30/04/2025
Reposting this for new clients to read or anyone that missed it last year, it's really important to understand how the sun and heat affects your specific breed, age, and colour of dog! If you're ever unsure, just skip the walk, much better to be safe than sorry 🤞🏻
Since the warmer weather is finally sticking, here are my business rules for training sessions in summer.
- If we are on to outdoor sessions and on the day of our session it is 18° or above (full sun, little to no cloud, no wind or rain), and you own a small/short legged brachycephalic breed such as a Frenchie, Pug, Boston Terrier, English Bulldog etc, the session will not go ahead that day.
- If we are on to outdoor sessions and on the day of our session it is 19° or above (full sun, little to no cloud, no wind or rain), and your dog is giant in size, black in colour, overweight, elderly, or very young, the session will not go ahead that day.
- If we are on to outdoor sessions and on the day of our session it is 21° or above (full sun, little to no cloud, no wind or rain), and you own any other breed, size, colour, or age not mentioned above, the session will not go ahead that day.
- If we are still on indoor sessions and on the day of our session it is 23° or above (full sun, little to no cloud, no wind or rain), regardless of breed and size etc, the session will not go ahead that day. The heat will make your dog lethargic at home, therefore not motivated to learn or move around, therefore wasting a session.
If we do not have a session planned that day, or you're not even a current client of mine, please DO NOT walk your dogs above 21° full sun weather (less if you own a dog from the first paragraph). It is just not worth it. Please note you can add a couple of degrees on if it's windy, super cloudy, or raining, as the temperature won't feel as hot.
It takes dogs at least 30 days to acclimatise to weather. They do not get that opportunity in this country. 20° to us feels like 25° to them. It's not always about the hot pavement too, obviously it's good to check using the back of your hand, but the pavement may have cooled down by 7pm and the air is still hot. No dog has died from missing a walk, hundreds of dogs die each year from heat related deaths.
If anyone is going to be annoyed by rescheduling because of summer weather, please find an alternate trainer that doesn't give a s**t about your dog 🤎