Hot weather tips for dogs

After the freezing conditions in February, we now have a heatwave, and already there are many terrible stories of dogs dying because they have been left in cars - just terrible.

The Dogs Trust has published some advice on keeping dogs healthy during the heat. Here's the top tips.

• NEVER leave your dog in the car in warm weather. Just twenty minutes waiting in a hot car can prove fatal.
• Walk your dog in the morning and evening when the weather is cooler and make sure shady spots and drinking water are available.
• Clip the fur of particularly hairy hounds and apply canine sun cream to areas most likely to burn: ears, nose, and belly. Human suncream can be toxic so buy a special pet version from your local pet shop.
• Be extra vigilant with older and overweight dogs as they are more prone to overheat. In a real emergency wet your dog thoroughly and use a household fan to blow cool air over their head and body. Seek urgent veterinary attention.
• If your dog takes a dip in a lake or pool make sure you rinse him immediately as soon afterwards as possible. Never allow your dog to drink from ponds unless the water is clear as algae in the water can produce toxins that are rapidly fatal.

If your dog shows signs of distress – such as excessive panting, blueness of the tongue or collapse contact your local vet immediately.

Stay safe!

Limp mystery

Well Missy's limp is still a bit of a mystery. Her visit to the vets last Friday threw no light on the matter, so she's in for an x-ray today.

I'm hoping to find out more tomorrow - weather permitting we're taking my favourite boy, Nicky, out for the day - so I'll get an update on Missy then.

I do hope it's nothing more than a stubborn muscle strain. I took her for a walk earlier in the week, and, to be honest, the limp was barely in evidence. Apparently it gets worse towards the end of the day.

And she does love having the offending limb massaged. I've found that if I rub her leg muscles with the heel of my hand, she sinks into me in delight. (If she were a cat I think she'd be purring). It may not actually help her leg, but Missy ADORES the attention.

Hop-along gal

I'm thinking of that cheeky chimp Missy today.

She had a dreadful limp last week, and could barely walk on one of her front legs. She seemed to have difficulty lifting one of her paws off the ground, and had to drop her shoulder really low to get her toes up and through the air.

Poor girl. She was a lot better this week - and I had to look very carefully to work out which leg was slightly lame - but she's had the limp in one form or another for a while, so the guys at the kennels have decided that it's time Missy saw the vet again.

I do hope all goes well. Missy is a very lively girl - in fact I was quite worried this week when I arrived at the kennels and she didn't have nose and front paws PRESSED to the kennel window BEGGING for a walk - however, I think she was just having a little rest after breakfast. Five minutes later there she was, grinning at me.

I am really hoping that the vet finds there's not a lot wrong with her, and half suspect that she just keeps on re-pulling a muscle with all her jumping. I'll keep you updated.

"I must behave" works a treat

Just back from the dogs - and I have to report that the "I must behave" trot worked for Kelly, and she has been rehomed with the couple that I saw her walking with last week.

A few more rehoming updates as well - lovely Topsy is on a home trial, so fingers crossed that that goes well. Also I didn't see kennel clown Josh about today (and believe me you know if he's about), so he was either having a quiet one, or has been rehomed too. Quite an eventful week.

Crafty old Angie wasn't about either, and for a minute I thought that she had been rehomed, but no, she was just on a trip to the dentist - I'll take her out next week.

Spark's new fella

I'm always learning something new about greyhounds when I visit the local retired greyhound rehoming kennels. And I guess as a novice I can be forgiven the occasional (or not so occasional) stupid question.

The latest hound to make me look daft was Spark's new fella, a wee little dog called Pete. Yes - the fantastic news is that Mikey's home trial went well. He's now been signed for and is living in a new home.

That meant there was a spare berth in Spark's cabin, and Pete was the dog that filled it. He's a dear little black boy with a white flash on his nose, and when I saw him in the paddock he ran straight over to me, looked cute, and whimpered for dog treats. As a bit of a soft-touch (how do they all know?) I fed him a couple of treats, and then decided I had to take this mischievous pair out for a walk.

Pete's a charmer and started giving me doe eyes every two minutes as we walked. He even seemed to be a bit of a calming influence on Spark. However, I couldn't help noticing that his trainer or owner had done something really quite odd to his coat.

It looked like his back legs and tummy had been shaved - I could understand it if he was a bitch (spaying?), but in a male dog? Perhaps some way of streamlining the dog when racing?

So, when I got back to the kennels, I quizzed one of the kennel hands. "Why on earth has he been shaved?"

I got back an incredulous look. Then laughter.

Apparently Pete is suffering from something that affects a lot of dogs on the track - I looked it up when I came home and found it was called Bald Thigh Syndrome - it could be stress related and the good news is it often clears up once the dog stops racing.

Not always though, and the kennel hand told me that one of her dogs gets this every year around about bonfire night - not surprised, all those loud bangs make me jump too.