The Dog Days are the period from three weeks before to three weeks after the star Sirius and the Sun are aligned. It is the period from early July to mid-August. The dates usually given are 3 July to 15 August. During this time, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, is visible at dawn. From ancient times this period has been regarded as the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
The name was coined by the ancient Romans, who called them caniculares dies after the constellation of Canis Major, within which Sirius (α Canis Majoris) is found.
DogDays or dogdays of summer are typically the hottest and most humid times of the year.
They get their name because the period this occurs is often during the time the star Sirius, known as the Dog Star (and the brightest star of all as seen from Earth), both rises after, and sets before, the Sun and is hence lost in the latter's glare.
This period of invisibility, for Northern Hemisphere observers, is caused by the fact that the position of Sirius in the celestial sphere is well to the south of the ecliptic.
DOGDAYS IN LOS ANGELES The settlers who founded the pueblo of Los Angeles in 1781 brought with them a variety of farm animals: horses, cows, oxen, pigs, sheep - and apparently dogs, although none are mentioned in the record.
While the 'eighties found a population increasingly sympathetic to the plight of hapless dogs, those residents who considered the antics of the city's canine population to be a nuisance countered the call for more humane treatment with calls of their own.
All the dogs that can be caught by foul means or fair are thrown into that hovel to starve a few days, and if no one comes to release them by paying a fee, they are killed, and sometimes buried in the river, poisoning the water for man and beast.
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