Watch one of the world's fastest dogs run, and it's not a Greyhound

At that speed you are only talking about 3 minutes of running. I suspect body temperature go up a bit, but it’s too short time to dehydrate. These are sprinters so she probably need a good rest afterwards.

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I have not been watching science shows lately so I knew nothing of biologist Patrick Aryee. From the clip it seems he’s got good vibes for days.

As far as I know it’s thin coats little, body fat, and that whole long and lean thing has a high surface area to volume ratio. All of which gets heat off.

The dog situation seems to be less hydration than shedding heat, since they don’t sweat. Panting is how they do that and it’s not exactly efficient. But if you’re not hot in the first place, there’s less panting.

Compare it to my brother’s Swiss Mountain Dog, a dog from a cold region. Same height and length as a Saluki. But double the weight. He’s got an insanely thick undercoat. And a thick, loose skin with a big ole layer of fat (despite being in healthy shape according to the vet). That dog is straight thick all over.

And he can’t deal with temps over 70f or so.

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We have one of the small Swiss mountain dogs–half the size of a Saluki, but in the same weight range. Your entire description applies to the smaller ones too.

Shortly after we got her, we made an unplanned move to a place with very hot summers. Even in the cool spring weather it’s quite noticeable that she won’t run as long as in the winter.

In summer, she wilts a bit at about 25°C, and if we’re out for long, I carry drinking water with extra to wet her down for some extra evaporative cooling :roll_eyes:

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When Pliny wrote about a leucrocotta it likely was as econd-hand description of a hyena.

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A friend lived in Alaska for a while with a Husky / Chow mix. Insanely thick coat. She used to grumble every time it got hotter than about 0 F.

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A friend bred Afghans, and confirmed that they tend to be “smart like a sack full of hammers”. He reckoned they were bred for hunting lions, and maybe the smarter ones never got invited back into the breeding pool. “Yeah, lion you say? I’ll hang back here and if it looks like a really good idea, I’ll go help. [pauses, watches] Yeah, that’s what I thought would happen.”

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