Summer Safety Alert

Every summer I recieve a half-dozen emails, facebook posts, and news alerts telling me to make sure I never leave my dog in The Magical Dog Oven, the car.  Here's the truth: if the car is in the shade and is open, the dog is fine.  If the car is closed and there isn't sufficient ventilation for the dog's evaporative cooling system to work (panting, slobbering, and sweating out his pads, doesn't work if the humidity in the car reaches 100%), then the dog will bake.  If the car is open but the dog is left too long and dehydrates, the dog will bake.  Got it?

However, nobody seems to be giving the following alert: PICKUP TRUCKS ARE DANGEROUS TO DOGS.  I watched someone hauling a big black dog in the back of one yesterday, down the highway at 70 miles an hour in the sun.  Yeah.  There are a few things to think about here.

1) Dogs fall out.  One sharp turn or slammed-on brakes when the dog isn't expecting it and he's out of there.  If he's tied, he could be dragged or his neck snapped.

2) Dogs get thrown out.  You hit something and stop, he keeps going at your original speed.  If he's tied, see #1.

3) Dogs jump out.  Something interesting?  He may go after it.  You drive in the sun long enough that your truck bed could bake cookies solar-oven style?  He's out of there.

4)  Remember that point in #3 about baking cookies?  Baking paws.  Ever sat down on a truck bed while wearing shorts?  Ever crawled around on one on your hands and knees in the dead of summer?  Evaporative cooling works until the dog gets dehydrated, but he's still horribly uncomfortable.  I saw a man at a gas station once with the shepherd he'd put in the back of his truck.  He had her on a bed of ice and was shoveling more onto her head while she licked at a heap of it.  She looked miserable and so did he; I hope she made it, and I hope after that he kept her in the air conditioned part of the vehicle instead.  It's insanely hot on the bed of a pickup truck.

If you absolutely must haul your dog in your pickup bed, use your head.  The dog should be in a crate.  The crate should be tied down securely to the frame of the truck.  The crate should have shade over it, and that shade should also cover a good area of the bed around it.  And there should be a water bucket, ideally full of both water and ice.  Got that?  Secure against bumps, jolts, interesting things, and heat.  Then your dog won't be a victim on the highway.

Post, share, whatever it takes to get the word out.  Please!