How it works

One number, tuned to your dog.
Here's what's behind it.

Your weather app tells you what today feels like for a human. Dog Feel° translates the same conditions into what they feel like for your dog: four inches off the ground, wearing a coat, walking on surfaces you never touch.

Patent pending In veterinary review Calibrated in the field

Rosie's Dog Feel°

84°

Warmer than ideal

Sidewalks are already past Rosie's comfortable range. Her coolest option is the grass loop before 9 AM.

76°

Air temp

84°

Rosie's Dog Feel°

Step one

Five ingredients, one reading.

Dog Feel° is built from five components, added in order:

Dog Feel° = Air temp + Humidity + Surface + Metabolism + Your dog

Each term is bounded, research-informed, and calibrated against field measurements.

Same afternoon, two surfaces apart. Everything in the scene flows into one number.

Air temperature

The starting point, pulled from hyperlocal forecast data for your exact location. Everything else adjusts it up or down.

Humidity: the panting limit

Dogs don't sweat. They cool by panting, and humid air makes panting less effective. When temperature plus humidity climbs past 130, Dog Feel° starts rising. Past a sum of 150, Pawcast flags the panting limit: the point where a dog can no longer evaporatively cool effectively.

Surface: what's underfoot

Asphalt in full sun runs far hotter than the air above it: grass barely does. The model estimates surface heat from the material, sun load, shade, and recent rain, then scales it by how much of that heat actually reaches paw level. That scaling constant, 0.24, came from measuring real sidewalks with infrared thermometers in the field, not from a lab.

Metabolism: how hard they run

A dog generates heat as well as absorbs it. High-drive athlete dogs get a warm-side bump because their own engine works against them in the heat. In the cold, it flips: sedentary dogs feel it sooner, and their reading adjusts down.

Your dog: the Perception Delta

The per-dog layer. Breed, age, coat type, and health conditions push the final Dog Feel° up or down. A brachycephalic French Bulldog reads higher than a thin-coated whippet in identical conditions, because the same afternoon is hotter for her. This is why every dog gets their own Pawcast.

What about black dogs? The fur-color effect in the model is intentionally small. Peer-reviewed research shows minimal heat-absorption difference between black and yellow Labs in direct sun, so Dog Feel° reflects the evidence, not the myth.

Step two

From a number to an answer.

Dog Feel° maps onto a color scale you'll learn to read at a glance, and behind it, a Risk Score from 0–100 tracks how far conditions sit from your dog's own comfortable range. The score drops faster the further conditions move, because risk isn't linear: 95° isn't a little worse than 85°, it's a lot worse. Every reading is described relative to your dog: below their range, within it, or above it — never in absolutes.

icycoldcoolmildwarmhot

WITHIN RANGE CAUTION HIGH RISK

The three condition tiers you'll see across Pawcast.

Within range Score ≥ 55 Conditions sit inside your dog's comfortable range: the reading favors a walk.

Caution Score 25–54 Worth adjusting: shorter loop, shadier route, grass over pavement.

High risk Score < 25 Conditions are well outside your dog's range. Pawcast points you to the next better window.

No absolutes, by design. Pawcast never promises a walk will go well, and never calls a moment risk-free. Readings are relative to your specific dog, and what you see on the ground always outranks what's on the screen.

Step three

Built to do, not just report.

The same engine behind the number powers everything actionable in the app:

Walk windows

Dog Feel° is computed hour by hour across the day, then the best stretches surface as walk windows, with the coolest one tagged. Each window shows the warmest moment your dog will hit, not an average.

Where to walk, right now

Asphalt, concrete, and grass each get a live estimate in sun and in shade, with a verdict on each. When pavement is at scald risk, Pawcast says so in plain terms: "Scalds in 60 seconds — grass route only."

A comfort spectrum that learns your dog

Every dog gets a comfortable range: the band of Dog Feel° where they're genuinely at ease. The spectrum shows where today falls in your dog's range, not a generic one.

Alerts that speak up only when it matters

Storm and noise, surface temps, heat and cold, skin and allergies, breathing and air: each alert channel is tuned per dog and fires ahead of the event, so a storm-anxious dog's meds can happen before the thunder, not during it.

Why you can trust it

Calibrated in the field, reviewed by vets.

Dog Feel° isn't a rebadged heat index. The surface model was calibrated with an infrared temperature campaign in the field: real sidewalks, real afternoons, thousands of readings. The biological coefficients come from peer-reviewed veterinary literature. And the full algorithm is patent pending and currently in formal veterinary review, with clinical input from the in-house vet network behind TeleTails.

Anyone can show you the weather.
Pawcast shows you your dog's weather.

Early access is open

See your dog's first Dog Feel° at launch.

Early access members get first access at launch and free access during beta.

Get early access Meet the team behind it

Free during beta No card required First access at launch