How to keep your dog cool in summer

When summer heat arrives, most dogs aren't ready for it. Here's the calm version of the advice — when to skip the walk, how to check the pavement, the warning signs to know by heart, and the small habit changes that take the edge off.

The short version: Walk before 8am or after 8pm. Five-second pavement test before every outing — if it's too hot for your hand, it's too hot for paws. Cool shade, cool floor, fresh water. Watch for heavy panting, drooling and stumbling. A missed walk on a hot day is not a welfare problem.

1. The pavement test takes five seconds

This is the single most useful thing on the page, and most people skip it. Before you leave the house on a warm day, put the back of your hand flat on the pavement outside your front door for five seconds.

If you can't hold it there comfortably for the full five seconds, your dog can't walk on it. Paw pads on hot pavement burn quickly — sometimes seriously enough to need a vet. Tarmac, paving slabs and artificial grass hold heat for hours after the air starts to cool, so early evening surfaces can still be dangerously hot.

If the test fails: grass routes only, garden play, or skip the walk. A missed walk on a hot day is not a welfare failure. A burned pad is.

2. Walk early, walk late — nothing in between

The middle of a hot summer day is the worst window to walk a dog. Even if your dog seems fine, the combination of hot pavement and high air temperature is where heatstroke risk peaks.

• Before 8am — early enough that the pavement hasn't soaked up the day's heat.
• After 8pm — once the sun is properly off the streets and surfaces have started to cool. Bring water.
• Between those times on a hot day — garden, indoors, shade only. Toilet trips on grass only.

On a missed walk day, keep your dog mentally engaged instead. A snuffle mat, a frozen stuffed chew toy, or ten minutes of training burns more energy than people expect.

The flat-faced dog exception

If you live with a French bulldog, pug, Boston terrier, English bulldog, boxer or shih tzu, the rules are stricter. Brachycephalic breeds can't cool themselves efficiently through panting — even mild heat puts them at real risk. On any day above 22°C, treat them like the temperature is five degrees higher than it is. Exercise should be early morning, in shade, and short.

3. Warning signs to know by heart

The earlier you catch overheating, the easier it is to fix.

• Heavy, fast, noisy panting — tongue wide and long, drool thick and ropy
• Bright red gums or tongue, much redder than normal
• Pressing belly to cool ground, refusing to move, lying flat
• Stumbling, wobbly hind legs, sudden disorientation
• Vomiting or diarrhoea in a dog that was fine an hour ago
• Collapse, glazed eyes, or not responding to their name

If you see the later signs — stumbling, collapse, unresponsiveness — it's an emergency. Move your dog into shade immediately, pour cool (not iced) water over them focusing on the belly, armpits, paws and ear flaps, and call your vet. Do not wait to see if they improve first.

4. The cool spot setup

On hot days, the goal is a cool, shaded place your dog can lie without having to work for it.

• Tile or stone flooring stays cooler than carpet or fabric beds — most dogs will seek it out naturally. Don't block access to it.
• A self-cooling mat in the spot they already lie does a quiet, continuous job without needing electricity or gel packs. Place it in the shade, not in a patch of direct sun.
• Fresh water, always accessible. Change it more often in heat — warm water gets ignored. A bowl in a cool spot, topped up regularly, is the simplest thing you can do.
• Never a closed car. A car parked in sun reaches fatal temperatures within minutes. There is no safe "quick errand" exception.

5. The enrichment swap for hot days

Dogs that can't walk their usual route on hot days still need mental engagement. The good news: five minutes of nose work or a puzzle feeder tires a dog out more effectively than a long walk, because it uses a different kind of energy.

• A snuffle mat or enrichment puzzle with breakfast or lunch scattered through it — ten minutes of calm, focused work
• A frozen Kong or stuffed chew — peanut butter or wet food frozen overnight, given on the cool floor
• Short training sessions indoors — five minutes of sit, stay, find it. Dogs find this genuinely tiring.

Movement isn't the goal on a very hot day. Calm and cool is.

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