I’ve noticed pet sits posted for Mongolia in winter and Dubai in the summer. How have people dealt with such extreme temperatures? Walking a dog when it’s 50ºC outside or dealing with an outdoor cat in -40+ºC must be tough for someone not used to those temps.
I lived in a cabin in the Yukon one winter. The temps got below -40ºC and there was no indoor toilet. Complicated simple things. Oh, and funny enough, a stray cat showed up at the cabin! She stayed for the winter and then got a new home in the spring.
Anyway, how was extreme pet sitting and would you do it again?
I have never sat anywhere with temperature extremes like that but we did do a sit this July for the whole month that was pretty hot for us. It was in central California and it was at least 100° every day. It wasn’t like the desert but some days it was pretty close to the temps in those areas of the state.
I was aware of what the weather was like that time of year when we booked the sit. It was in an exceptionally beautiful location and the house had incredible scenery so we thought it was worth it. Also the hosts were very explicit about using the air conditioning as much as we want. It was a really great experience and we’re so glad we did it. .
Having been sitting in California since January, one thing I discovered is that it is very easy to avoid temperature extremes at all times of the year. There are plenty of cool places to be in the summer and plenty of warmer places to be in the winter.
This is probably the reason we have yet to leave. And should we continue to stay here longer term, we probably wouldn’t do a sit like that here again because there’d be so many other places with much more comfortable weather.
We’ve also traveled to, and done many sits, in pretty hot climates like Southeast Asia. I don’t have the same tolerance for this super hot humid climates that I used to. The last time we were there a few years ago, it was pretty uncomfortable. But I really like those areas and I would definitely return at some point.
We did sits in Oman and Qatar during the winter and the weather was great.
We’ve lived in desert climates with our dog. We also road trip with him a lot.
Key things:
Walk early and/or late, avoiding the hottest periods.
Put your hand or bare foot on pavement to test whether it might burn your dog’s feet.
Keep dogs on grass to avoid burning their feet, unless they wear shoes. Like we lived in a golf course community and would sometimes carry our dog to avoid pavements, till we reached grass. Or we’d take him to grassy parks.
Always carry extra water. (Prepare in case your car breaks down and you have your dog with you.) You also can keep water cool by carrying a cooler and/or freezing half-bottles with ice and then filling the rest of the bottle with water. Plus, you can freeze dog-friendly fruit or baby carrots or carrot bites or peanut butter in Kong-type toys.
Use mesh beds with legs, so air circulates under them. There are also dog sun shades.
Use portable evaporative coolers, which quickly deliver cold air directly onto your pet while your car cools down, which can take a while in deserts. We usually carry two, in case one breaks down.
Some people get dog pools, so they can cool down. We had a human pool and would’ve let our dog swim, but he hates water.
For humans, use portable fans and/or spray bottles to spritz yourself. Some people in extreme heat carry umbrellas.
Note: Some people mistakenly shave dogs for hot weather, even though their fur can help regulate their body temperature. Look up what’s best for your breed of dog before cutting/shaving/trimming.
I understand the heat and dogs feet (come from a hot climate) but I always wonder about the same for dogs in a cold climate, seems like cold concrete would not be pleasant either on dog feet. Have to say the dogs we sat in winter in the UK happily paddled through icy streams every day so maybe I’m overthinking it
I figured there would be, but I wonder about sled dogs etc, that are bred for snow areas, are their feet genetically different for the cold or do we humans just project onto them? Jeez I’ve clearly got not enough to do
The hottest climate I’ve ever sat in was Palm Springs in July but I loved it - the hotter the better for me! It was a wonderful home with a totally secluded backyard and huge swimming pool. The owners left me their car so I took the two dogs out very early in the morning and late in the evening to romp around in a nearby dog park. Other than that just lazed around the pool - one of my fav house sits ever I wouldn’t do well in extreme cold.
I wouldn’t do well in extreme cold.