26/05/2026
I keep seeing people compare UK temperatures to hotter countries and saying things like “dogs abroad walk and train in 30+ degrees all the time” but heat isn’t as simple as just looking at the number 👎🙅♀️
Dogs don’t cope based on temperature alone. Things like humidity, acclimatisation, environment, coat type, airflow, age and even how sudden the weather change is all have a huge impact.
In the UK, our weather is unpredictable - cold, wet, windy, and downright miserable 😅 for most of the year. Then out of nowhere we get a few days of intense heat and everyone struggles with it, including dogs. Neither we nor they have had time to properly adjust to it.
Dogs in consistently hot climates are usually conditioned to those temperatures over time, as well as being active during cooler periods of the day and resting during the hottest parts. Their bodies adapt gradually, and their daily routines are built around working in that heat.
Over here, temperatures can jump massively within days, so there’s very little chance for proper acclimatisation before dogs are expected to walk, train or work in it.
⚠️ Humidity makes it even worse ⚠️
Dogs rely heavily on panting to cool themselves down, and humid air makes that process much less effective. A humid 25 degrees here can hit far harder than a dry 30 degrees somewhere else.
Then there’s everything else that adds pressure:
Hot ground temperatures,
Poor ventilation,
Dogs kept mainly in cool houses or cars,
Thicker coated breeds,
Older dogs,
and high-drive dogs that won’t stop even when they’re struggling 😢
On top of that, because the hot weather arrives so suddenly here, people don’t always recognise the early warning signs of heat stroke quickly enough.
It’s not about UK dogs being “soft” or unable to handle heat. The conditions here are just very different, and they can become dangerous very quickly if people underestimate them 💚
