Roxie Finds The Sun

As I type Roxie is on her back on the rug in our foyer. Her snout and chest are in the shade. The area from her belly to her rear legs are in full sun.

roxie on her back foyer sun wide angle.jpgWe first noticed it with Ivy. She loved laying in the stripes of sunshine that play out on our floor. Roxie is the same.

My initial inclination is to assume this is a ‘dogwide’ phenomena even though two examples is a little light for a scientific study. I’m sure you’ll let me know.

As I type Roxie is on her back on the rug in our foyer. Her snout and chest are in the shade. The area from her belly to her rear legs are in full sun.

roxie on her side foyer sun wide angle.jpgRoxie’s coat is dark. She’s absorbing lots of heat from the strong August sun. In the abstract that would seem uncomfortable, but it’s her optimum choice.

She’s relatively motionless right now. In and of itself that’s unusual. As a teething puppy Roxie is usually in motion playing with her toys or biting at something or someone. It’s nice to see her adopt this more adult behavior.

3 thoughts on “Roxie Finds The Sun”

  1. This sunning behaviour is not exactly ‘dogwide’ but tends to be seen in short-coated breeds. My fluffy Lhasa Apso and Tibetan Terrier don’t sun much. The min-pin, however, being a short-coated, older dog, toasts herself in the sun a LOT. She will go outside in the summer or into a sunny spot if it’s cold outside, and ‘toast’ herself until she smells like overheated dog hair, but rarely gets to the point she is panting.

    I think it’s an energy-conserving and comfort thing. They burn less energy if the sun is heating them externally. The fluffies tend to lay upside down on our cool tile floors to release heat in the summer when their coat is not clipped. When we have them groomed for summer, their fur is as short as the min-pin, and they will occasionly lay about in the sun. Keep in mind that a dog’s normal body temperature is a few degrees higher than humans, so this may be a method to easily maintain temperature.

  2. My dog is also a short haired breed, unless the temps go past the 80 degree mark, he always lounges in the afternoon sun…btw, they also LOVE convertibles w/ the top down.

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