It’s around 95 degrees here today. Im sure you’ve had the experience of attempting to walk across asphalt in bare feet on a sunny summer day. It burns.
I saw a man out jogging with his dog and am wondering if the asphalt was hurting the dog’s paws. It didn’t seem to be in any distress, but I know the asphalt was baking today.
Well, if you’re used to walking barefoot on asphalt is no problem. I would assume since dogs don’t wear shoes, they adapt similarly, but I’m not a vet or a dog owner.
That’s not completely the case. The thicker the pads are on your feet, the longer it takes to begin burning if you walked on hot asphalt, but the heat will eventually work it’s way through the callouses and in to unprotected tissue if you remain on it long enough.
The same is true for dogs. If they do a lot of walking and are active they have pretty good protection starting out, better than the average human who mostly wears shoes outdoors, but with enough time the heat will work its way through the pads and burn the soft tissue underneath.
Dogs may have more protection, but the intense heat gets to them. For shorter distances, they make enough foot turnover to retard the heat build up. When it gets to them, they may not know what to do to avoid this problem. Owners need to react for their pets.
You will find pets like the cool grass on hot days. Also, cold garage floors are attractive. I never see dogs lying around on the black asphalt.
It was 96 degrees at the start of the 1976 Boston Marathon. Street temps were over 100 and the asphalt was well over that. Running shoes have more padding than a dog’s feet. Still, our shoes were leaving prints in the street and sticking to it. Our feet were getting dam hot too. Jack Fultz won with a time of 2:20:19.
If we are taking our dogs out for a walk on a hot day, we have booties for their paws. The hot pavement is very uncomfortable for the dogs, and they pull frantically for the shade if their feet get too hot. Which is why we take them out in the early morning or late in the afternoon on hot days, when the low sun angle does not heat the pavement as much. We also take them to the Greenbelt along the rivers so they can wade in the water and cool off.
Oh yeah, I ran that one too. Not only the heat, but the humidity was very high too. It was pretty bad, and the slowest finish time I ever had in ten marathons. I walked a lot the last five miles. Lottsa fun, eh?
Here in Arizona, many people do have the good sense to put booties on their dog’s paws when on the streets. The desert sand does not seem to be that bad. When climbing mountains, very few people take their dogs up in the summer, yet those that do never seem to use the booties, and the dogs all seem OK. However, I’d sure hate to clumb wearing a fur coat!
Hijack here, if it’s OK with some of you.
I have seen long-haired, double-coated dogs shaved down during the summer ostensibly to cool them off.
I believe that this actually makes them hotter (aside from never having their hair grow back in the way it was).
My understanding is that the double coat–the air trap between the two coats–creates a Thermos-bottle effect. In winter it traps a lot of heat in; in summer, assuming the dog is properly hydrated (and spritzed), it keeps a lot of heat away from the skin.
Obviously in the Summer this applies up to a certain limit.
True?
I was simplifying as I wasn’t really answering the OP, but I meant what you said, but yous said it better than I would. 
At 95 degrees I don’t have much trouble with asphalt, although I try to stick to the white lines and rough portions (because less of my foot is hitting the ground) and walk fast. Above about 100 I’d wear sandals. I’ve never burned my feet.
I remember when I was little they used to repair the cracks in the streets of my neighborhood with these long black lines of tar painted onto the road over the cracks. When the concrete got too hot I would always walk on the lines of tar, they were much cooler.
But yeah, at 95 degrees in direct sunlight it would only take a little bit longer before the dog felt the heat as if he had no pads at all. He would walk faster and seek cooler ground as best he could too (if he was leashed it might not be an option).
This line of reasoning has never made any sense to me. If it were true, it should apply equally to humans wearing a down coat in the summer. How well does that work for you? I shave my long haired dog in the summer, and if I don’t she’s noticeably more sluggish and pant-y on walks.