Why some of India’s most ‘trendy’ dog breeds struggle to cope with the summer heat​

None of this means these breeds shouldn’t exist in India, or that people who already own one have made some unforgivable mistake. It means the mismatch between breed and climate needs to be taken seriously, not treated as an inconvenience to be solved with a stronger AC unit. PETA India’s Radhika Suryavanshi has made the point plainly, that thick-coated pedigree breeds aren’t suited to tropical conditions and often end up battling heatstroke, dehydration and tick infestations, sometimes worsened by being kept shut indoors with little real exercise. The government’s own heat wave advisory, issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), tells people directly to keep animals in the shade with plenty of water during hot spells and to avoid the 12-to-3pm window altogether.

So if you already share your home with one of these breeds, the fix isn’t dramatic, dawn and dusk walks instead of midday ones, water that’s topped up constantly rather than occasionally, shade over sudden AC-to-heat temperature swings. But the real fix has to happen earlier, before the dog comes home at all. That’s a conversation worth having with a vet honestly, not after the first heatstroke scare, but before the breeder’s WhatsApp photo turns into a real, living animal trying to survive a Delhi May.