Walking a dog when the pavement stays hot at night
Asphalt and pavement retain dangerous levels of heat long after the sun goes down, disrupting evening walking routines that dog owners rely on. This forces owners to constantly check the ground and perform hand tests before every walk to keep their pets from shuffling uncomfortably on hot surfaces.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Checking pavement temperature with the back of the hand before walkingDid this help you?
- 2Switching to grass-heavy routes instead of asphaltDid this help you?
- 3Delaying walks until much later in the evening (9 PM or after)Did this help you?
- 4Restricting walks to early morning hoursDid this help you?
- 5Using protective dog bootsDid this help you?
- 6Replacing walks with swimming or indoor play during extreme heatDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I always assumed moving the dogs walk toward the evening mostly solved the summer problem. Sun goes down, air cools off a bit, we head out. Except I'm paying way more attention to the ground now and it's kind of messed with that whole routine.”source ↗
“I started doing the hand test on the pavement before every walk after I realized my dog was doing a little shuffle on the parking lot section.”source ↗