When the haze rolls in, treat your dog the way you would treat a small child with no mask: check the NEA's haze readings before every walk, keep outdoor time short and slow when the air is poor, and make the flat the place where real rest happens. Dogs breathe faster than we do and live closer to the ground, and they cannot tell you their eyes sting. The good news is that a haze week is very manageable with a few routine changes, and a dog that is kept busy and comfortable indoors will not miss the park connector as much as you think.
Check the reading before every walk
Haze changes hour by hour, so yesterday's sky is not today's information. Make checking the NEA's haze readings part of the leash-on routine, the same way you check for rain. As a general rule, if the reading is in a range where you would think twice about jogging yourself, your dog should not be doing a long walk either. Shorten it, slow it down, or swap it for a toilet break and an indoor game.
Your own senses are a useful backup. If you can smell smoke in the corridor or the block across the road looks soft at the edges, keep the walk to the essentials. We are not giving you a number to walk or not walk by. Your vet knows your dog, and the readings are there for you to use together with common sense.
Which dogs feel it most
All dogs are affected by poor air, but some have less margin:
- Flat-faced breeds. Frenchies, pugs, shih tzus and boston terriers already work harder to breathe. Haze plus heat is a double load.
- Seniors and puppies. Older lungs and hearts, and very young ones, cope less well with irritants.
- Dogs with heart, airway or lung conditions, including those with a history of coughing or collapsing trachea.
- Small dogs. Their noses are close to the road, so on busy streets they breathe in more traffic fumes on top of the haze.
Watch for coughing, sneezing, watery or red eyes, a runny nose, unusual tiredness, or breathing that stays fast after resting in the aircon. If you see those signs, or anything that worries you, call your vet rather than waiting for the air to clear.
Toilet breaks, not walks
On a bad-air day, the aim is to get the business done quickly. Go down to the void deck or the nearest grass patch, give your dog five minutes, and come back up. Walk, don't trot. A dog that is panting hard is pulling more air, and more particles, into its lungs. Bad readings can come at any hour, day or night, so check the reading just before you head out, and skip the roadside stretch of your usual route where traffic adds to the mix.
Back inside, wipe your dog down. Haze settles on the coat, and a dog that grooms itself afterwards is licking it off. A damp microfibre cloth over the body, a wipe of the face and around the eyes, and a rinse of the paws takes two minutes. If your dog has had a long outdoor day, a quick bath is reasonable. For dogs with irritated eyes, a saline eye rinse made for pets helps, and your vet can recommend one.
Making the flat the clean-air room
Most HDB flats breathe through open windows, which is exactly what you don't want during the haze.
- Close windows and doors in the room your dog spends most time in, and keep that one room sealed rather than trying to protect the whole flat.
- Run the aircon or an air purifier in that room. If you have a purifier with a particle filter, this is its moment. Put it near where your dog sleeps.
- Wet-mop, don't sweep. Sweeping lifts settled dust back into the air at dog height. A damp mop or cloth picks it up.
- Skip indoor smoke. No incense, mosquito coils or candles while the air outside is already poor.
- Water bowls topped up and refreshed more often. Dry, irritated throats drink more.
- Wash the soft things. Bedding, blankets and the sofa throw collect what comes in on your clothes and your dog's coat. A mid-week wash of your dog's bed cover makes a difference you can feel on the fabric.
Keeping a dog tired without walks
A dog that misses its walks for three days will tell you about it. Sniffing and brain games tire many dogs out more than you'd expect, and all of it can happen in a sealed room.
- Sniff games. Scatter part of dinner across a towel or a snuffle mat, or hide pieces around the room. Ten minutes of sniffing is a good workout for the brain.
- Lick mats and frozen toys. Smear a little wet food or a crumbled topper on a lick mat and freeze it. Licking is calming and slow.
- Short training sessions. Three or four five-minute sessions a day, teaching something new. Spin, bow, "find the remote".
- Indoor fetch along the corridor for dogs who need to move, with a rug at the end so nobody skids.
- A tug session, with rules, then a proper rest.
Then let them sleep. Your dog may rest more during a haze week. That is fine, as long as the resting spot is a good one.
The resting spot matters more this week
With the windows shut and the fan running, your dog will spend far more hours on one bed than usual. Make it a bed that is not under a window frame or next to the door gap where outside air seeps in, not against a wall that heats up in the afternoon, and in the room with the purifier or aircon. A hard floor is tempting for a hot dog, but hours on tiles press hips and shoulders into the floor and leave the coat sitting in whatever dust has settled.
A cover you can take off and wash is the feature that earns its place during the haze. Fabric holds particles. If you can unzip the cover, wash it cold, and have a spare to zip on while it dries, your dog sleeps on clean fabric every night of a bad week without you having to wait for the whole bed to dry in humid weather.
Why Mitodo Kumo is built for weeks like this
The Mitodo Kumo Orthopaedic Dog & Cat Bed was designed in Singapore, for a flat with the windows shut. The top foam layer is cooling memory gel foam, so a dog sleeping longer hours in a closed room stays more comfortable, over a high-density support foam base that keeps hips, shoulders and elbows off the hard floor and holds its shape. Both foam layers are CertiPUR-US® certified, which means they are made without ozone depleters, PBDE, TDCPP or TCEP flame retardants, heavy metals like mercury and lead, formaldehyde or regulated phthalates, and are tested for low VOC emissions. In a room you have just sealed, what the bed itself gives off matters.
The OEKO-TEX® microsuede cover zips off with a hidden zipper and goes in the machine on a cold gentle cycle, and a water-resistant inner lining sits between cover and foam. A spare cover (from S$60 for the Small, 10% off at checkout on its own, or bundled in the Bed + Spare Cover Set from S$201) means one is on the bed while the other dries. Mitodo Kumo is S$159 for the Small, S$209 Medium and S$259 Large, in Cream or Charcoal Gray, with free delivery in Singapore and dispatch in 1 to 3 working days.
Today, check the NEA's haze readings before your evening walk, and decide the length of the walk from that number rather than from habit. If it is a short-walk day, scatter dinner across a towel instead, and let your dog sleep it off in the one room you have kept sealed.
Shopping for a bed? See our orthopaedic dog beds in every size and colour.