As the weather, thankfully, starts to warm up, thoughts turn to sunny days in the countryside and summer nights in the garden. We’re all hoping for a lovely and warm (dare we even say hot) summer, and whilst it’s great for most of us humans, it can be a difficult time for our pets. Even those furry friends we share our lives and our homes with, love the summer, but it’s not without problems.

In the warmer months, summer or otherwise, it’s vital to keep our pets safe. They don’t have the luxury of being able to verbalise how they’re feeling in the heat, so we need to do all we can to look after them when the sun starts to shine. Here we are going to look at a few simple things anyone can do to keep all our furry friends safe in the heat.

The first thing you can do is to make sure they have easy access to readily available water. It’s crucial for us to keep hydrated and it’s equally important for animals to be able to get a drink of cold refreshing H2O when needed. If you’re out and about with your pets, don’t forget to take a pet’s water bottle with you so you can dispense water even on the go.

Whether you’re enjoying some time outside in the sunshine or just having a lazy day in the garden, when the sun’s shining, make sure there are plenty of shaded areas for your animals to rest in. Shaded cover will give them respite from the direct heat. It also means the ground will be cooler, so they don’t hurt their paws on hot concrete, asphalt or paving slabs.

Who doesn’t love jumping into a refreshing pool in the hot weather on holiday? Exactly, pretty much all of us. Whilst most of us don’t have the luxury of a swimming pool at home, you can offer your pets a similar experience to help keep them cool.

Having some small body of water, like a kid’s paddling pool, filled with cold water will be a massive help for pets to manage the heat themselves. This way they can submerge their body easily, chill out and it will bring their body temperature down if needed.

Whilst all of these are great things you can do to help, it’s important to also be able to recognise some of the early warning signs, should something start to go wrong. Even though they obviously can’t tell you, there are some things you can look for in your pets on warmer days to see if there’s a problem developing. These include:

•   Excessive panting

•   Bright red gums.

•   Drooling.

•   Lack of coordination and / or lack of balance.

You also need to be especially careful if your pets are very young (or very old) or have dark fur, as this means they will absorb more heat.

The summer can be an amazing time for all the family, pets included, but it’s so easy to turn a great day out into a bad one. Follow these simple steps and you will all make the most of the warmer days we are all hoping to enjoy.