Remember that fire-safety trick you learned in grade school, where you touch your hand to the door to check whether it’s safe to go through? If the door’s too hot, you don’t go on.
Try something similar each time you’re about to walk your dog: touch your hand to the ground and see whether it’s comfortable to rest your palm there, suggests Ingrid Newkirk, PETA president, writing on the PETA blog. In the hot sun, she writes, sidewalks can reach a paw-scorching 130 degrees F, or even higher temperatures — definitely hot enough to badly burn your dog’s feet. If possible, walk your dog on grass rather than roads and sidewalks, but if you can’t avoid paved surfaces be sure to test the ground temperature before you lead your pet to walk on them.