On the Subject of: “The Dog Days of Summer”

Whew!

The Dog days of Summer

Why, I ask you do they blame these hot days on dogs?  I say it’s unfair, discriminatory, anecdotal and prejudicial and when we have a Dog as president, (oh wait! Dolly should be good now, and bite my tongue), we will do away with “The Dog days of Summer”. 

The constellation Canis Major

So by now you know how much I like history, and in actuality, this is something else we can blame on the Romans.  The Ancient Romans called this period of the year “Dies Caniculares”.  This is from the Ancient human language called Latin and means, you guessed it “Dog Days”, but why?  Glad you asked me because I am going to tell you.  Back in Ancient times, there were no big city lights to obscure the night sky, so lacking anything better to do at night, they began studying the night sky, looking at the stars and connecting the dots, while creating myths about what they perceived they saw, today we call these constellations. 

Ancient Egyptians and the rise of Sirius

The Romans associated the hot weather with the star Sirius.  They painted the dots to resemble a Dog and considered Sirius to be the “Dog Star”, because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Big Dog).  In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Regardless of its brightness, however, the heat of summer is a direct result of the earth's tilt. Look for it in the southern sky (if you live in northern latitudes) during January.  In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun.  The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks, but for this story we will blame it on the Romans because it’s their language that we title the time period as “Dog Days”. 
I am a smart little Bitch and for the record, what the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main star, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion, termed Sirius B. Sirius appears bright because of both its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs( for you humans that don’t watch Star Trek, that’s about 19 Trillion miles and the Sirius system is one of Earth's near neighbors.) Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun. 

Roman Mosaic depicting Dog Sacrifice

Originally the dog days were the time when Sirius rose just before sunrise (this is no longer true because of the procession of the earth’s rotation on its axis.)  Today the Old farmer’s almanac defines it as the period of July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year when rainfall is at its lowest levels.  The Romans believed the days to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, Quinto raged in anger, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies", according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813.  The Ancient Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, Humid weather (What barbarians they were, and I always thought they were civilized).  When we get our first Dog for president, I think we should sacrifice humans, for a while as an act of contrition.

  

If you ask around, many humans believe the phrase is in reference to the conspicuous laziness of domesticated dogs (we’re not lazy, just in danger of overheating with too much exercise) during the hottest days of the summer. When speaking of "Dog Days" there seems to be a connotation of lying or "dogging" around, or being "dog tired" on these hot and humid days. A similar myth asserts that the time is so-named because rabid dogs are supposed to be the most common then. Although these meanings have nothing to do with the original source of the phrase, (as I have already told you where the term came from), however, they may have been attached to the phrase in recent years due to common usage or a misunderstanding of the origin of the phrase.

Nurse Dolly

When humans overheat they are able to sweat in order to cool down. However, your dog cannot sweat as easily; he or she must rely on panting to cool down. Dogs breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, directing the air over the mucous membranes of the tongue, throat and trachea to facilitate cooling by evaporation of fluid. Your dog also dissipates heat by dilation of the blood vessels in the surface of the skin in the face, ears and feet. When these mechanisms are overwhelmed, hyperthermia and heat stroke usually develop. I like to keep cool, by staying in the air-conditioning in the summer or rolling on the wet grass.

A good cool roll in the wet grass on a hot day

According to petplace.com  “Working up a good sweat in the hot summer months may be good for you, but it can lead to heat stroke in your dog and kill him in a matter of minutes. Heat stroke is a dangerous condition that takes the lives of many animals every year. Your dog's normal body temperature is 100.5 to 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit. If it rises to 105 or 106 degrees, the dog is at risk for developing heat exhaustion. If the body temperature rises to 107 degrees, your dog has entered the dangerous zone of heat stroke. With heat stroke, irreversible damage and death can occur.”

“If your dog is overheating, he will appear sluggish and unresponsive. He may appear disorientated. The gums, tongue and conjunctiva of the eyes may be bright red and he will probably be panting hard. He may even start vomiting. Eventually he will collapse, seizure and may go into a coma.”

“If your dog exhibits any of these signs, treat it as an emergency and call your veterinarian immediately. On the way to your veterinary hospital, you can cool your pet with wet towels, spray with cool water from a hose or by providing ice chips for your dog to chew (providing he is conscious).”

Keep Cool like me, have a Limesicle and stay in the shade

Well I hope I have cleared up the subject of “The Dog days of Summer”. Keep cool like me and safely enjoy your and your dog’s summer. That’s the truth, cross my paws.