Arizona Outdoorsman / AZOD

Keeping Them Summer Dogs Cool

By Linda Dightmon AZOD

Summertime and the living is easy. You can bet your mint julep the writer of that song has never been to the Sonoran desert in July. So, how are we supposed to train and maintain our dogs during this season of sweat?

One answer is to ship Fido off to a cooler clime. Of course most of us don’t have those kinds of resources and if we did we would be going with him, so for the most part we just grin and bear it and wistfully watch the calendar while dreaming of October.

Our German shorthaired pointers stay outside during the day. They have a misting system for comfort and the patio for shade. They also have a tub of water large enough for them to lie in if they want to. Many people buy the plastic kiddy play pools for the season.

Sometimes a summer Sunday morning will find us up at 3:30 (yes, that would be a.m.) so that we can get some dog training in. Sounds like self-torture but it is the only time to do it this time of year. The dogs love it. They hear the alarm go off in the dark and they are ready to go. I take a couple gallons of water for them, some coffee and Gatorade for me and drive off into the night. We are usually home before nine o’clock and more importantly, before the thermometer hits the century mark.

Special bonuses for early morning training sessions are:

Spectacular sunrises
Light traffic
Sunscreen not required
A dog ready for hunting season

Last weekend as I was stepping out of the air-conditioned truck at dawn I think I felt a little chill in the air. Maybe we will have an early fall this year. Well … we can dream about it anyway.