Police & Show Dogs Die of Heat Exhaustion While in Cars

It's summer and it's hot outside, and the usual accidents happen and mistakes are made in this heat. Specifically, people leave their dog(s) in the automobile thinking that they are safe from immediate ravages of heat, but something goes wrong and the dog dies.

One particular case is the death of a K9 police officer in Georgia, "Rudy." Rudy's partner left him in his police vehicle, with engine hood propped up and air conditioning running, while he went into a meeting for about an hour-and-a-half. However, the engine stopped during that time, and Rudy overheated and died. For more info, read the news article Carrollton K9 Dies From Heat Exhaustion.

Locally, two German Shepherds (both show dogs) were found dead in their crates inside a pickup truck in Eastpointe. The dogs were said to be left inside the truck with the windows open while the owner went into an animal hospital with a third dog. Upon returning to the car a half-hour later, the dogs' owner found the truck window closed and both dogs dead. Police are investigating who might have closed the truck windows. The owner thought the weather that day was mild and fine to leave the two dogs crated in the truck; temperatures that day were in the 70s. For the story and video, click to read 2 Dogs Die in Pickup Truck.

These are two sad cases that highlight no matter how good our intentions are (leaving on the a/c or windows open in "mild" weather), sometimes we don't stop to think about all of the repercussions of our actions.

Best ideas: leave the dogs home, or bring them into the building with you.

One of the interesting things in the K9 news article, is mention of a "canine heat alarm" for police patrol cars. So I did a quick Google search and found a site, one of many that offers a K9 Heat Alarm with features that include dual remote temperature sensors, a special horn-honking feature, and accessories (such as siren notification). Check out AceK9.com for these and related police dog products and services.