Hi, does anyone know whether a moon roof provides any effective cooling to a parked car? I think it does, and at 80 degrees F or below, would allow me to leave my dogs in the car for 10 minutes or less without them overheating. But we don’t have a car with a moon roof right now. Those with small cars having moon roofs, & dogs, please reply. Thanks.
If you aren’t prepared to leave the air conditioning running while your dogs are in the car, do they really need to go on the trip?
Yes, cracking your windows and opening the sun roof might make it bearable in the car, but if you’re going somewhere where dogs aren’t allowed, I think they would be better off being left at home.
Here is an idea. If you’re determined to see if conditions in the car are bearable in that situation, try it for yourself, and see how comfortable you are sitting in a parked car with all the windows closed and the sunroof open for 20 or 30 minutes.
FIRST, Buy a simple thermometer and test for yourself the differences in temps…windows cracked, sunroof open…windows cracked no sunroof…etc.
Write down that info and research the acceptable temps and times for dogs.
You can buy a window mounted fan for such occasions if it’s going to be the norm. ( search ‘’ car window fan’’ )
If you aren't prepared to leave the air conditioning running while your dogs are in the car, do they really need to go on the trip?
If you DO leave the A/C on (and the car running), make sure you apply the e-brake as hard as you are physically capable of doing, AND curb your wheels, AND (possibly) use wheel chocks. Despite safety measures preventing this, animals can and do knock cars into gear from time to time. A rollaway/runaway vehicle is always a bad thing…
I assume by “moonroof” you mean a hatch in the top that opens. It will let the heat out–hot air rises. If you mean the tinted plexiglass that does not open–no, it won’t keep things cool for the dogs.
However, my rule of thumb is that if I would be uncomfortable, my dog would be uncomfortable. I never leave my dog in the car by himself.
Leave your dogs at home is the best advice I can come up with. Take them with you during cooler weather in the fall.
These days, you can take your dog just about everywhere, as long as it’s not a place where they serve food or perform surgery, and even then, there can be exceptions. You can sit on a restaurant patio and eat a meal with your dog at your side. You can take your dog into pet warehouse stores, hardware stores, and often into the workplace if there is no food service. You can often take your pet into the shoe store, the barber shop, and the post office. So why leave the dog in a hot car at all?
Whitey has an excellent suggestion. If YOU can’t sit comfortably in the car with it in the same configuration as you plan to leave the dog in it, then DON’T DO IT! As a matter of fact, if you can’t sit there without a coat on DON’T DO IT!!
Dogs cannot release heat the same way we do. They can’t sweat through their skin. They release heat through their footpads, their noses, and their mouths & tungs. Leaving a dog in a car too hot for you to sit in is inhumane and could be dangerous to the animal. Leave the dog home. Do not do anything to your pet that you would not want done to yourself.
I will occasionally leave my dog in the car for 10 min, but only if I can park in the shade and leave all the windows down 6-8 inches, yes a moon roof would let even more heat out.
yes, if you would be uncomfortable don t do it
if you have valuables, don t do it.
if the windows are only cracked it s not good enough, even with moon roof
Here’s the theory, hot air rises. So hot air should be able to escape through the moonroof. The flaw in that theory is that the air has to get hot first. The car may be a few degrees cooler, but not enough to protect your dogs so the answer is a big NO.
Don’t do it. You will meet a friend and talk for 20 minutes while the dog suffers in an unbearably hot car. If you insist on doing this, the dog will need plenty of water to cool down (slightly) while you are gone. I would never do this to my dog.
Even with the aforementioned window fan moving air through the vehicle…if it’s 85 outside, you are blowing 85 degree air, nothing cooler.
THEN you add the ever present ‘‘solar oven’’ effect that all cars have and the temp increases !
– even with the fan on and the windows down a crack.
I had an old Civic with non-functioning A/C, and the moonroof didn’t cool that thing worth a damn. I would open it fully to try to pull heat out of the car, and even with the car in motion, all it did was sunburn the top of my head. Don’t leave your dog in there!
When it gets to 80 or above around here people really start calling animal control when they see someone’s dog left in a car with rolled up windows or windows barely opened. It gets hotter than you think in there.
Not to mention that someone might not notice just the moon roof open, and take it upon themselves to smash a window of the car to help the dog
If you absolutely have to leave the dogs in the car, and it is only for ten minutes, not one second longer, there is a solution. You will need to find a safety shop, probably only on the internet, where they sell cool vests.
I don’t know if there are cool vests made for dogs, but if you get a small cool vest for a human that will fit on the dog, you put it in the freezer before you go, then store it in a cooler chest and when needed, you put it on the dog.
It will keep the dog cool for ten minutes or so, but not much longer so this is real risky. If something delays your return to the car, you could loose your dog, even with the moon roof wide open.
And there is no guarantee that a passerby won’t brake your window to rescue the dog two minutes after you leave the vehicle.
Back when I had a dog, my solution to occasionally leave the dog in the car was to carry a spare key, lock the steering wheel with an anti-theft device, lock the door and leave the car and air conditioner running while I was away from the car.