# Does your dog get hot easily



## Tucker's_mom6 (Apr 22, 2018)

Just wondering if anyone else's golden get hot easily? I'm not talking overheated, but usually Tucker (my baby) sleeps in my room on my carpeted floor but lately he's been wanting out of my room in the middle of the night to go lay on the tile. I'm assuming it's because he's hot. It's odd too because he has bad hips/legs/knee so he struggles getting up off the floor but it's his favorite place to lay. 

Also- has anyone tried those pet cooling mats? I'm considering buying him one. I live in Texas but it's not even hot yet and I have the air conditioner down at night.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

It may help in gaining an understanding the comfort range for a Golden, to take a look at the environmental conditions the Golden Retriever was created in. The normal climate for Scotland is somewhat different than Texas.


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

My daughter used to show a Malamute- we had a huge self-cool pad for him. I still have it... got sunburnt a few years ago and I have to say, it was a lifesaver for ME..
Buffett (the Mal) loved his mat. We carried it to hotels, everywhere. It was his place of preference. 

I dk that it'd be a substitute for a cool tile floor but for $50 or so, it seems like it'd be worth the try to keep him on the carpet where he can get up and down easier.


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## Maggie'sVoice (Apr 4, 2018)

Another thing to do is Shell him. Do not ever shave or cut through the coat of a double coated retriever (undercoat never grows back correctly and gets worse each time) because it also insulates from the heat as much as from the cold, but you can have his belly and inner thighs shaved almost like before a surgery. You can leave the hair on his chest, jsut do the soft belly area, This way when they lay on a cool surface they cool themselves much easier and faster. The process is known by most groomers as shelling.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

I have a cooling bed (the K&H one) - Shala loves it. They are somewhat cumbersome to fill and move, but once you have it in place - and you will want to just leave it in one place because it gets very heavy - you're good.


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

GRs run pretty hot. That coat is made to not only withstand cold weather (like Swampcollie said), but also keep a dog warm that has gotten wet while hunting in cold weather. 

If my dog gets too warm she will go sleep on my hardwood floor or in her crate--and my bedroom is the coolest place in the apartment. I live in Boston, in a very old and not super well insulated building -- so it tends to be chilly in here. 

I've never tried a cooling mat, but it would be totally worth looking into. You could also try one of those elevated pet beds.


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

My husband picked up an "As Seen on TV" cooling mat at an overstock type store. We put it in Rukie's crate on one side and a pillow bed on the other. He moves back and forth between the two at night and sleeps on the chill mat if he ever goes in during the day. I think it does cool him some. Last summer, when he was a fuzzy puppy, he slept with his head right at the air conditioning vent on the kitchen tile. I am wondering if he will still do that when it gets hot this summer.


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## rachrae (Jun 27, 2017)

Zirkel is the exact same way. Ever since we brought him home at 9 weeks, he has never liked to lay on his beds but rather on the hardest, coldest floor you could find. Carpet? Too warm and comfy. Tile -- perfect! He even "makes his bed" in his crate so that the blanket is piled up on one side and he can lay on the cold plastic liner. And he hates the sun and finds the first shadow he can (sometimes it's MY shadow!!). He hasn't experienced a full summer yet so I too am thinking about looking into a cooling mat. Also I've heard they make cooling vests -- something else to look into for sure!


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## Redmeadow (Mar 30, 2017)

My GR struggles in warm weather too. I try rake out as much undercoat as possible in hot weather. We had a heat wave for a few days (it’s now ended ? ) and now she’s shedding all over the place.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

cwag said:


> My husband picked up an "As Seen on TV" cooling mat at an overstock type store. We put it in Rukie's crate on one side and a pillow bed on the other. He moves back and forth between the two at night and sleeps on the chill mat if he ever goes in during the day. I think it does cool him some. Last summer, when he was a fuzzy puppy, he slept with his head right at the air conditioning vent on the kitchen tile. I am wondering if he will still do that when it gets hot this summer.


I have wood flooring in my house with tile in the bathrooms. I have dog beds, but when my guys have gotten hot, they either sleep on the floor or if they are really hot they go into the bathrooms and sleep on the tile floor. My boy's favorite spot is in the shower.........


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

Interestingly, when Piper was a puppy and we were training retrieves, she would run to an area with shade, drop the ball and sit and wait for me to come get it if I was standing in the sun. She always wanted our home base to be in the shade. If I was already in the shade, she would drop the ball exactly where she was supposed to. I had to train that out of her haha.


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## puddles everywhere (May 13, 2016)

Sipsy has always run hot too. Gratefully in far E TX it gets quite cool at night until mid summer so while I'm under the quilt, she is comfy on the bed while the ceiling fan is on high with the windows open all winter long.
During the couple of months we have higher temps the A/C is turned way, way down from 9pm to 6am. My girl is spoiled rotten, I'm an enableaber!


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## Oneand0 (Oct 12, 2017)

Yes mine definitely runs hot. In Max's earlier years he used to sleep in the room all the time and would cry if he didn't get to. But after lots of years he would not want to stay on the carpet. I bought an Arf Pets cooling mat from Amazon and placed it in the hallway right outside bedroom. He moves from his bed in the bedroom to the cooling mat in the hallway during the night. I also have a therapeutic pad that that goes under the blue mat in the hallway for more cushion. He also has one in front of the fireplace on the cool bricks in another favorite spot. Definitely try the cool mat with Tucker for sleeping at night.


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## Gleepers (Apr 20, 2016)

This is Penny’s favorite napping spot. The coffee table has slate inlays and is quite cool year round. 
I did consider that having my relatively new coffee table taken over as a dog bed wasn’t kosher but I gave up the fight. 

Ted likes to nap on the kitchen floor under the window where the swamp cooler is set up in the summer.


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## sdain31y (Jul 5, 2010)

Our 18 week old puppy has been hot natured since we brought him home. We live in Savannah, GA which gets HOT and humid for the better part of the year. He’s already looking for shade and cool spots & I’ve been warning him that it’s only going to get hotter and hotter, lol. We bought one of the “as seen on tv” cool mats for $29 at PetSmart to try. He LOVES it and so do the cats. Got to admit I was shocked, but he’ll get up and find his mat to lay down on routinely. We put it on the bed at night and it’s his preferred spot. We’re going to purchase the larger version. It’s the Green Pet Shop Cool Pet Shop and doesn’t require filling or electricity. Worth the investment.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

I was thinking about this very subject just today. I lost my golden to old age back in April. We lived together in Wisconsin for his entire life, so I got to see him in both very hot and very cold weather. No doubt about it he was made for the winter. He like to swim in January. He would get out of the water with the temperature in the teens with no adverse effect. More than once I saw him lying down in the slush puddle happy as a clam. The converse was not true. He had no such tolerance for heat. These things ran through my mind because I'm thinking of moving to western Colorado where I once lived. I had a Labrador and the border Collie in those days who seem to do pretty well in the heat. Of course, the thing about Colorado is that you can choose your climate. Go down to the desert in the early spring, head to the Highcountry in the dog days of summer where there are plenty of streams filled with icy cold water and shady pockets where snow lingers through the end of June. And there is also the big temperature swing from day to night. Hundred degree days regularly turn into 50° nights. Hey I think I've just described to paradise for golden retrievers!


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## diane0905 (Aug 20, 2010)

I live in a hot & humid place, so I was always careful with my Golden. He did get hot easily. We are fortunate to have a pool, so he could swim from spring and usually through October. Even for swimming, summer swimming was done around 9:00 a.m. or so or after the sun went down. If it wasn't a swim day, I would drive the dogs down to the watershed pond area (always shady and cooler there) and let them roam around, sniff, and enjoy themselves. Longer walks in the fall & winter. Luckily, we just got a place in the North Carolina mountains, so my next Golden will have somewhere with pleasant weather to enjoy much more outdoor roaming time. I'll have a hiking partner.


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## Cornwall (Aug 10, 2019)

Tucker's_mom6 said:


> Just wondering if anyone else's golden get hot easily? I'm not talking overheated, but usually Tucker (my baby) sleeps in my room on my carpeted floor but lately he's been wanting out of my room in the middle of the night to go lay on the tile. I'm assuming it's because he's hot. It's odd too because he has bad hips/legs/knee so he struggles getting up off the floor but it's his favorite place to lay.
> 
> Also- has anyone tried those pet cooling mats? I'm considering buying him one. I live in Texas but it's not even hot yet and I have the air conditioner down at night.


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## Cornwall (Aug 10, 2019)

Our Golden didn't feel the cold at all. She would ask to go outside in winter and would slept on the grass, even in the frost, refusing to come in! She found summer in the UK a challenge, and would lose energy and overheat. Walks were at dawn when very cool and late in the evening after sunset. She would sleep all day in the shade. 
Haven't tried the cooling mats. Did try a paddling pool but she refused to get in. She preferred the muddy stream in the fields!


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