[Dailydrool] Fans on Dogs

[Marilyn Burns]

The following email was sent to me this morning by a "dog buddy" who 
participates in both the show and agility world.  I thought it was important 
enough to pass along....

***This week in the St. Louis area, seven conformation show dogs died from 
the heat when left in a van with fans on them. I have made it a personal 
mission to educate people on how fans work and why they do little or nothing 
to help cool a dog. Fans work through evaporative cooling. The fan excites 
the water molecules and when they evaporate, they take heat with them making 
us feel cooler. However, dogs don't perspire like we do, so there is no 
evaporative cooling effect. If you want to test this for yourself, take a 
dry hand or dishtowel and twirl it above your head for a minute or two. then 
feel it- it will feel the same temperature. Now, wet the towel with room 
temperature water, wring it out good and then twirl it again. You will 
notice that it feels much cooler because the evaporation took heat energy 
with it.. Putting a fan on a dry dog is like twirling the dry towel. If you 
want a fan to cool your dog, you have to add moisture to mimic perspiration. 
You can do this with a spray bottle, or wipe them with a wet cloth- on 
really hot days you might want to soak them down. But please, don't think 
that turning a fan into your crate is keeping your dog cooler just because 
it feels better to you. ***

Now I don't know when the actual tragedy occurred - or who was the actual 
author of the above - but I do think it has merit and warranted dissemation.

Marilyn - loving Mom of Amanda Lynn and Bridgemates Samantha Sue and Bob 
Burns