Our summer dog-walking schedule in Wesley Chapel, FL is built around the pavement. Walks are at 6:30 in the morning and after 7 at night, and the visit in the middle of the day is deliberately not a walk. Those hours are not about convenience. They are the hours when the pavement is cool enough to walk a dog on.
How hot the pavement gets
The July and August highs here run around 91 degrees. Asphalt sitting in full sun gets far hotter than the air above it, and that is what burns a dog's pads. Asphalt is the worst of it, sidewalks are not much better by midday, and grass is fine.
The test we use is the back of the hand. Put the back of your hand flat on the pavement. If you cannot hold it there for 7 seconds, it is too hot for paws. The back of the hand is thinner-skinned than the palm, which makes it closer to what a pad feels.
At 6:30 in the morning the pavement has had all night to cool and passes the test almost every day of the summer. By late morning it fails. At 7 in the evening it is cooling but still warm, so we test it again before we step off the grass, and on the hottest days the evening walk waits until closer to sunset.
Humidity matters too. A dog cools off by panting, and panting works by evaporation. In September, which tends to be the most humid month here, that evaporation barely happens, which is why a dog that handles a July morning fine can struggle on a humid afternoon. Flat-faced breeds have the hardest time of all, and for them we keep even the morning walk short.
The 3-to-6 storm
From June through September the weather here runs on a schedule. Clear morning, clouds building after lunch, storms between about 3 and 6 in the afternoon, and then it clears for the evening. Those storms come with lightning, and we do not walk a dog in a thunderstorm. If we hear thunder, the walk is over and we are inside until it passes.
That is the second reason for those hours. The morning walk happens before the heat, and the evening walk happens after the storm has moved through and the pavement has started to cool. When a storm runs late, the evening walk moves with it, and you get a message telling you what time we were there.
If your dog is one of the ones that shakes and paces when the thunder starts, tell us at the meet and greet. A midday visit timed for the storm window is a good use of a 60-minute booking for that dog: someone in the house, the TV on, a quiet room, and no walk at all.
Retention ponds and the leash
Almost every neighborhood in Wesley Chapel has a retention pond, and most walks go past one. At 6:30 in the morning there is mist on the water, wading birds at the edge and turtles on the bank. They are also Florida freshwater. Alligators can be present in any Florida freshwater body, and the state wildlife agency's own advice for pet owners is to keep dogs on a leash and away from the water's edge. That is our rule too. Dogs stay on the leash on every walk, they do not go down the bank, and they do not drink from the pond.
We are not trying to scare anyone. Most mornings there is nothing in that pond but birds. The rule is there for the morning when there is something else.
What the midday visit is
The midday visit is not a walk, and we say so up front. It is a potty break on the grass in whatever shade the yard has, a fresh bowl of water, and a few minutes inside in the air conditioning. For a young dog that is a game of tug in the living room. For an old dog it is a belly rub on the tile.
The midday visit is also a check that the A/C is running. An A/C that quits in August in a closed house with a dog inside is an emergency, and the fastest way to catch it is a person opening the door at noon. That is the same reason we photograph the thermostat on a home watch visit, and it is the reason we would rather do a short midday stop than skip the middle of the day entirely.
Hydration and what we watch for
- Water bowls get filled before we leave, and on anything longer than a quick loop we carry water and offer it in the shade
- Pond water is not drinking water, however clean it looks
- Heavy panting that does not settle, thick drool, or a dog that slows down and wants to lie in the shade means the walk is over. Shade, water, and a message to you, and if it does not settle quickly, a call to you and to the vet
- After a walk we look at the pads. Limping or licking at the feet on a summer evening usually means the pavement was hotter than it felt to us
- Older dogs, heavy dogs and flat-faced dogs get shorter loops and more shade breaks
What it costs
- $25 for a 30-minute visit. The morning walk, the evening walk, or the midday shade-and-water stop
- $32 for a 60-minute visit. A longer morning walk for a dog that needs it, or a sit through the storm window
- $8 per additional pet on any visit
- $95 for an overnight. Your caregiver stays in the house, does the evening walk and the morning walk, and a dog that is anxious in storms has someone there through the night
You get a photo and a note after each visit, and the same caregiver shows up every time, so your dog sees a face it knows.
We are just down Bruce B. Downs in New Tampa, and we cover Wesley Chapel and New Tampa. Before the first visit we come by for a free meet and greet, meet the dog, walk the route with you, and find out which pond is on it.