Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Pitiful, just pitiful!

It's been really, really hot around here the last week or so, like most of the rest of the country. The only real impact on us - aside from skyrocketing electric bills - is that Dax (my French Bulldog) can't come to training class on Tuesday nights because the place we train doesn't have air conditioning.

When I was doing my research on Frenchies before I got her, everything I read said that the breed is very sensitive to heat and prone to heat stroke. Imagine my surprise when, her first summer, Dax would find the warmest patch of the backyard with the sun beating down and lie there, enjoying it enormously.

I thought I had the one Frenchie in the world who loved the heat. It turns out - not so much. She may like it, but she does get ill if she stays out in the heat too long. I did take her to training one hot-but-not-blast-furnace evening and she indelicately "lost" all her training treats and felt generally miserable, even after we got home.

I learned my lesson. When the temperature's above 85 F, no training for Dax. Last night I took Roc to class. I'm told that Dax spent a chunk of time howling by the back door, looking for me. I didn't know she did that! I thought the "Frenchie Death Yodel" was for other Frenchies, not mine!

Every time I think my girl is special, I'm wrong again. She's special just the way all Frenchies are.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh I feel your pain.. it's the smoosh faces... Targ is the same way.. he gets very short of breath.

Qor, I gotta watch.. she will run and run and run and before I know it, she's flat..