Dog myth, busted
“He'll cool down like we do.”
Dogs cool by panting alone, flat faces barely manage that.
No sweat glands to speak of, a fur coat, and, for pugs, bulldogs and shih tzus, a shortened airway that vents heat poorly. What feels breezy to you in a t-shirt is genuinely hard work for them.
Flat-faced, senior and heavy-coated dogs sit one row stricter on every heat threshold: the limits.
One minute of science
Dogs have sweat glands only in their paw pads, which do almost nothing for cooling. Panting moves heat out through the tongue and airways, and it fails fast in humid air or a flat-faced skull. Before a summer walk run the numbers with the heat check, and remember the pavement is 20 to 30 degrees hotter than the air.
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