I try to avoid hot pavement but sometimes I have to walk on it with my dog. But all of my dogs don’t mind. Are their feet that tough? I’m talking about pavement that’s way too hot for my bare feet.
When Chaco’s feet got too hot, he’d flop on his side and I would have to pick him up and carry him.
Dogs get burned paws all the time out here.
I always worry about them when it’s a zillion degrees and we need to walk on blacktop.
They probably can tolerate hotter pavement than your feet can. But there is a point where they will be uncomfortable and a point at which they will get burnt. “They say” that if you can press the back of your hand against the pavement for 7 seconds, it will be ok for your dog.
My dogs seem to hate icy pavement (especially if there’s salt). I can’t research why; everyone tries to tell me not to let my dogs lick their feet after walking through the salt (sound advice, as that’s poisonous, not table salt) but the smaller dog complains immediately upon walking on that stuff. Sometimes I think the crystals are sharp enough to hurt them, but that doesn’t sound very reasonable.
They are both small long-haired dogs and don’t seem to mind hot pavement at all. Hot asphalt is another story.
My dog has a high tolerance for it. If he’s on it to long he’ll let me know. His cold tolerance is less than other dogs, 15 degrees is the coldest I’ll let him hike with me. Below that his paws tend to get too much ice build up, then it’s a cycle of him licking his paws resulting in more.
Hot pavement can certainly damage thier paws you can see all types of nasty photos of paws that have blistered from the heat.
I’m always in rural or suburban areas so my dog almost always has the option of stepping off the road or sidewalk.
Police dogs in urban areas sometimes get doggy shoes to protect them on patrol.
It makes their feet burn. Try sprinkling some salt on a cut and you’ll get a good idea. I put rubber booties on my dogs when we have to go out on salt-covered pavement. There are “snow melters” on the market that don’t contain salt that are advertised as pet friendly because they don’t make their feet burn.
They definitely can and do burn their feet on hot pavement.
My dog will try to get me to carry him when the pavement is too hot , their paws can get burnt on it. When it’s really hot out I try to walk my dog on the grass and bring him to a park that has a lot of shade so we both can try to stay cool .
My dog refuses to walk on a sidewalk covered with pine needles. I think she needs a full neurological workup followed by years of therapy.
It doesn’t have to be poisonous even if it’s not table salt. Do you have specific examples of “ice melt” that’s poisonous to dogs and numbers on how common they are?
Here in Norway at least we have problems enough with the environmental impact of “non-poisonous” sodium chloride to allow the use of “worse” salts.
In my opinion, dogs do not feel pain like we do. I watch my dog scratching his ear with those claws - very violently! I would be screaming bloody murder if my ear was being scratched that way!
Also how my dog nibbles/bites his leg to scratch an itch. He has at times done this until the hair is gone and he is bleeding! (Ahhhh! That feels better???)
So walking on hot pavement? No problem.
No , not tougher. They just aren’t feeling pain.
Too hot for your feet , too hot for dog. (all other things being equal - I mean if its too hot for you to be in bare feet, then its too hot for the dog.)
When in school I had a roommate who was a vet student. He told of how he had seen dogs that had had a leg amputated, and would have to be restrained/sedated from running around on their remaining 3 later that day. So how they respond to shocks and sensory input is obviously different than ours.
It is pretty obvious to me that there is a point at which pavement/sand becomes uncomfortably hot for my dog. But that point is obviously several degrees higher than mine. The other day it was near 90, and I was cleaning my outdoor furniture on the grass next to my stone patio. When my feet were wet, I did not notice the patio’s temperature, but when they dried off, I made a point of moving fast or donning my sandals. Whereas my dog was just lying on his side on the stones with his tongue hanging out and a big grin on his face. Mad dogs and Englishmen indeed! :rolleyes:
Depends on the dog. They’re paws are pretty sturdy and some of them more calloused than others depending on their lifestyle. It’s just like Sherpas climbing Mt. Everest barefoot, you can get acclimated to different conditions. It’s probably not good for a lot of dogs. I remember as a kid going barefoot a lot and having to deal with hot pavement. As the summer went on my feet would get used to it. I also encountered a guy who was a sled dog racer here in the northeast. During most of the year he trained his dogs on the road with a sled on wheels, and he would put little sock things on the dogs feet before they went out on the roads. So just listen to your dog, he’ll tell you when the pavement is too hot.