Penn Vet researchers trained physically and mentally healthy dogs to voluntarily dunk their heads in water, an effective method for rapidly cooling canines after exercise. (Image: Shelby Wise/Wise K9 Photography)
“Dogs don’t sweat, and they rely on panting; that’s really got some serious limitations. Once they reach a point of excess heat, they can’t continue to cool, and they can go from looking fine to collapsing. Once they develop full-on heat stroke, they have about a 50% survival rate,” Otto says. Heat-induced injuries are the most common non-traumatic cause of death for law enforcement and military dogs, who may be in an environment with limited resources for cooling.
But in a new study Otto and other researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have identified an effective cooling method for field situations: Training dogs to voluntarily dunk their heads into 22°C water. Their findings are published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
They found that, among four cooling protocols tested, this one produced the lowest average core temperature in the five minutes after exercise. It was the only intervention to decrease core body temperature in the first 30 seconds, and it led to the lowest temperatures six to 40 minutes after the intervention.
“Voluntary head dunking is an invaluable tool in preventing exercise-induced hyperthermia or exercise-induced heat stress, and that can save lives,” says Otto, senior author on the paper.
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