Dogs in Hot Cars

Don’t freak out, and be thoughtful and responsible if you must act.

Dogs in hot cars.

Should you break a car window to rescue a dog in a hot car?  You should do what is in the best interests of the dog, and that includes stopping to think for a good long while before you break the window.  Every time the subject of dogs in hot cars comes up on Facebook, the majority of comments say, “You should break the window!  I would break the window!”  This week, someone posted, with much drama, about a dog in a car when the outside temperature was 61 degrees.  Years ago, I had a woman yell at me, “You’re killing your dog!”  It was 58 degrees and I had been in the post office for less than 3 minutes.  Before you break a window or accuse someone of animal cruelty, take a few moments to assess the situation, and think of what could happen next if you do break a window.  A stressed dog in a hot car is probably not going to think you are trying to rescue him.  Most dogs would perceive this as an attack, a threat.  I know of several instances where animal control officers broke a window to save a dog from the heat, and the dog bolted in panic, was hit by a car and killed.  If you break my window, my dogs are not going to go with you happily.  If you get them out of the car, there is a good chance they will run into the street and get hit by a car.  If you go to “rescue” my dog when I’ve run into the post office for a minute, and you get him killed in traffic, how do you suppose I might react?  I would react as though you had murdered my child.

If you see a dog in a car that you think is too hot, take these steps before you break the window.

1. Back away from the car.  If you are close to the car, you could be agitating the dog and making him pant and appear hot.  Maybe if you weren’t in his space, he would be perfectly fine.

2. Take pictures and video with your phone.  You need to have proof of what occurred before you break into someone’s car. Be sure to get a picture of the license plate.

3. Take a screenshot of the weather app on your phone showing the current temperature for your location.

4. Call the police.  Chances are that they will be tied up with other priorities, but call them anyway.  They might come, or they might send animal control.

5. Contact management in a nearby store or restaurant and have them use the PA system to call the owner of the car and have them come out. You can just google the store nearest you, and call them, and ask them to page the owner of the car with that license plate.

6. Get ready to control and contain the dog.  Have a leash or two handy.  Have your car set up so that you can get the dog in right away.

If you do break the window:  try to break a small one, away from the dog.  Realize that the dog may try to bite you, and be prepared for that.  If you break a window, the dog bites you, you let go of him, and he bolts into the street, then you are not a hero, you are a villain.

If you get a dog out of a car that is in obvious distress from the heat, don’t give too much water too quickly.  Don’t put ice or ice water on the dog.  Give the dog a small amount of water, get him into the air conditioning of your car, and get him to the vet right away.

If you are not prepared to take all of these steps to help a dog in a hot car, then you may just make matters worse.  If you would steal someone’s dog because you think they don’t deserve a dog if they left him in a hot car, then you are just a thief, not a hero.  Acting in the best interests of a dog means learning all the facts and being responsible.

When the weather heats up, I will actively scan the vehicles wherever I go while getting groceries or running errands.  I will look for any dogs left in cars.  If I see one, and I think it could be in danger of overheating, I will park nearby and watch for a while.  I will sit in the air conditioning of my car and catch up on a few work items on my phone while I wait to see if the owner returns soon.   I will try to get a video without the dog being aware of my presence, because I could agitate the dog if I get too close to the vehicle.  Every time I have done this, which is dozens of times so far, the owner of the dog came back to the car before very long, and the dog seemed fine.  I would absolutely break a window to save a dog’s life, but I will not be sucked into the drama of those people, usually commenting on Facebook, who think you have to break a window anytime you see a dog left in a car and you think it maybe could be too warm.

My dogs are working dogs.  They are search dogs, and they must travel with me.  We will do searches that require both dogs, on occasion.  When I work one dog, the other dog will wait in the car as long as three hours sometimes.  We only ever search when the temperature is under 61 degrees, so the waiting dog is not ever sitting in a hot car.  Still, I have had people come up to my car and freak out because a dog is in a car unattended.  I try to park where not too many people will be walking past my parked car.  If I think the situation has the potential to attract one of those people who is searching for a dog in supposedly hot car so they can freak out about it, I will put my business card on the dash board so they can call me before breaking a window.  For my work trapping lost dogs and cats, I have wildlife cameras that will send pictures directly to my phone if they sense motion.  I will often set up this camera so it can see the interior and see Tino or Mu, and also so it can see anyone approaching the car and looking in the window.  While I’m getting a few things at the store, or if I’m in a line at the post office, I can watch my dogs in the car and make sure they are not in distress or being harassed.  If you occasionally need to travel with your dog and leave him in a car for a short period, you might want to look into one of the various ways you could have a camera watch your dog in the car.

Of course, I highly recommend not leaving your dog in your car, if you can avoid it, for several reasons.  There is the possibility that your dog could get too hot.  There is the far more likely danger of someone mistakenly thinking your dog is too hot, and breaking the window and losing your dog.  On rare occasions, people steal cars with the dog inside.  My 85 pound dog, Mu, is going to get quite upset if you approach the car, and I can’t imagine anyone breaking into the car with him in it. You would have to be mentally ill to try to open my car with Mu in it.  My 110 pound dog, Tino, is just freaking huge.  If you broke into the car, he would probably expect a cookie.  If you approached the car thinking about breaking in, he would probably just look at you quietly.  Personally, if I were the sort of person who was planning to break into cars, I would not break into a car with a 110 pound German Shepherd in it.  I would probably break into the car with the 13 pound poodle.  The final reason you should not leave your dog in the car, if you can avoid it, is that on rare occasions people will break into a car with the specific intent of stealing the dog.  Sometimes people are crazy.  Please plan your trips so that you can leave your dog at home if you will be in a store long.

A final note to those people who do like to freak out about dogs in cars, although I suspect my words will be falling on deaf ears.  If you want to save the lives of dogs, saving them from hot cars is way down on the list of reason why dogs die.  I have personally picked up the bodies of more deceased dogs and cats than anyone I know.  Also, as the admin for the Facebook group, Lost Dogs of King County, I am acutely aware of how dogs die.  On average, the King County group has at least one report per day of a dog that has died.  The most common ways dogs die accidentally (not because of old age or disease) are listed below from most common to least common.  This is not a scientific analysis, but it’s based on my experiences with how dogs die, which is quite a lot of experience, unfortunately.

1. Struck by car.

2. Euthanized at the shelter because the owner did not give the dog an ID tag or a microchip, and the dog was too reactive to be properly handled by shelter staff.  (This is not an indictment of our shelters. All the local shelters have a no-kill policy, as far as I know, meaning that they do not euthanize dogs simply because they run out of room.  However, if a dog is so reactive that they can’t touch the dog, they can’t take on the liability of offering a dog up for adoption knowing that the dog is likely to bite someone.  If a shelter must euthanize a poor dog that is too reactive, it’s not the shelter’s fault and it’s not the dog’s fault.  It is the fault of the person who lost his dog, with no chip or ID, while knowing full well that his reactive dog would not do well in a shelter or allow strangers to handle him.)

3. Taken by a predator.  (Happens more rarely than people think, and usually only with dogs under 15 pounds.)

4. Falling in a swift river.

5. Falling off  a cliff while hiking.

6. Succumbing to starvation after being lost for many months.

7. All of the other reasons dogs die accidentally.

8. Left in a hot car too long.

Numbers 1, 2, and 6, and sometimes 4 and 5, are caused by dogs becoming lost.  If you are the sort that loves to freak out about any dog that might possibly be in a hot car, you really ought to be freaking out ten times as much about the failure of so many people to follow common steps for loss prevention.  If you would be willing to run up to a stranger and accuse them of animal cruelty because you think they left their dog in a hot car, even though the dog is in fact fine and wasn’t left alone long, then you really ought to run up and confront anyone you see whose dog doesn’t have an ID tag.  Your hair ought to be on fire.  The lack of an ID tag kills 100 times as many dogs as are killed in hot cars.