Pets at Home has released a brand new range of products that are designed especially to keep our four-legged friends cool and comfortable as temperatures soar outside.
It was officially recorded as the hottest day of the year so far in the UK yesterday, with temperatures exceeding 30°C in some places, and similar highs are also expected today. The Met Office even believes that record temperatures could be recorded three times over this week, so it’s definitely a scorcher out there.
Taking care in the beaming sun is important for humans and it’s equally, if not more important, to make sure our four-legged friends are well looked-after too.
They do have a furry coat after all.
Luckily, Pets at Home has released a new range and it’s available online and in stores across the UK now.
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The new range has items for spending time in the garden, going out on walks and lounging inside the house, including water bottles, cooling mats, UV cooling tents, cooling vests, pet sunscreen, freezable ice cream dog toys and even a dog-friendly ‘beer’ too, because why can’t they have a tipple too?
Pets at Home
One of the real highlights of the range is definitely the dog paddling pool, retailing at £18.75 – £26.25. It’s carefully designed to be strong, durable and able to withstand excitable pups, and is also shallow enough for dogs to climb in and out of safely with ease.
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If all this wasn’t tail-waggingly good enough, from Wednesday 24th June – Thursday 9th July, selected products in the cooling range will also be included in a 25%-off promotion deal too.
Speaking on the release of the new pet cooling range, Claire Gavin, Director of Creative Development and Innovation at Pets at Home, said: “With foreign holidays seeming a long way off for many, we’re turning to our gardens this summer and getting out and about with our pets in the sunshine, but just as the sun can be damaging to our skin, it poses a risk for the health of our pets too.”
“We know that keeping pets cool during the summer months can be a challenge, so our new range has been created with the health, welfare and safety needs of our pets top of mind, whilst ensuring they can keep cool and have fun in the sun too.”
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Pets at Home
You can find out more information and get your hands on the full pet cooling range from stores nationwide now, or shop online via the Pets at Home website here.
It’s important to check the opening times of your local Pets at Home branch before making any trips in store.
Record 29 million people expected to drive home for Christmas this year
Emily Sergeant
Drivers are being told to prepare for long queues, as a record number of festive trips are predicted across the UK ahead of the big day.
With the festive season generally known to make the roads nationwide busier than usual, travel warnings have now been issued to all those making Christmas getaway trips for the holidays – with an annual study by the RAC and INRIX suggesting that 29 million journeys are planned before Christmas Day arrives.
Nearly half of these journeys (14.3 million) are set to be crammed into this coming weekend.
But, as Christmas falls mid-week this year, the figures suggest there will be an extended period of ‘pre-Christmas panic’ on the roads, with 5.7m trips taken yesterday and today alone.
The true festive getaway kicks off tomorrow (20 December), with an expected 3 million trips on this day, before the figure then jumps up to 3.7 million and 2.9 million this coming weekend (Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 December) – which is the final weekend before the big day itself.
A record 29 million people expected to drive home for Christmas this year / Credit: Geograph
By far the single busiest day, however, has to be Christmas Eve, with 3.8 million separate getaway journeys expected by car, on top of the final flurries of commuter traffic.
To make matters worse for everyone, the RAC’s research has also revealed that a further 4.7 million trips are expected at some point between the 20 and 22 December, and 2.5 million on either the 23 or 24 December, all coming from motorists who haven’t yet decided which day they’ll travel.
When it comes to the best and worst times to travel over the festive period, the research has revealed that the worst time to travel along major routes will be between 1pm and 7pm, especially tomorrow and Saturday, so both the RAC and INRIX are suggesting that drivers set off early in the morning, or later in the evening when the heaviest of the traffic should have subsided.
After the big day, there are an additional 4.4 million trips predicted on Boxing Day and 3.8 million on Friday 27 December.
On these days, drivers are advised to avoid major roads during the hours of 10am to 3pm, which is when journeys are expected to take significantly longer than usual.
A third of Brits want police to immediately ban drink drivers at the roadside
Emily Sergeant
A third of Brits support giving police powers to immediately ban drink drivers at the roadside, a new survey has revealed.
Ahead of the festive travel season, where a record number of people are expected to hit the road and make journeys all across the UK over the next couple of days, the RAC has asked more than 2,500 drivers to give their thoughts on the state of the roads for 2024’s edition of the Report on Motoring, and found that tougher sentences were the most popular solution among motorists for tackling the problem of drink-driving.
With instances of drink-driving said to be responsible for the deaths of some 300 people in 2022 – which is when the latest data on this was collected – four in 10 motorists (38%) believe harsher sentences are the answer.
A third of drivers (33%) also support giving the police new powers to immediately disqualify drink-drivers at the roadside once they’ve been stopped.
A third of Brits want police to immediately ban drink drivers at the roadside / Credit – Vladimir Proskurovskiy (via Unsplash)
The idea that convicted drink-drivers should have alcohol interlocks, also known as ‘alcolocks’, fitted to their vehicles to prevent them driving if they have any alcohol in their system, was favoured by 32% of those questioned by the RAC.
A similar number of drivers (31%) also want to see roadside breathalyser testing increased.
When it comes to drug drivers, results from the RAC’s survey are a similar story, only higher – with almost two-thirds of all drivers (64%) supporting tougher sentencing for drug-drivers, and 56% saying they would like to see increased levels of roadside testing.
Just under half (49%) of motorists questioned want the police to be able to immediately disqualify drug-drivers at the roadside.
Speaking on the findings from the RAC’s survey, Chief Constable Jo Shiner, who is the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for roads policing, commented: “In policing, we see the damaging impact of drink and drug driving all too often, and every fatality or serious injury which happens as a consequence of this is completely avoidable.
“Driving under the influence of drink or drugs puts everyone at risk – individuals, families, businesses and whole communities.
Emily Sergeant -
25th June 2020 
