Good afternoon!

We are the proud parents of two Husky pups. We just adopted Whiskey (14 month old male) to keep our Mercy (7 month old female) company. They seem to be getting along well (other than the CRAZY husky rough housing!). We live in Houston and are gearing up for our first summer with Huskies. What are some ways to keep them cool in the ridiculous Texas heat? They will have plenty of shade and we bought a kiddie pool to fill with water for them to play in. Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!!

Hi Jodi, since I live in the desert (with no air conditioning) and have three dogs and did live in Houston for 30 some odd years, I think I can handle this for you.

You have two big problems in Houston (besides living in Houston) the temperature and the humidity.

Most Huskies will find the coolest place they can when the temps start getting warm (my definition of warm is 90+) Their fur - the double coat - acts a whole lot like the insulation in your attic, it keeps them warm in the winter and helps keep the heat out in the summer. Temperature, of and by itself, normally isn't a problem.

What is the problem is the excessive humidity. Dogs primarily cool themselves by panting. It's called evaporative cooling and works great when the humidity is low (like in the desert) but not very well at all when you're living in a swamp (read up about Houston's history.)

You'll find that your kids are probably considerably less active during the heat of the day - possibly till well into the evening. They don't like walking on hot pavement and almost any surface over there will be hot during the day.

Now to shorten the response: Keep their activities limited during the day; make sure they have plenty of water and shade available; walk them in the early morning hours or after sundown n the evening.

I had to laugh about the kiddie pool, I have three adults over here where 90+ isn't unusual (it's 88° over here at the moment) and I have one dog who will step into the pool, stand there and get a drink and step out; the other two want nothing to do with the pool!!

Thanks Al! I have been stalking this forum for awhile now and I knew that I could count on you, being a fellow Texan, to give me some good advice

I will keep these things in mind. I know that I wouldn't want to be forced to go for a walk during the day in the middle of the summer so we will certainly be doing our walks in the early morning and late evening. The pool was a totally random idea after watching Whiskey make a huge mess playing in his water bowl but I understand that some huskies are not fond of water. Since they are only $15 bucks at Walmart, I figured if they don't like it or don't want to use it then our grandbaby can certainly make good use of it and I'm not out alot of money.

Thanks for the advice!

I have had good luck using the ruffwear swamp vests. They are a tad on the expensive side in my opinion but I have seen a noticeable difference in them and their heat tolerance when in the vests.

Thanks for the advice Jenn! I will certainly look into those.