The "dog days of summer" refer to those days of hot, sultry weather, in the northern hemisphere, from about July 3rd to Aug. 11th. Coincidentally, this occurs when Sirius (the dog star) appears closest to the sun. The period is reckoned from 20 days before to 20 days after the conjunction of Sirius and the sun. The time of conjunction varies with difference in latitude, and because of the precession of the equinoxes it changes gradually over long periods in all latitudes.

Sources: Columbia Encyclopedia and Sudkum Planetarium. (Google search) (thanks, bud!)

Were so named by the ancient Romans after the "Dog Star" Sirius, which rises and sets with the sun between July 3 and August 11. They believed that the heat from this star added to the heat from the sun which made these days even hotter.
Carol J. Jackson

"Dog days have nothing to do with dogs getting hot under the collar, contracting rabies, or anything like that. The ancients applied this label to the period between 3 July and 11 August when the Dog-star, Sirius, rises at the same time as the sun. At one time this seemed to coincide with the overwhelmingly hot days of high summer."

Cheers,

Anne L-B

Nick Young

Nancy W.

doodledorry (Dorry)

Karen M.

RL Johnson

Barbara McG.

- C. Nelson

. Paja

Terresa Schulenberg

Becky

Janet Hartman

Gerald Franklin

red2

Kay Gibson

I have no idea where the saying "dogs days of summer" really comes from except for the stories my Grandmother would tell during that time of year. Her tales would be animated recreations of the antics the different dogs she had owned over the years, or, as she described it, the total lack of any type of ambition. She would recall each animal by name and tell us all how it would be so hot and humid the dogs would disappear in search of shade. The farm had many old oak trees scattered around and each dog would find his or her own tree. Not a rabbit, squirrel, or the promise of a treat would make these panting animals leave the shade of their tree. Is this the real meaning behind this phrase? I have never doubted that it was and love the memories that continue resurface even after all these years. Wait, is that the sound of a hot summer breeze blowing through the trees? No, but I can hear the panting of the dog next door.
--Barbara Hibdon

Dog days are those hot summer days when DOGS rule.

The people are displaced by their canine captors and for this small space in time, Rotts are King and Dachshunds are Wiener Warriers.The humans never know this is happening because it is a deep dark secret, confined only to the memory of man's best friend.

The brilliant star, Sirius, the brightest of the Canis Major constellation, lifts his leg and the potent gaseous stellar rain penetrates the ionosphere and drifts softly to earth. Permeating the ground and the seas, the mighty stimulant calls to the canines of the earth, "Take control. Rule! NOW!", and the humans, breathing deeply of the contaminated air, remember nothing from July 3rd until August 11th each year. Oh, they think they know, but they remember only what the great Sirius chooses to allow their brains to retain. Although nothing is permanently altered, the devotion shown to the human masters the rest of the year is really a mask that help the four legged rulers hide their heavy handed treatment of their 2 legged pets during these 40 days and 40 nights. As the great Sirius once said, "Every dog has his day."

--Navarrejudy

The Dog Days of Summer: the only time of year an upright, (human), can lay around, laz around, with their tongues hanging out as they bask in the sun, and no one will give it another thought!!

--Karen

Dogs days are those days in the summer when dogs lay around on porch steps, panting. Shiny-faced people sit in chairs and porch swings fanning themselves. The occasional mutt wanders around the hot streets, tail down and tucked under, sniffing. The tarmac is too hot for people to walk on, but those dogs have thick black paws. Are they black because the tar soaks into their feet?

Only dogs can walk bare-pawed on the hottest summer days, the Dog Days of Summer.

--Cindy

...Rumor has it that the phrase "the dog days of summer" originated in the southeast Louisiana town of Tickfaw back in the "Dirty '30's" when local Cajun resident Bo "'gator" LePugh's mongrel hound "Boudain" escaped his tether beneath the front porch late one winter. After successfully dodging the numerous rusted out cars in Bo's front yard, Boudian promptly went on a romantic rampage of epic proportions.

Imagine if you can, the "melding" of blue tick hound, poodle, dachshund, and collie, with sundry other "lesser ingredients."

To say that local residents were "up in arms" with the motley canine explosion in Tickfaw late that following summer would be like saying that Lorena Bobbitt was "slightly agitated" at her husband.

One thing was sure: the sleepy little town was no longer so peaceful and quiet that you could literally hear a "tick faw."

That's my "entry", and I'm stickin' to it.

Kinda like a tick to a dawg. :-)

Quacker

In the South, the dog days of summer are those days so hot and humid that hound dogs lie in the shade and seldom move around.

Linda :-)

The dog days of summer began in the early part of the twentieth century in West Texas where people were enthusiastic about eating hot dogs but no one wanted to slave over a hot stove cooking them, much less go out into the broiling heat to gather Mesquite wood for the fire. Therefore, people would wait for the really hot days when the sun would bring the hoods, trunks, and roofs of their cars up to the temperature of a hot griddle. This process was aided by the fact that nearly every car in West Texas, at that time, was a Ford Model T truck or car and, as everyone remembers, Henry Ford said that you could order the Model T in any color you wanted so long as it was black. The black surfaces readily absorbed the heat from the Texas sun and made excellent frying pans.
Often times, whole families would travel for miles on horseback to the home of a relative who owned one these rolling cookers and everyone would feast on hot dogs cooked on the car or truck. It didn't matter if the vehicle ran or not, many of then had seen better days or were waiting for mail order parts which often took weeks to arrive, all that mattered was that the paint on the cooking surfaces was in good shape and not pitted or rusted.
These gatherings became very popular throughout Texas and soon spread to many of the smaller states. Texans, who were never ones to waste words, soon began referring to these gatherings simply as "Dog Days."

Jim Slater