Hi!

Rumo has been waking us up sometimes at night with his panting. He didn't do this in the cooler weather, so I guess he is feeling hot! We are reluctant to crank the AC up for the entire house all night...the humans are feeling OK...and I would have guilt about Planet Earth...

We do leave a ceiling fan on, and we've tried opening the window, but he still pants. He did not go to lie in front of the open window, so I don't think he would like lying with a fan blowing on him either.

I was wondering if anybody has tried those Cool Mats and if your dogs actually like lying on them...do they work...?

Hey mate,  I'm going to suggest that this isn't so much a matter of temperature alone as it is a combination of temp and humidity.  For example, I live in the desert where our humidity is normally in the single digits while the temperature is in the triple digits - and my dogs seldom pant.

What you might want to find (borrow to see if it works as expected) is a dehumidifier and lower the humidity level from the 'normal' to say 20% or less.  That should actually make it more comfortable for the humans to sleep as well.  ("Normal" in NC seems to be 60% plus, I'd be a soggy mess at that!)

(( Ignore this is you already know:  Dogs primarily cool themselves by evaporative cooling as they breathe.  When they have to remove more heat they breathe faster - pant.  Generally a dog living in a dry climate with high temps will be more comfortable than a dog who lives in a humid climate with <significantly?> lower temps.  In order: dogs will cool themselves by normal breathing, cooling by radiation from their ears and to a lesser degree through their paws, and then simply radiation from their skin <with a Husky??> ))

ETA: sorry, I realized I completely ignored your question. I'd be inclined to think that for a 'normal' (there's that word again) dog where there's less hair on their bellies the pads/mats may actually work <relatively> well. Possibly they might also work for a husky with a thinner coat - it seems as if what they do is to absorb the dogs body heat and radiate it into the surrounding air or use a cooling agent in the pad that will absorb heat until it and the surroundings reach a relatively similar temperature.

For your own and the dogs comfort, I'd be inclined to try a dehumidifier first.

Hi Al,

You were absoloutely right!! The humidity went down here for a few days, although it was still in the 70s at night in the house, and he panted much less (or not at all?) All I know is, I woke up feeling like I had a good nights' sleep.

If we can find a dehumidifer that is quiet, (!) we'll get one! When I was a kid, I had one and it made lots of gurgling humming noises. That might be worse than panting, ha ha.

Otherwise we might gate him out of our bedroom for the summer, poor guy...
there are some hot humid nights ahead here in NC, that is for sure.