If you notice the dog is seems weak or is very, you know, panting very heavily and the tongue is hanging out – if you even suspect there might be a heat problem – if you have a rectal temperature, you can take the temperature and see.

Normal should be 101 plus or minus a degree. But if it starts climbing your best bet is to use just cool water to wet the dog down and if you access, a fan.

They find that convection heat is one of the best things for cooling a dog. So cooling, cool water and a fan, and certainly if there is an issue – the dog has collapsed, it is down, it has difficulty breathing – it should see a veterinarian immediately.

             Allen:

Immediately. And I guess it’s, you know, you see many dogs not only Pugs, is it fair to say that Pugs are a little more sensitive to heat than other breeds?

   Dr. Dresser:

They sure can be because of their short faces. And once they really start to gasp for air the tissues start swelling.

They just don’t have a big passage anyway for the air to get through so it can be an issue.

And I’ve also unfortunately found over the years once a dog has had any kind of heat – I’m going to call it heat stroke – but even if they’ve just gotten way, way too hot, they tend to be the ones that are subject to it at, you know, a later date.

They can have troubles down the road so those are the dogs you really, really want to watch closely. 

             Allen:

Okay, that’s great advice. And some of our listeners are actually international folks who are down near the equator.