Dogs do sweat, but only through their paw pads, and it plays a very small role in keeping them cool. Unlike humans, who rely on millions of sweat glands spread across the body, dogs depend almost entirely on panting to regulate their body temperature. If you’ve ever noticed damp paw prints on the floor on a hot day, you’ve seen the extent of your dog’s sweating ability.
Where Dogs Actually Sweat
Dogs have two types of sweat glands, and only one of them has anything to do with cooling. Merocrine glands, located on the paw pads and nose, work similarly to human sweat glands. They produce moisture that evaporates and pulls heat away from the skin. But since these glands cover such a tiny surface area, the cooling effect is minimal compared to a human sweating across their entire body.
The second type, apocrine glands, exists all over a dog’s body near every hair follicle. Despite technically being classified as sweat glands, they don’t cool your dog at all. Their job is to release pheromones, the chemical signals dogs use to identify and communicate with each other. That distinctive “dog smell” partly comes from these glands doing their work.
Most of a dog’s body is covered in fur, which would prevent sweat from evaporating even if glands were producing it. Evaporation is what makes sweating cool you down, so fur-covered sweat glands would be useless for temperature control. The paw pads, with their minimal fur coverage, are the one spot where sweat can actually do its job.
Panting Is the Real Cooling System
Panting is the primary way dogs shed excess heat. When a dog pants, air moves rapidly across the moist surfaces of the tongue, mouth, and nasal passages. The moisture evaporates, drawing heat out of the blood vessels close to those surfaces, and the cooled blood circulates back through the body. It’s the same basic principle as sweating, just relocated to the respiratory system.
Dogs modulate their panting in stages as they get hotter. At mild levels of heat, they inhale and exhale through the nose only. As the cooling demand increases, they shift to inhaling through the nose but exhaling through both the nose and mouth. At the highest levels of heat stress or heavy exercise, they breathe in and out through both the nose and mouth simultaneously. This graduated response lets them fine-tune how much heat they’re dumping at any given moment.
Beyond panting, dogs also release heat through blood vessel dilation in areas with less fur coverage, particularly the ears and face. Blood vessels near the surface of the ear flaps expand, allowing warm blood to release heat directly to the surrounding air. This is why a dog’s ears may feel noticeably warm after exercise or on a hot day.
Why Some Dogs Overheat More Easily
Flat-faced breeds like bulldogs, pugs, and Boston terriers have a harder time cooling themselves. Their shortened airways make panting less efficient, and research shows brachycephalic dogs need a significantly higher respiratory rate to achieve the same cooling effect as longer-snouted breeds. Their anatomy physically limits the amount of air they can move across those moist surfaces per breath.
Interestingly, body condition may matter even more than breed. Studies have found that a dog’s weight is a greater predictor of how well it handles heat than whether it has a flat face. Overweight dogs of any breed carry extra insulation and generate more metabolic heat, which compounds the problem. A lean bulldog handles heat better than an overweight Labrador, even though the Labrador has a more efficient airway.
Double-coated breeds, very large dogs, and dogs with dark fur also face elevated heat risk. Any factor that increases heat production or limits heat dissipation shifts the balance in the wrong direction.
Recognizing When Cooling Fails
A dog’s normal body temperature runs between 100°F and 102.5°F. Once it climbs above 104°F, the situation becomes dangerous. At that point, the dog’s built-in cooling systems are overwhelmed, and heatstroke can develop quickly.
Early signs that your dog is struggling include heavy, exaggerated panting and excessive drooling. As things progress, you may see vomiting, diarrhea (sometimes bloody), weakness, confusion, or stumbling. Seizures and collapse indicate a severe emergency. Cornell University’s veterinary program classifies heatstroke as a life-threatening condition that requires immediate intervention.
The most common triggers are predictable: being left in a parked car, exercising in high heat or humidity, or lacking access to shade and water. Humidity is particularly dangerous because it slows evaporation from the tongue and airways, making panting less effective. On a humid 85°F day, a dog’s cooling system works far harder than on a dry 95°F day.
Helping Your Dog Stay Cool
Since panting does the heavy lifting, anything that supports efficient respiration helps. Fresh, cool water keeps the mouth and airways moist, which is essential for evaporative cooling to work. Shade reduces the heat load your dog has to deal with in the first place. On hot days, walking during early morning or evening hours makes a significant difference, both for air temperature and for pavement temperature, which can burn paw pads and eliminate even that small sweating contribution.
Cooling mats, wet towels placed on the belly and paw pads, and access to shallow water all help by providing direct conductive cooling. Wetting the ears can be particularly effective given the dense network of blood vessels close to the surface there. Avoid ice-cold water, though, as extreme cold can cause blood vessels to constrict, which actually traps heat inside the body rather than releasing it.
For flat-faced breeds or overweight dogs, the margin of safety is narrower. Limiting outdoor time when temperatures and humidity are high, keeping them at a healthy weight, and watching for early signs of distress are the most effective strategies for preventing a cooling crisis before it starts.