Heat & Agility

In my area 95% of the trials are indoors all year around. This makes for a comfortable trialing environment overall. The primary facility, which is 1 hour east of Pittsburgh, has a fantastic HVAC system. I've been in the building in December and February and it's been very comfortable.

take4roll10 said:
Bailey hates baby pools. What kind of fan can I buy?
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k9kreationz said:
Figured I'd post this. This is the old Ryobi fan I think they've discontinued. Can't find it on the Home Depot website. Instead, they have some funky green one, but this one looks like it folds flatter.
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NO! They redesigned the Ryobi fan??? :cry: That fan is FANTASTIC! It is incredibly popular with the agility folks around my area. I use one and LOVE it.

I looked at the redesigned green one on line. Honestly, it's most likely the same fan just in a new frame in the green color they've been using since the lithium batteries came out. I'll bet the fan is still well worth the cost.

The older blue fan, on a standard battery (not the lithium one) runs all day on low. Since we trial in an air conditioned facility, the fan just helps after the runs. (And the dogs LOVE laying in the moving air from a fan.)
 
I use frozen 2 litter bottles in all four corners of the crate, and aim the fan to blow across them.

But, I won't ask my dogs to run in the heat. I think this summer we will crawl under rocks and be slugs till the first frost...
 
Silaria said:
I looked at the redesigned green one on line. Honestly, it's most likely the same fan just in a new frame in the green color they've been using since the lithium batteries came out. I'll bet the fan is still well worth the cost.

The older blue fan, on a standard battery (not the lithium one) runs all day on low. Since we trial in an air conditioned facility, the fan just helps after the runs. (And the dogs LOVE laying in the moving air from a fan.)
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I'm confused about this fan...so you still have buy the rechargeable battery and power cord?
 
It's a cordless fan but unfortunately it doesn't come with the battery and charger. It runs on one of two batteries: a 18v standard battery or a 18v lithium battery (which costs a LOT more). You need a charger in order to charge the battery.

Now, Home Depot does have an 18v lithium battery and charger package for less money.

What I actually did was purchase the fan and a Ryobi kit similar to this one (mine had a drill and flashlight and they don't make that kit any more) than included 2 standard batteries and a charger. The only difference between the standard and lithium battery is duration and, quite honestly, my fan runs for a good 8 hours on low with the standard battery.

I will agree it's not a cheap investment but I've used other battery powered and rechargeable fans. This one has outlived EVERY ONE of the cheaper ones and I have not had ONE BIT of trouble with it. Buying the cheaper fans just ended up costing me more money because I kept having to replace them. I've had this one for 3 years and haven't had to even replace one of the batteries yet.
 
I know this is a bit OT, but wanted to mention about that green Ryobi fan. The reason I don't like it is that its not going to be "flat". It's like one of those vornado fans that you can turn towards the sky. And it's fat.

Here's a link to multiple views of the newer fan.
It also has a view of the old fan, not sure why.

Unfortunately the new Ryobi fan is just not good for traveling.
Y'know, I just bought a second fan cuz it's on sale. However, now I'm sitting here thinking....why'd I do that? I don't have a second battery! LOL.
 
It's not off topic at all Cheryl. I'd like to actually see one first hand but it looks like you can adjust how flat the fan box is via the nobs on the side. I have a large floor fan with a similar design and you can get it perpendicular to the floor. It's not as sleek and slim as the older model but it looks like you can set it so the fan is flat to an x-pen or crate.

(Again, I haven't actually seen the fan in person. I'm jut going off the picture and a similar large floor fan I own.)
 
We have only very few trials indoors during the summer, so there's no other choice. On the other side, there's not too many trials during july, august and summer might be really hot, but it's usually not that bad..... I agree about giving dog fresh water, keeping him and yourself in shade and maybe use water to wet his paws.... Though, at trial it usually takes like 3-4 mins of running during the day. At least over here, you usually run 3 courses per day. I think it's much more important to be careful about training when it's really hot, because you run for much longer periods.
 
we played outside (weaves and jump) from 6-6:30 this evening- I think it was still 95ish.
regular agility practice is tomorrow evening- will concentrate on contacts then.

upcoming trial July 7-8 in State College- will be interesting since Standard is indoors and Jumpers is outside. whatever the temp is there, the pups will be able to handle it.....:winkgrin:
 
So far we have only trialed in really really nasty conditions twice
once last summer in Muskoka it was a brutle day over 104 by 10 AM Cosmo shut down and refused to run so I dropped from the comp for the rest of the day and we were both good with that.. and another day here last summer, making the decision with Cosmo is easy he say's nope not going to do this and we go home, Stormy will run till she you won't let her so with her heat or not so its a judgment call on your part and we keep a very close eye on her.

At trials we have our easy up shade tent with 4 side walls if needed either screens or solid walls I have both, so they are shaded most often, and we do use X-pens or open wire crates other then making sure they have lots of cool ice water hydration availible, we have used solar reflector blankets and such they help a bit but that about it, Storm isin't as effected by the heat as Cosmo with his thick thick coat he really suffers a lot and needs really close attention, His favorite spot when its hot and humid is across the air conditioning vent in the dining room at home, in the car they fight for the spot between the seats where the vent blows out, storm usually wins this round.

They did the Canada Cup this weeked here it was 93 degrees with a humidex
of 109, and the rings were in full sun aparently it was pretty brutle but there is a spring fed lake on the property and that was availible to cool off the dogs and the site has lots of shade trees, so aside from the actual runs there is some escape, but from what I here it was a cooker when your run came up. We did our practice with storm & Cosmo Sat morning early and it was still 86 at 8 am very humid and the ring was full sun they didn"t seen to mind we kept them shaded when not in the ring, and we did class last night with storm and it was 92 at 7:30 pm luckily the field was shaded. we made sure that runs/ exercises were short and had lots of break time in between exercises and that we both dog & human had lots of fluids during the class storm didn't seem to mind a bit, But I was sure happy to get back in the air conditioned car for the ride home :smile2:.
 
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