Our weather man says we will reach 100 today (at 95 right now) and after hearing that I made sure to fill the dog's water dish, pull the shades and set the AC to a decent temperature in the house before I left for work.

What does everyone do to keep their dogs cool and safe on these hot, hot days? Are you home with them? What if you have to work or run errands? Any thing special you do for your dogs just because it’s going to be a real HOT day? Any tips/tricks you've found for your keeping your dogs comfortable? Want to share with everyone?

AC!!!! I don't usually take Jax out to play unless it's to swim and then it's in the evenings when the sun isn't so hot. She won't play in a child's swimming pool. I think she thinks it's a bathtub. She just really does not deal with the heat very well at all.

I usually put out an extra dish of water, just incase the puppers need it. The A/C goes on, the shades are drawn and if we are outside, we are just hanging out not doing a lot of physical activity (which is hard for Oscar! ).

Oscar is actually at doggy day care today and I know they bring out the dog pools, the hose and have huge umbrellas that they put outside.

I work at home, so I am home with the dogs most of the time. In the hottest part of the summer, we often have 118-120 degree days. The dogs will only go outside to potty then quickly come inside. We do all of our training and playing in the late evening, often after 8 or 9 pm, and it is usually 95-100 at that time. Or, we exercise,train,and play before 8 am.

My A/C is kept at 77 all the time, so the inside of the house is kept comfortable for the dogs.

They do like to play in their pool on the weekends for a bit too.

Yup! Here are my tips:

Grimm is a large, heavy-boned Czech male of well over 90 lbs, who does not tolerate the heat well at all. Winter is his season for madcap snowdrift mayhem!

NO midday gallumping! As sad as this is, we take the worst of the summers "off" from our usual daily gallumps in the clearing. No gallumping early in the morning or sundown, because that's when "the nightshift" comes out here-- skunks, foxes, raccoons, coyotes. We'll pick back up with our daily gallumps in the clearing come cooler weather!

Increase walks in the early part of the day and in the early evenings.

Increase ballplaying and wild, outrageous squeaky-toy shenanigans in the house!

Increase grooming with the undercoat rake, pulling out gobs of underfluffs, every other evening.

I've bought my first air conditioner this year. Grimm deserves it!!

Bathe a bit more often, if the dog is dusty. In the heat, a dog needs to most easily be able to angle his fur however he can best insulate from the heat/cool himself.

I increase my dog's water only slightly. He's not excersising as much in the heat, and if my schedule remains the same, I don't want him to have to struggle in summer months having to hold his urine. (However, see my "increased walks" mention above) He's raw fed, so gets lots of moisture from his diet as well.

Shady cool grassy areas-- midday, we go there so Grimm can roll in the cool grass, flop down and relax.

Sorry, guys-- as much as everyone else seems to love summer, I'm eager for fall!

DH is home with the dogs during the day and he makes sure they have plenty of water. If he's working in the gardens, they go and hang out with him, but they mostly lay in the shade and supervise his work. If he's working in his shop in the basement, they hang out there with him.

When I get home, I'll take them for a walk when it has cooled down enough. It wasn't too bad today and they got their walks before dinner. Tomorrow and Thursday we're supposed to be getting your 90°+ weather and we won't walk until well after dinner. Or we might just hide in the basement for a while and do some woodworking.

We do run the AC at around 77-78 when it's really hot. And hide in the basement cause it's nice and cool down there.

I'm with Patti. I like the summer for the fresh veggies from the garder, but for anything else I prefer the cooler weather and the dogs do, too.

Air conditioning, a must! Max stays home and chills while I"m out. The bad thing is that he can't come run any errands with me, since I can't leave him in the car when it's so hot.

I'm home all day with the Hooligans. I set their little wadding pool up. Make sure they have fresh water. I put them out in the morning and on hot days bring them in by 10 AM or so. I'll put them out once or twice for a quickie during the day and always take them out at 5PM for maybe 15 minutes or so (longer in cooler weather). Then later in the evening they can go out and stay for longer periods of time as long as they're not barking.

Air con here too, I am also home all day so Molly gets her exercise early morning and when the sun goes down. She did have paddling pools but killed them so now she has her own bathtub outside!

All this talk of summer and I'm sitting here in thermals and freezing my butt off

I leave a bucket of water with a huge chunk of ice, to keep it cool all day. I am not a fan of AC, but all the ceiling fans are on. The dogs have their own floor fan to relax near. Thinking of ordering a cooling blanket from Saratoga horse works for my black Shepherd. I have a 200 year old oak tree in the back yard, so house and yard stay cooler.