Bothered by the heat?

[lfitzner]

We had a wonderful Michigan spring day today. Temps in the low 70's and I had the day off. So of course, I took Morgan tracking. But since I never want to waste an opportunity, we went to the bike trail park. I layed the track and left it to age while we biked the trail. When we returned, she didn't seem overly tired but did not have her usual interest in the track. She is a black dog and the sun was out. Does anyone have experience with heat effecting the desire to track? It's Michigan and the summers are hot and humid. Needless to say, I will not combine biking with tracking again.

[R3C0NWARR10R]

Both of my pups do what they can to avoid the heat. They will even seek out shade from anything when it is in he 80's lol. The heat will effect the way the dog works tremendously. I have seen bomb dogs turn off and refuse to work when they become to hot.

[mjbgsd]

Isa loves to track but I notice when it's really hot out which is the unnormal for here, in WA it's a wet state lol, she'll be a little slower but nothing to drastic.

[codmaster]

Depends a lot on the individual dog - my 2 yo will continue to play rapid fetch no matter what the temp. My friends dog ,who is the same age, will shut down very quickly and go lay in the shade.

[mjbgsd]

Ya I noticed with Akbar he becomes sluggish a little, lol.

[angierose]

Kaylee certainly finds it more difficult to track in the heat. She hasn't refused yet but by the end, she's clearly exhausted and drinks a ton more water than she normally does. It's hard work for them, after all, so I understand. We do early mornings or just before sundown now that the weather is warming up (unseasonably warm actually) and will likely cut down on training pretty drastically when it gets really bad. Around here they don't even do trials in the summer because of this.

[Sigurd's Mom]

It was 75 here in K-zoo today and I really noticed a difference in Sigurd's energy level. He just wanted to lay on the porch in the shade!

[onyx'girl]

The weather hasn't affected my dogs energy level at all. I do feel for the black dogs/animals, they really absorb the heat more.
I like to track in the early morning or just before dusk, too. The winds aren't as strong at these times of day along with cooler temps.

[Liesje]

Yesterday I tracked Nikon, spent all week finding the "perfect" field and was pumped...go figure it was the WORST track ever (for both of us). Not poorly laid but poorly executed. The heat was not the problem though (though the sun being very bright and low made it impossible for me to see the track). My goal was to track every day this week which I have, Tues was awesome but yesterday was such a bust. We'll see what today brings....

[lhczth]

Our dogs are not used to the heat yet. First you biked Morgan and then asked her to track? She was probably warm from the biking and needed more time to rest before asking her to track. Also, is she used to doing aged tracks. It has also been dry (at least in our area) which can make tracking more difficult for the dogs.