Saturday, October 2, 2010

Dog Dehydration

This morning, we woke up early to hit the trails in order to get Brian to work on time. We rode/ran hard with few stops, except to give Jake some water. When we returned home, of course Jake was hot and we were hurried to get out the door. Clearly, there was no time for Jake to get water, because he was way too concerned that we would leave him behind for the day. Being way too soft, I grabbed his food and water bowl, put his "town" Release N Run on and told him to load up; he was going to Seattle for the day. We dropped Brian off and immediately found a Starbucks with outside seating so I could work and he could eat and drink. Nope, he was too interested in all the people. I then took him to a park; again, no food, no water. I tried sitting in a parking lot for a bit and giving him water in the care. Nothing. So is he dehydrated? Here's the test.

Pinch some skin over the back of a dog's shoulders. When a dog is dehydrated, it won't "snap back" quickly because a dehydrated dog loses elasticity in its skin.

Surely before the day is over, he'll decide to drink. I'm not holding out on the food though. . .