{"id":2722,"date":"2020-07-01T19:05:54","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T19:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carevetdev.kinsta.cloud\/hoschton\/?p=2722"},"modified":"2022-07-05T19:06:38","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T19:06:38","slug":"how-your-dog-cools-himself-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/blog\/2020\/07\/01\/how-your-dog-cools-himself-down\/","title":{"rendered":"How Your Dog Cools Himself Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-content\">\n<div style=\"transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out 0s;\" data-rss-type=\"text\">\n<p> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> You may have heard that the human body cools itself down during hot weather or vigorous exercise using one method: sweating. As the sweat on your skin evaporates, it cools you down. What about Fido? Your dog, of course, is covered in fur. So how do our canine companions\u2019 bodies cool themselves in the summer months? <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> P <span> <\/span> anting <\/span> <\/h2>\n<p> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Panting is a pup\u2019s primary way of cooling off. When a dog pants, moisture starts to evaporate from their tongue, as well as from the nasal passages and the lining of the lungs. When the air produced by panting passes over these moist tissues, it effectively lowers your dog\u2019s body temperature. This is actually very similar to the way sweat evaporates off of our skin to cool us down! <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Vasodilation <\/span> <\/h2>\n<p> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Have you ever noticed your furry pal\u2019s face gets a bit flushed and wrinkly when they\u2019ve exercised in hot weather? This happens because of something called vasodilation. Vasodilation means that your dog\u2019s blood vessels expand, or dilate. When Fido gets really hot, blood vessels around the body expand and bring warm blood closer to the skin\u2019s surface, where it cools down. Then, that cooler blood cycles back to the heart again, to lower your dog\u2019s internal temperature. <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Sweat Glands <\/span> <\/h2>\n<p> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Although dogs can\u2019t sweat the way humans do, they do possess sweat glands. In fact, they have two types. <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Merocrine glands are located in Fido\u2019s paw pads, and start producing sweat when your dog gets hot in order to cool the body down. If these glands were located around the body, the sweat they produce would simply be absorbed by the fur, which would render it useless.&nbsp; <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Apocrine glands are located all over your dog\u2019s body, but they don\u2019t produce sweat in order to regulate body temperature. Instead, they release pheromones that dogs use to identify each other. <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Keeping Fido Cool <\/span> <\/h2>\n<p> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> No matter how your pooch keeps himself cool, it\u2019s your job to make sure he doesn\u2019t overheat. Don\u2019t leave your furry pal outdoors in hot, humid weather for long periods of time \u2014bring him indoors frequently so he can cool off. And make sure your pooch has plenty of fresh water to drink at all times. Water is essential for cooling the body down and preventing dehydration! <\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <span style=\"display: initial;\"> Would you like more tips for keeping your dog safe this summer? Give us a call today\u2014we\u2019re here to help.&nbsp; <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may have heard that the human body cools itself down during hot weather or vigorous exercise using one method: sweating. As the sweat on your skin evaporates, it cools [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2724,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions\/2724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/hoschton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}