What AQI Is Safe to Walk My Dog? The Band Table a Vet School Published, and the Number Nobody Publishes

You are standing at the door with the leash in your hand and a three-digit number on your phone. The dog is looking at you. What you want is a line: below this, go; above this, don’t. This page is about what that line is actually made of, because the honest answer is not that nobody has written one down. Someone has. In July 2026 a veterinary school published an AQI chart for dogs, band by band, and it is quoted in full below. What that chart does not contain, and what no source located anywhere in this research contains, is a number of minutes.

That gap is the whole subject here. The wildfire smoke playbook for pets covers the rest of the hazard: signs of exposure, ash, the evacuation trigger, what happens when the fire itself gets close. This page does one narrow thing. It puts every published band, threshold and instruction about air quality and animals in one place, in the publisher’s own words, and it is honest about which cells are empty.

The Short Version, Before Anything Else

Three published facts, and then the rest of the page explains each one.

EPA publishes pet guidance, and it maps the human number onto your animal by analogy. Its Wildfire Smoke Guide fact sheet, “Protect Your Pets From Wildfire Smoke”, carries the publication number EPA-452/F-26-007 printed on the document, and it states: “Even if the fire danger is not imminent, high levels of smoke may force you to stay indoors more than usual or even to evacuate. Reduce your pet’s exposure to smoke as you would reduce your own by using the Air Quality Index at the Fire and Smoke Map to inform decisions.” Read what that sentence is doing. EPA does not publish an animal AQI. It tells you to use the human one, at a named source, the way you would use it on yourself.

One veterinary institution has published band-level actions for dogs. Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences published “How poor air quality can impact dogs” on July 21, 2026, alongside a chart whose two column headings read “AQI Color & Values” and “Recommendations.” CSU describes it plainly as an adaptation: “doctors at CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are adapting the Air Quality Index” so that “pet owners can more easily understand how poor air quality impacts animal health and know what to do to keep everyone safe.”

Nobody publishes minutes. Not EPA, not AVMA, not CSU, not Cornell. The section below records exactly what was searched to say that.

The Table CSU Published

This is the one piece of published material that does what a reader in a doorway actually wants: it takes the six AQI bands and says what to do with a dog in each one. Every word in the right-hand column below is quoted from the prose of Colorado State University’s own page of July 21, 2026. CSU also published a chart image alongside that page, whose alt text reads “Table explaining recommendations for dogs depending on the Air Quality Index” and whose two column headings read “AQI Color & Values” and “Recommendations.” The image carries shorter, parallel wording for the same bands rather than the sentences below, and where this page quotes the image instead of the prose, as in the 101 to 150 keyTakeaway above, it says so.

Read the framing first, because it changes how much weight the table can carry. This is veterinarians at a veterinary college adapting a human index. It is not an EPA product, it is not an AVMA policy, and it is not a regulatory standard. It is also the closest thing to a published answer that exists, which is why it is here.

AQI band (CSU’s own headings)	What CSU published for that band
AQI green (0 to 50)	“No changes needed.”
AQI yellow (51 to 100)	“Most dogs continue as normal; watch for coughing or breathing changes.” “Unusually sensitive dogs should have outdoor exercise limited.”
AQI orange (101 to 150)	“All dogs should have shorter, lower intensity outdoor time. Consider walks instead of runs and go out during better air quality windows.” “Sensitive and unusually sensitive dogs should limit outdoor time to bathroom breaks.” “Manage indoor air quality: close windows, run AC on recirculate mode, use a HEPA purifier if available.”
AQI red (151 to 200)	“Limit outdoor time. Exercise should be restricted to low intensity (walks instead of running or intense play). Monitor the AQI for improvements and do outdoor activities at that time.” “Optimize indoor air quality by closing windows and doors; using an HVAC system with an up-to-date air filter; run AC in recirculation mode; add a portable HEPA air purifier or a DIY box fan and filter setup; remove other indoor air pollutants such as candles, incense, diffusers, and aerosols; keep surfaces dust free.” “Monitor sensitive and unusually sensitive dogs closely.”
AQI purple / maroon (201 and above)	“Keep dogs indoors as much as possible, monitor the AQI for improvements and do outdoor activities at that time.” “Optimize indoor air quality and consider relocating sensitive or unusually sensitive dogs to cleaner air if indoor air quality can’t be maintained.” “Watch for any changes in behavior or symptoms and contact a veterinarian if anything abnormal appears.”

Source: Colorado State University Veterinary Health System, “How poor air quality can impact dogs”, July 21, 2026. Quoted text above is from that page’s prose, not from the chart image published with it. The band numbers are EPA’s AQI categories, which CSU adopted unchanged.

CSU’s red and purple bands, above, mention “a DIY box fan and filter setup” as one indoor-air option. CSU does not attach a safety condition to that device, but EPA does. EPA’s cleaner air room fact sheet, “How to Create a Cleaner Air Room at Home” (EPA-452/F-26-005), states: “Use a newer box fan (made since 2012) with a UL or ETL logo. These fans have thermal safety fuses that reduce the risk of fires or burns from overheating the fan’s motor and outer surfaces. Look for fans that have a listing for electrical safety and have a mark from a certifying organization, such as UL or Intertek.” And: “If you must use an older fan, never leave the fan running unattended while you are away or sleeping.” That condition travels with the device every time it is mentioned on this page, including below.

Now notice three things about that table, because they are the reason this page exists.

It is written in verbs, not durations. Shorten. Limit. Restrict. Monitor. Not one cell says how long. That is not an oversight in the chart. Every source read for this page is written the same way.

It escalates a band earlier than the human categories do. CSU’s 51 to 100 row, not its 101 to 150 row, is where the caution starts for an at-risk dog. The band AirNow describes for people as “Air quality is acceptable” is the band where CSU tells owners of unusually sensitive dogs to start limiting exercise. If your dog is in that category, the row you act on sits one below the row where the human scale first names a group at risk.

It ends in a phone call. CSU’s top band closes with “contact a veterinarian if anything abnormal appears.” That is the same place every other source in this research lands.

CSU’s Two Sensitivity Categories, in CSU’s Words

The table is unusable without them, because most of its instructions apply to a category rather than to all dogs. Both lists are quoted from CSU’s July 21, 2026 page.

The unusually sensitive category “includes brachycephalic breeds such as bulldogs and pugs; puppies; geriatric dogs; pregnant dogs; dogs with a known heart, lung, or airway condition; dogs with advanced metastatic cancer; and dogs on chemotherapy or immune suppressing medications.”

The sensitive category “includes all of those dogs plus dogs that are overweight or obese; senior dogs; dogs with mild or intermittent heart, lung, or eye conditions; dogs with allergies; dogs with an endocrine disorder such as diabetes or hypothyroidism; breeding male dogs; or dogs with an immune mediated disease.”

Two things are worth saying about those lists out loud. First, they are broad. Between allergies, overweight, senior and endocrine disease, a very large share of household dogs sits in one category or the other, which means the more conservative column is the normal column for more readers than expect it. Second, CSU attaches no number to either category. There is no multiplier, no percentage reduction, no separate breakpoint for a pug. The categories change which instruction applies, not by how much. Anyone publishing a numeric adjustment for a flat-faced or senior dog has invented it.

The named authors on CSU’s adaptation, per that page, are Dr. Colleen Duncan, a professor in CSU’s Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, with Craig Webb, D.V.M., Sheryl Magzamen, Ph.D., postdoctoral researcher Danni Scott, and D.V.M. student Maddy Evans.

The Number That Does Not Exist

Here is the sentence this project has been wrong about before, so it is written carefully and with its evidence attached.

No agency, veterinary association or veterinary college located in this research publishes a number of allowed outdoor minutes per AQI band, for a dog or for any other animal.

That claim was tested rather than assumed. Searches were run for veterinary AQI thresholds and outdoor-time limits for dogs; for state health department pet air quality guidance; and for minute-level guidance restricted to the domains of AVMA, AAHA, ASPCA, AKC and the veterinary colleges at Cornell, Colorado State, UC Davis, Tufts, Ohio State and Illinois. The EPA and AirNow wildfire fact sheet set was pulled and read in full. The results were consistent: guidance exists in quantity, and it is written as actions and conditions rather than as durations.

Here is what the qualitative guidance actually says, so you can see the shape of the gap.

AVMA’s “Wildfire smoke and animals” page states: “Let dogs and cats outside only for brief bathroom breaks if air quality alerts are in effect.” Brief is not defined anywhere on that page. The next instruction on the page is “Avoid intense outdoor exercise during periods of poor air quality. Exercise pets when dust and smoke has settled”, which is a condition, not a clock.

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Richard P. Riney Canine Health Center, on a page written by Dr. Aly Cohen and last updated December 23, 2025, states: “When the air quality is poor, the best way to protect your pet is to limit their exposure by staying indoors, keeping windows and doors closed and limiting outdoor time to only bathroom breaks. It is best to avoid exercise like running or hiking until the air quality has improved. Consider using air purifiers or filters indoors.” Again: no minutes.

EPA’s pet fact sheet states: “Keep pets indoors as much as you can, with doors and windows closed if you can stay cool. Keep outdoor bathroom breaks short. Bring outdoor pets into a less smoky, cooler environment, like a utility room, garage, or bathroom. Move potentially dangerous products, such as pesticides, out of their reach.” Short, not a figure. And note the conditional inside the first sentence, because it is doing safety work that gets dropped when this instruction is paraphrased: closed windows are conditioned on being able to stay cool.

Minute figures for AQI bands are easy to find on the open web. Every one located during this research came from a commercial or general-content site rather than from an agency, a veterinary association or a veterinary college. A specific number is enormously satisfying to read and it is the single easiest thing to invent, because nothing about it looks invented. We are not going to publish one. What replaces it is in the next two sections: read the number correctly, and get a duration from the one source entitled to give you one.

The Index Was Written About People, and That Matters Twice

The AQI’s six categories, their numeric ranges and their descriptions come from AirNow’s AQI Basics page. They are reproduced here as human health categories, which is what they are, and they mention animals nowhere.

AQI category	Values	AirNow’s description of air quality (written for people)
Good	0 to 50	“Air quality is satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.”
Moderate	51 to 100	“Air quality is acceptable. However, there may be a risk for some people, particularly those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.”
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	101 to 150	“Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is less likely to be affected.”
Unhealthy	151 to 200	“Some members of the general public may experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.”
Very Unhealthy	201 to 300	“Health alert: The risk of health effects is increased for everyone.”
Hazardous	301 and higher	“Health warning of emergency conditions: everyone is more likely to be affected.”

Source: AirNow.gov, “Air Quality Index (AQI) Basics”, under the heading “AQI Basics for Ozone and Particle Pollution”, read August 11, 2026.

Two consequences follow, and they run in opposite directions.

The sensitive groups the index is built around are human sensitive groups. EPA’s Technical Assistance Document for the AQI, the document that tells agencies how to report this index, names them for particle pollution as “People with heart or lung disease; older adults; and children, including teenagers” and adds that “some minority groups, people with lower incomes, and outdoor workers may experience higher exposure that can worsen underlying health conditions.” That cell carries a footnote, and the footnote matters here because it is the one place the human list and the animal lists line up: “During a smoke event, EPA recommends including pregnant people as an at-risk group as noted in the At-Risk Groups of People Wildfire Smoke Factsheet.” EPA’s pet fact sheet names pregnant animals in its own at-risk list, and CSU’s unusually sensitive category names pregnant dogs.

Even so, no animal appears in the AQI’s definition of a sensitive group. When you read “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups”, the sensitive group being described is not your dog. This is precisely why CSU had to write a separate list, and why the borrow has to be labeled every time it is made.

The index does not include heat. The same Technical Assistance Document states: “AQI values at or below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory. When AQI values are above 100, air quality is unhealthy: at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as AQI values get higher. The AQI does not apply to hazardous air pollutants, extreme heat, and other aspects of outdoor air.” That last sentence is the one that gets dropped, and dropping it is how a green reading on a brutally hot afternoon turns into a walk that never should have happened. Heat is a separate hazard with its own guidance, and the index you just checked is not carrying it. Our heat and hot-car page owns that side, and the cooling gear comparison for flat-faced breeds owns the equipment half for the breeds EPA singles out for extra caution when there is smoke or heat.

Why Exertion Is the Variable Everything Points At

Notice what the published guidance actually restricts. It rarely restricts being outdoors. It restricts effort.

EPA’s pet fact sheet: “Spend less time outdoors and limit physical activities when it is smoky. For example, when it’s smoky, it’s not a good time for you and your pet to go for a run. Reducing physical activities outdoors is especially important if it is also hot outside.” CSU’s orange band: shorter, lower intensity, walks instead of runs. CSU’s red band: exercise restricted to low intensity. Cornell: avoid running or hiking until it improves.

The reason is stated most explicitly in AVMA’s livestock guidance, which spells out the mechanism the pet guidance leaves implicit: “Limit exercise when smoke is visible. Especially don’t require animals to perform activities that substantively increase airflow into and out of the lungs.” That is the whole logic in one clause. The dose an animal takes in is a function of how hard it is breathing, not only of how long it is outside. EPA’s own large-animal fact sheet says the same thing in different words, instructing owners to limit “all activity that requires effort” and adding that “Only essential activity should be considered during smoke events.”

Which reframes the doorway question usefully. It is not only how many minutes. It is whether the outing is a sniffing walk on a leash or a run at the park, because those two are not the same exposure even if a stopwatch says they are.

The practical consequence for a high-drive dog is that the energy still has to go somewhere, and mental work is the substitute that does not raise respiratory rate the way a run does. That is a separate build, and the snuffle mat, slow feeder and lick mat comparison covers which tool suits which dog. Cornell makes the same recommendation in its own words, noting that indoor enrichment “like long-lasting treats or puzzle feeders that are appropriate for your dog to eat and play with, may be beneficial to prevent boredom or other unwanted behaviors.”

Smoke Plus Heat, With EPA’s Hedge Intact

EPA’s pet fact sheet opens with this: “Smoke can irritate your pet’s eyes and respiratory tract. Evidence in humans indicates that the effects of exposure to smoke and heat together are much worse than to smoke alone. This is also likely true for your pets.”

The word likely is EPA’s and it stays. The human evidence is characterized as evidence; the extension to pets is characterized as likely. That is a careful sentence and repeating it carelessly would be an upgrade EPA did not authorize. EPA’s human-facing fact sheet on the same pairing, “Protect Yourself From Smoke and Heat”, puts the human side this way: “Scientific evidence suggests that exposure to smoke and heat at the same time may be much worse for your health than exposure to either of them alone.”

The sentence immediately after the pets version is the one that matters most for a reader deciding about a specific animal: “Animals that are older, younger or pregnant or have heart or lung disease are especially at risk from smoke or heat and should be closely watched during all periods of poor air quality. Pet owners should consult with their veterinarian for advice to manage their pets during a smoke event, or a combined smoke and heat event, and to make an evacuation plan.”

All periods of poor air quality. Not above a threshold. AVMA reaches the same place in its own wording: “Animals with cardiovascular or respiratory disease are especially at risk from smoke and should be watched closely whenever air quality is poor.” EPA and AVMA agree on the substance, a sensitive animal is at risk throughout a bad-air stretch rather than only past some line, even though the two agencies do not use identical phrasing. For a dog or cat with existing heart or lung disease there is no band that either source describes as clear, and this page is not going to nominate one.

Reading the Number Correctly: Which AQI Are You Looking At?

Two apps can show two different numbers for the same afternoon and both can be right. Before a reading can inform anything, three questions have to be settled.

1. Is it a forecast, or is it right now?

AirNow reports both. The Technical Assistance Document describes the real-time value: “AirNow uses the hourly concentrations to report current air quality based on the NowCast AQI. The NowCast uses an algorithm that relates hourly readings from air quality monitors to the AQI for ozone and particle pollution. The NowCast gives you the latest information on air quality where you are. Because air quality can change during the day, you can expect to see the NowCast AQI change.”

The next sentence in that paragraph is the operationally useful one, and it is exactly the kind of clause that gets left off: “Even on days when the daily AQI forecast isn’t good, there may be times during the day when air quality is OK for outdoor activity.” A bad forecast is not a closed day. That is the same instinct CSU’s chart encodes when it says to monitor the AQI for improvements and do outdoor activities at that time.

2. Is it a regulatory monitor, or a low-cost sensor?

The AirNow Fire and Smoke Map, operated by EPA with the U.S. Forest Service, includes both. EPA’s Q&A document for the map states that it shows “air quality data from permanent and temporary monitors that are operated by experts from air quality agencies” and “air quality data from air sensors, most of which are owned and operated by the public”, adding that “The sensor data has been corrected to make it more accurate.”

Sensors are not regulatory instruments and EPA says so directly: “EPA does not use air sensor data for regulatory purposes. EPA uses data from regulatory monitors, which have been exhaustively tested. These monitors also must meet standards for location and operation.” The same document lists the limitations as three bullets, quoted here one at a time: “Sensors may occasionally report questionable data;” “Sensors have a bias, which means they regularly report a higher or lower amount of pollution than actually is in the air;” and “Most sensors are not located or operated by air monitoring experts.”

And then the sentence that follows those limitations, which changes what you do with them: “Despite these limitations, air sensors can be valuable for providing general information about air quality.” EPA adds a note that before sensor data appears on the map, “EPA and the Forest Service take a number of quality control steps and apply a scientific correction equation that reduces the bias in the sensor data.”

So the sensor reading is not noise to be discarded. EPA’s own Technical Assistance Document describes the map as using “both federal monitors and thousands of sensors, giving most users the nearest readings possible and recommendations on how to protect their health.” Use it, and know which kind of reading you are quoting when you write it down.

3. Which pollutant is the number about?

The AQI is not a single measurement. EPA’s Technical Assistance Document states that “EPA establishes an AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act” and describes the calculation this way: “The AQI is the highest value calculated for each pollutant.” On any given day, one of those five is the reason for the number you see.

That matters here for one specific reason. EPA’s Q&A for the Fire and Smoke Map states: “The Fire and Smoke Map shows only fine particle pollution, which is the main type of pollution in wildfire smoke. Fine particle pollution is also known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5. It also comes from sources other than fires.” It continues: “However, the map does not show other types of pollution, including ozone (smog).”

So a high AQI driven by ozone will not show up on the map EPA’s pet fact sheet points you at, and an ozone day is not a smoke day. This page is about particles, which are what wildfire smoke is made of. The ozone side of the question changes several of the answers above and belongs in its own treatment rather than being folded in here. That treatment is our ozone action days and pets page, which works through what EPA publishes about ozone timing, where that timing advice splits from the smoke advice, and the one veterinary sentence located about dogs and ozone.

One more caution from the same document, for anyone whose nearest icon is not close: “The Fire and Smoke Map shows the NowCast Air Quality Index at a specific monitor or sensor location at the time you are viewing the map.” EPA lists what makes your air likely to match it (stable concentrations, no significant winds, no pollution sources in between) and what makes it likely to differ (concentrations changing frequently, smoke plumes in the area, nearby sources, significant terrain such as mountains, hills and valleys), and adds: “You may even see this type of difference when comparing two sensors that are near each other.”

The One Place EPA Names Walking the Dog

There is a sentence in EPA’s Fire and Smoke Map Q&A that is written for exactly the moment this page is about. Describing the dashboard that opens when you click a monitor or sensor, it publishes two consecutive bullets. The first: “The trend information shows you how particle pollution levels have been changing at your location in the last 30 minutes.” The second: “You can use that information to guide short-term activities, such as opening or closing windows, or going outside to walk the dog.”

That is the only place in this material where a federal document names walking the dog as the activity, and what it hands you is not a threshold. It is a direction of travel. One reading that has been falling for half an hour as a plume clears, and the identical reading climbing hard as a new plume arrives, are the same number and two different decisions, and the trend line sits on the same dashboard as the number.

What the Bands Are Made Of, and Why They Moved in 2024

For the reader who wants to know what a number physically means before trusting it with an animal.

Each AQI category corresponds to a concentration range for each pollutant. For fine particles, EPA’s current Technical Assistance Document for the AQI, which carries the publication number EPA-403/B-26-003 and the date May 2026 on its cover, publishes these 24-hour PM2.5 breakpoints:

PM2.5, 24-hour, micrograms per cubic meter	AQI	Category
0.0 to 9.0	0 to 50	Good
9.1 to 35.4	51 to 100	Moderate
35.5 to 55.4	101 to 150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups
55.5 to 125.4	151 to 200	Unhealthy
125.5 to 225.4	201 to 300	Very Unhealthy
225.5 and above	301 and above	Hazardous

Source: Table 6, “Breakpoints for the AQI”, in EPA-403/B-26-003, May 2026, read August 11, 2026.

The top of the Good band in that table is 9.0, and it has not always been. EPA revised the particulate matter standards in a rule published in the Federal Register on March 6, 2024 at 89 FR 16202, titled “Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter”, which took effect on May 6, 2024. Older reference material still shows the previous Good ceiling.

Why an animal owner should care about a chart of micrograms: because it tells you what the bands are not. They are concentration cut points derived from the human health standard. EPA’s Technical Assistance Document states the link explicitly: “The AQI for each pollutant draws on the scientific information that supports the health-based NAAQS for that pollutant. The AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to an ambient air concentration that equals the level of the short-term NAAQS for protection of public health.” Nothing in that derivation involved a dog. The bands are a good, well-founded description of the air. What they are not is a statement about the animal breathing it, and every layer between the two, CSU’s included, is an adaptation with a name attached to it.

When It Stays Bad for Days

Multi-day smoke changes the problem from timing an outing to managing a house, and this is where the human safety limit has to be said out loud.

CSU’s chart escalates the indoor instructions band by band, and the quoted text is above. EPA’s pet fact sheet adds the indoor-source half: “Keep indoor air clean. Avoid cooking, especially frying or broiling, and do not vacuum, burn candles, use a fireplace or woodstove, or smoke or vape. These activities add particles to your home.” And for households without air conditioning it publishes a night-cycle routine: “If you do not have air conditioning, close blinds and shades before it gets hot to keep your house cooler. At night when it is cooler, open the windows and use fans to exhaust hot air from rooms or draw in cooler air. Then close the windows and use a portable air cleaner to remove smoke.”

EPA publishes a dedicated fact sheet on the room itself, “How to Create a Cleaner Air Room at Home”, EPA-452/F-26-005. Its step two carries a clause that must not be trimmed: “Prevent smoke from entering the room. Close windows and doors, but do not do anything that makes it hard to leave the room in an emergency.” Its step three is “Stay cool. Run fans, window air conditioners, or central air conditioning. If your air conditioner has a fresh air option, turn it off or close the intake and run it in recirculation mode.”

And its boxed exception, quoted whole, is the part of this page that outranks everything else on it:

“In Some Cases, It May Be Best to Seek Shelter Elsewhere”

“If you can’t stay cool at home, the power goes out, or too much smoke is still getting in your home after you have followed the steps above, staying in a cleaner air room may not be the best option for you. Consider staying with friends or family, going to a public cleaner air shelter, or seeking relief from the smoke in another location with air conditioning and good air filtration.”

EPA’s Technical Assistance Document carries the same warning as a footnote to its stay-indoors guidance: “If you don’t have an air conditioner, staying indoors with the windows closed may be dangerous in extremely hot weather. If you are hot, go someplace with air conditioning or check with your local government to find out if cooling centers are available in your community.”

Say the cost plainly, because it is a real one. Following that instruction can mean leaving a house where your animals are, or moving them somewhere that may not take them. Neither EPA sentence above is written about animals, and no public cleaner air shelter or cooling center can be assumed to admit them; admission is set locally and has to be confirmed by phone before you need it. That is a preparation problem with a quiet-afternoon solution, and it is the same call list our pet-friendly shelter and destination pages exist to help you build. What it is not is a reason to seal a house you cannot cool. A household of people at risk of heat illness in a closed house is a worse outcome than a dog with a cough, and no version of caring about the animal changes that ordering.

On filtration itself, EPA’s “Indoor Air Filtration” fact sheet, EPA-452/F-26-006, states that portable air cleaners and DIY air cleaners “are intended to deliver cleaner air to a single room, while HVAC filters (sometimes called in-duct air cleaners) can deliver cleaner air to the whole home. However, two or more well-placed PACs and/or DIY air cleaners can be just as effective and may cost less than operating a central air system continuously with a high-efficiency filter.” So a lack of central air is not the dead end it can sound like. The same fact sheet warns that “Electronic air cleaners are not recommended for smoke removal because it is not clear that they can effectively remove smoke particles from the air and they may produce ozone.” EPA’s guidance across those fact sheets is to use California Air Resources Board certified air cleaners because they produce little or no ozone. If you are buying a device on the strength of this page, buy it against EPA’s stated criteria and the manufacturer’s own room-size rating, not against a claim about pets.

Everything That Is Not a Dog

CSU’s chart sits on a page headed “How poor air quality can impact dogs”, and every row in it is written about dogs. Here is what is published for the rest of the household.

Cats. No AQI band table for cats was located. AVMA covers them alongside dogs in one instruction: “Let dogs and cats outside only for brief bathroom breaks if air quality alerts are in effect.” EPA’s pet fact sheet lists the signs to watch for in any animal and then adds a cat-specific line: “In addition, cats may exhibit restless behavior, search for a cool spot, pant, drool, and have sweaty paws.” A panting cat is worth a call.

Birds. This is the one place two sources converge on something close to an absolute, and neither attaches a number to it. AVMA states that birds “are particularly susceptible and should not be allowed outside when smoke or particulate matter are present.” EPA states: “Pet birds are particularly susceptible to smoke. Keep them inside, in a cleaner air room, if possible, when smoke is present.” The trigger in both sentences is the presence of smoke, not an index value. Our bird and parrot emergency preparedness guide covers the enclosure and transport side.

Horses and livestock. EPA publishes a separate fact sheet, “Protect Your Large Animals and Livestock From Wildfire Smoke”, EPA-452/F-26-008, whose framing is the same analogy as the pet sheet and slightly more explicit: “Reduce your animals’ exposure to smoke and heat the same way you reduce your own: spend less time in smoky air, spend more time in cooler or shady areas, make plenty of water available, and limit physical activity.” It names specific activities to drop: “For horses, avoid riding, training, or forced walks. Similarly for cattle, avoid running them through chutes and postpone stressful elective procedures.” And it publishes a recovery interval, which is the one duration in this entire body of guidance: “Give your livestock four to six weeks to recover fully from smoky conditions before resuming strenuous activity.” AVMA publishes the same interval against a slightly different trigger, stating: “Plan to give livestock 4 to 6 weeks to recuperate after the air quality returns to normal. Attempting to handle, move, or transport livestock may delay healing and compromise your animals’ performance.” Our horse and livestock evacuation basics covers the transport half. Note that this recovery window is published for livestock. Neither source publishes an equivalent recovery interval for dogs or cats, and one should not be assumed by analogy.

Water, for every species. EPA’s pet fact sheet gives this its own line: “Make water available at all times.” EPA’s large-animal fact sheet repeats it, instructing owners to move animals to shade if it is hot and to “provide plenty of water near feeding areas.”

What About Something Over the Dog’s Face?

Briefly, because it is the first thing people reach for and it is a different page’s job.

Cornell’s canine health center states the problem in one sentence: “While people can wear masks outdoors, which may minimize inhalation of small particulate matter, unfortunately, our pets cannot, which may put them at a greater risk.” EPA’s pet fact sheet does not mention a pet mask at all, though its human-facing “Prepare for Wildfire Smoke” fact sheet (EPA-452/F-26-001) tells people to have NIOSH Approved N95 respirators and to not rely on dust masks or bandanas. AVMA’s pet page does not mention masks either.

Our honest review of dog smoke masks works through the manufacturer claims and the seal problem in full. The short form for this page: no filtration figure for a pet product appears anywhere in the federal or veterinary material read here, so nothing in that material supports relaxing a band because a dog is wearing one.

The Duration Question Has One Correct Address

Everything on this page converges on the same handoff, and it is worth understanding why it is not a dodge.

EPA’s pet fact sheet says it directly: “Pet owners should consult with their veterinarian for advice to manage their pets during a smoke event, or a combined smoke and heat event, and to make an evacuation plan.” AVMA says it directly, above its list of signs: “If any of your animals are experiencing any of these signs, consult your veterinarian.” Cornell says it: “Contact your veterinarian if you have concerns about your pet’s exposure risk or symptoms.” CSU’s top band says it: contact a veterinarian if anything abnormal appears.

There is now published evidence that this handoff is both the right one and an underused one. A study by Scott, Anderson, Abrams, Long, Ford, Magzamen and Duncan, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in February 2026, surveyed 836 dog owners in the western United States. Its abstract reports: “Despite expressing concern that poor air quality could negatively impact their dog’s health and welfare, few owners actively monitored air quality; less than one-fifth of respondents reported knowing the Air Quality Index (AQI) well, and only one-quarter said they check the AQI frequently.” And then the finding that explains why the handoff works: “Essentially all surveyed dog owners (99%) relied on veterinary professionals for pet health information, with 91% considering them the most trustworthy source for obtaining health information. Similarly, dog owners identified healthcare professionals, including veterinarians, as the most trusted source for recommendations regarding the AQI.”

The authors’ own conclusion, quoted: “Our study highlighted the role the veterinary profession plays in educating owners about environmental hazards, such as air pollution, to prevent and mitigate exposure risks.” The publisher’s page for that article returned an HTTP 403 to automated retrieval on August 11, 2026; the abstract quoted here was read from the publisher’s deposited record via Crossref against the article’s DOI, which is listed in the sources below.

So the ask is specific, and it takes one appointment slot you already have. At your dog’s next visit, before smoke season rather than during it, ask these:

• Which of CSU’s two categories does this animal fall into, sensitive or unusually sensitive, and why?
• Given its airway, heart and lungs, at what point in the AQI scale do you want outdoor time cut to bathroom breaks?
• Is there a duration you want me to hold to at that point, and does it change if it is also hot?
• What symptom in this animal means call you, and what symptom means come in now?
• If we are relocating for cleaner air, what should travel with this animal, and what medication supply should I be carrying?

Write the answers on the same card as the clinic’s after-hours number. That card is the deliverable this page is actually for, and it is the only version of the threshold that is legitimately about your animal.

The Doorway Checklist

• Check a reading before the leash comes off the hook, not after. EPA’s instruction is to use the Air Quality Index at the Fire and Smoke Map to inform decisions, which means the number comes first.
• Note which source the number came from. A regulatory monitor, a corrected low-cost sensor on the Fire and Smoke Map, or a forecast for the day are three different things.
• Look at the trend, not just the value. EPA’s map dashboard shows how particle levels have changed in the last 30 minutes, and EPA names walking the dog as a use for it.
• Check the temperature separately. EPA’s own documentation states the AQI does not apply to extreme heat, so a good number on a hot afternoon has told you nothing about the heat.
• Decide the intensity, not only the length. Every source read for this page restricts effort, and AVMA’s livestock guidance names the mechanism: avoid activities that substantively increase airflow into and out of the lungs.
• Know which of CSU’s categories your dog is in before you are standing in the doorway. Between brachycephalic, puppy, geriatric, pregnant, overweight, allergic, endocrine and cardiac, those two lists are broad enough that a lot of ordinary household dogs sit inside one of them.
• Keep birds inside when smoke is present. Both AVMA and EPA write that one as a condition rather than as a number.
• If it will be days, move to the indoor plan: cleaner air room, filtration, and no indoor particle sources. And stop at the human limit, because a house you cannot cool is a hazard to the people in it.
• Confirm in advance, by phone, whether any cooling center or cleaner air shelter you might use admits animals. It is set locally and it is never safe to assume.
• Watch for the signs EPA lists, and treat them as a reason to call rather than a reason to wait. Excessive coughing or gagging, trouble breathing, red or watery eyes, nasal discharge, inflammation of throat or mouth, reluctance to eat hard foods, excessive panting, fatigue or weakness, disorientation, uneven gait, stumbling, reduced appetite or thirst.

Where to Go Next

This page is the threshold spoke of our pet emergency playbooks hub. The rest of the cluster splits four ways.

When the fire itself is the problem, not just the air. The wildfire hazard playbook for pets covers the evacuation trigger, post-fire ash and the recovery period, and the ash and hot-debris paw protection guide covers the ground your dog walks on after the smoke clears.

When the answer is stay in. The indoor mental-work gear comparison covers what to do with a dog whose exercise you have just cancelled, and the honest review of dog smoke masks covers the thing you are about to buy instead.

When smoke and heat arrive together. The heat and hot-car page owns the hazard the AQI is explicitly not about, and the cooling gear comparison for flat-faced breeds covers the breeds EPA names for extra caution when there is smoke or heat. If evacuation becomes the question, our wildfire alert app comparison for pet owners covers the notifications that tell you before the air does.

When the alert is not about smoke. Ozone is a separate pollutant, it does not appear on the Fire and Smoke Map at all, and EPA’s published timing advice for it points at the morning rather than at whichever hour the smoke happens to thin. Our ozone action days and pets page carries that material, including where the ozone timing advice splits from the smoke advice and the one veterinary sentence located about dogs, ozone and heat in the same line.

Then do the one thing that outlasts any reading. Ask your veterinarian, at the next appointment you already have booked, where your animal’s line sits and what it should look like when you have to hold it. Nobody publishes that number. One person is qualified to give it to you.