‘Dog Days of August’ start in late May, early June

Wow, has it gotten hot!  The heat got me to thinking about what I do to keep dogs in training cool. 

As I sit here the dogs are all sprawled out on their concrete slabs absorbing the cool energy stored up from overnight lows.  The huge oak trees present on the farm prior to construction were carefully saved and really has been an awesome blessing when it comes to keeping summertime dogs cool.  The south facing kennels receive a good breeze from the open pasture of nearly 40 acres.  Of course my ‘inside Brittanys’ are inside with me enjoying the a.c.

To supplement the existing shade and to cover my newly constructed kennels, I planted more trees in key locations to help provide more shade.  For this area, the fast growing semi-arid climate loving afghan pine works well.  I planted 3 five to six footers 3 years ago and they have nearly tripled in size.  They started as Christmas trees in a plant pot.

In the summer, I have fans installed that take advantage of the predominantly south blowing breeze.  I have a 4 foot fan with add on mister blowing down the line of kennels.  Half way down, I have second high speed/high volume fan that pushes the air further down the line.  On the far end a nice cool breeze can be felt. 

My automatic lickets are fed by cool well water.  The water in the lines warms up due to hot ambient temps so to offset that issue, I have a thermal popoff valve that opens when the water lines above the ground reachs 85 degrees.  It closes when the cool well water rushes forward lowering the temperature in te lines to 70.  I have a drip line on the warm water that was expelled and move it about the yard watering different plants so there is no waste. 

To help keep dogs cool in summer when working out, there is a 6ft round galvanized stock tank that is strictly for the dogs.  I keep it clean and sanitized with chlorine tabs for pools.  Test strips are used to make sure the water doesn’t get overtreated for the safety of the dog.

Short of building an indoor kennel with airconditioning I think my system works fairly well. 

Guess that’s it for today.

Take care and tell your buddy that Dave says ‘good dog!’

Dave