Newfies In Very Hot Climates

[skillie]

I've been presented with a possible office transfer to Dubai from Ireland. It is a big and very exciting oppertunity but the only limiting factor is Charlie and the year round heat there. if it happens its something we would be mad to turn down.

temperature is mid 70's half the year and over 110 the other half. we would be living in air conditioned house/apartment but just wondering what people think of how he would handle this. Does anyone else live in a very warm climate. what measures can be taken to keep him comfortable, tight haircut, aircon, walking early morn and late night. we have not even contemplated rehoming him for now in our minds he is going with us i am also aware of the fact that maybe this is a very selfish outlook.

 

[Bucephalus]

First, congratulations on the job offer! Sounds like an exciting adventure.

I know people keep Newfs successfully in Texas, where it gets quite hot. If you have air conditioning, Charlie should be happy. You might have to find some exercise alternatives to walking (swimming every day, perhaps?).

 

[BLCOLE]

I used to live in the Charleston, SC area with a Newf. Would get up in the mid 90s, low hundreds in the summer. PLUS it had VERY high humidity.

The elderly Newf I had did okay as long as he was kept inside except to go to the bathroom.

 

[skillie]

thanks, for that. he spends almost all his time indoors here now and will prob be cooler over there than here as we don't have A/C and have underfloor heating with the house always at a nice temperature. so indoors he will be fine but exercise will be a challenge without a doubt. its all early days of talks anyway no offer as of yet just informal discussions but the dogs are our main niggles in the plan. Charlie is one thing but sadly molly has Kidney failure so we are not expecting her to be with us if/when the move comes around. thats a hard one to get our head around and also charlie will feel that loss extremely hard coupled with a move to a hot foreign country we are worried with how he'll cope

 

[NinaA]

We have a lot of people who have Newfs in the heat. I've also heard of them doing well in the Caribbean. They just shed out their undercoat and spend all their time inside in the AC. I will tell you that the shedding will be amazing, and it will be continual.

 

[dumainedogs]

In our awful hot, humid New Orleans summers.. exercise is a challenge and is often quite limited. Nights when it never drops below 85 don't exactly give you a chance for long walks. There were a few days last summer where the best we could do was play some tug and try to exercise his 'brain' in the a/c. Water is good, but even that is a challenge here since the water in the lake climbs into the 80's in late summer and isn't exactly "cooling."

 

[skillie]

thanks guys, yes the water there won't be cooling either really, i was there in june and the water offered me no relief from the heat it was like taking a warm bath. beaches are off limits to dogs there also i believe. so just worried he'd have to be a prisoner effectively there. he doesn't spend much time outdoors or take very long walks now but he enjoys it when he does and don't want him to loose that either. have found dog clubs online out there etc and hopefully we can give him a good life out there if it goes ahead; we'd feel terrible if we brought him and it was a bad place for him to be, he has such a great life here now

 

[R Taft]

We have very dry hot Summers.....Our dogs cope really well. Katy loves to go for a swim and lie in front of the fans, they have one each.
Our dogs do not even have aircon and cope

Some Summers we can get up to 114 F...Bl...y hot

I would be more worried about how dogs were accepted there. It has been a long time ago, but when we traveled a lot and took our dogs everywhere with us. We did not take them to certain regions. But as I said that was quite some time ago, things may have changed.....

 

[skillie]

That is also a worry they aren’t welcomed with open arms there by the locals from what I’ve read but there is a large expatriot population there and there are day care, dog hotels, vets clubs etc there and a few groups of dog loving ex pats that meet up and get together and go on walks etc so think we can make up for the fact that some folk there won’t be too happy to see a newf. We haven’t put the option of leaving him behind on the table and don’t think we could do it

 

[KodysGrandma]

Depending on the number of dog loving ex-pats perhaps the thing is to start an AC inside dog park. Cascadians has one in Oregon that she uses. Perhaps she can give you some ideas.

 

[Janet Moench]

Congratulations! FWIW, heres' my experience in Arizona with Long-Coated Akitas:
Short hike up Apache Peak in "cold" February--Kuniyoshi drank water, five minutes later, scrabbling at our knees for more, he drinks, he pees, he scrabbles.
After about 45 minutes we realized that it was just too darn hot there, and we were
spending our lives being Sherpas to a hot Akita! So we promptly moved to Wisconsin
where it is almost cold enough for our Akitas, Leonbergers and new Newfy.
I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?! LOL

 

[victoria1140]

I have lived in Africa and we had two long haired huge gsd's we transported over there with us. They shed a lot of coat and found cool spots on tiled floors , they had fans and we gave them access to the pool as well. We didnt have air con but our dogs coped extremely well.

We found they got the exercise they needed and they thrived . With all changes there will be challenges but its suprising how inventive you can be, also as you said there is also the possibility of trimming his coat down. Do you have any horse friends out there as they always have the most amazing exercise indoor facilities if you cant take him out in the heat

 

[skillie]

thanks for the input guys and i'm sure we would make it work if we had to. its not looking likely right now but never say never!! thanks

 

[Jibby]

Maybe changing the exercise times to early morning or evening when it's a little bit cooler outside....obviously in the summer hot is hot and humid but hopefully your pup will acclimate over time.