The Dog Days of Summer
The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year with the least rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere (living in Florida, I get experience rain daily during this time.)
The Term dog days is from ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn were dependent upon the culture: The Chinese saw different images than the Native Americans, who saw different pictures than the Europeans. These star pictures are now called constellations, and the constellations that are now mapped out in the sky come from our European ancestors. The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In the summer, Sirius, rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time “dog days” after the dog star.
Check out some of our previous blogs for Summer tips and your pet
Can you give your Dog Ice Water?
Do You Know Symptoms of Dog Heatstroke?
