Advice on keeping pets cool in the salon during the summer

Cool Dudes

Groomer, Jenny Farrell, shares tips on how to keep dogs cool in the salon during the summer months:

Outside dogs can find their own methods for keeping cool, but in the salon it is vital that a dog’s temperature is monitored as they are susceptible to heat stroke

Living in the UK we rarely have many really hot days. However, because our pets are accustomed to living in a cooler climate, when we do get hot days or weeks our pets tend to cope less well than those who live in hot climates. It takes about six months for dogs to adjust to different climates, so we need to help them to keep cool at home and in the salon during the summer months.

Dogs have a higher body temperature of 38.3 to 39.2 degrees celsius compared to humans who have 37 degrees celsius and only sweat through their paws and nose. Dogs lose heat from their bodies by panting and drinking and can become very hot during a groom.

Dogs are susceptible to heat stroke in hot weather especially larger breeds over 110 pounds and breeds such as pugs, chow chow and bull dogs due to having brachycephalic skulls. In really hot weather I would not groom brachycephalic breeds and xl double coated breeds to be safe.

The UK is prone to short heat waves, which make it difficult for dogs to acclimatize to the heat as we do not have long periods of heat to give their bodies time to adjust.

So, groomers need to ensure a cool environment and consider the health of doggy clients by assisting them to stay cool during hot summer days.

A great way of keeping dogs and salons at a steady maintained temperature throughout the year is to install a good air conditioning unit. This also helps reduce condensation on salon windows and improves air quality throughout your salon. However, this option can be costly for most grooming salons, so what else can you do to help?

If you have windows that get a lot of sun, installing blinds will help keep your salon cool and in addition bright light can make it hard to see your work properly so this can help with your salon lighting and grooming. Many groomers use their home conservatory which can get very warm, you may want to add blinds to cool the area.

Make sure you have plenty of drinking stations full of water for the dogs and if you can put ice in the water bowls, make sure every dog has access to a station and offer drinks throughout the groom.

You may have to give dogs more rest periods so they do not get hot and stressed.

You can purchase cooling gel pads for your kennel areas and you can place the mats on your grooming table, as dogs sweat through their pads this can help to keep them cool during a groom.

You can place fans in the room but be careful not to blow hair around as this is bad for your breathing, place fans high up facing away from the grooming area.

If you can, opening doors will help improve air circulation but make sure you put effective and safe baby gates or fencing up so no dogs can escape while the doors are open.

It is important to keep yourself, your clients and your salon cool, making as many simple adjustments as possible will make life much nicer and safer for you and your doggy clients!