One of the perks of having a sailboat is the fact that you can travel slowly. In other words, we all have a chance to adjust to the heat as we move slowly south!
As we’ve stayed in Northern Europe the past few years, we haven’t had to deal with mega heat yet although we are prepared for it.
Before we left the UK, we bought Scrappy a cooling pad to lie on when the weather heats up to help him stay cool.
We also bought a cooling towel that is specially made for dogs. You soak it in water before putting it over your dog to help them cool down quickly if needed. Cooling by evaporation: the heat from the dog heats the water up in the material causing it to evaporate which then cools down the dog! Here is something Sciency to explain!
Before leaving the UK for a second time, we also bought him a wearable cooling jacket as we found when he stood up to change position with the cooling towel, it fell off and needed one of us to reposition it for him. He can’t get out of the wearable cooling jacket!
We have multiple water bowls available for him including a ‘Road Refresher‘. It’s one that can be used on passage as it has special sides to prevent water from spilling out even when tilted. It has also coped well when being grabbed by Erin and tipped over sideways…!
The design of our boat also means that it stays cooler inside than outside when in hot weather due to a lack of windows. We can also open our roof windows up wide to help with airflow and we have a few fans on board too.
Scrappy is one of those dogs that loves to sunbathe. If there is a sunny spot on the boat inside then you can almost guarantee he’ll be lying in it. Whenever he goes out on deck and it’s sunny, he’ll find himself a comfy spot and start sunbathing!
He is a bugger for letting himself get too hot though so we do have to keep a close eye on him and make sure he drinks enough water during the day.
We’re looking at getting one of those combs that removes the undercoat on animals to help keep him cool as well. I’ll update this if we do to let you know if it helps!
Travelling South slowly has helped us all adjust to the heat – it definitely beats flying by plane and being hit in the face with the heat like a ton of bricks as soon as you walk off the plane on arrival!
How does your dog cope with the heat? Do you use a comb to remove their undercoat that you’d recommend?