Sunny days, longer walks, more time outside. Summer sounds ideal for training, right?

Then the heat settles in. Five minutes into your usual walk, your dog is panting, making a beeline for every patch of shade and looking considerably less impressed by the treats in your pocket. The training session you had planned suddenly isn’t going quite the way you pictured.

There’s a good reason for that. Dogs naturally run warmer than we do, with a normal body temperature around 38.3–39.2°C (101–102.5°F), and they rely heavily on panting to get rid of excess heat. Add warm temperatures, humidity and physical activity, and staying comfortable becomes harder work.

For us, that means summer training often needs a little flexibility. Your usual twenty-minute outing might become ten. The park session might turn into a few minutes in the shade. On some days, staying home with the air conditioning is a perfectly good plan.

You head out with a pocket of treats and a plan to practise loose-leash walking. Your dog starts out happily enough. A little while later, they’re lagging behind, panting harder, stopping at shady spots or turning down food they’d normally inhale.

Panting is one of the main ways dogs dissipate excess body heat. As the temperature and humidity rise, and as your dog generates more heat through movement, keeping their body temperature within a safe range becomes more demanding.

You may see that in how they behave. Your dog might move more slowly, lie down, seek out cool surfaces or shade, disengage from what you’re doing, or lose enthusiasm for food and play. If that starts happening halfway through an exercise, shorten the session, find somewhere cooler, make the activity easier or head home.

It’s easy to picture heatstroke happening on an exceptionally hot day. Activity can also generate a considerable amount of heat. Dogs can develop heat-related illness while walking, running, hiking, playing or working, including on days that don’t feel extreme to us.

This is where knowing your dog’s usual behaviour helps. A dog who suddenly refuses to keep walking, lies down unexpectedly or seems confused needs your attention.

Signs of heat-related illness can include:

• unusually heavy or persistent panting
• sudden reluctance to continue
• excessive drooling
• vomiting or diarrhea
• disorientation or stumbling
• weakness or collapse

If you suspect heat-related illness, stop the activity and move your dog somewhere cooler. Begin cooling them with cool running water over the body, especially the trunk and areas with thinner hair, while keeping water away from the face. A dog showing signs of heatstroke needs veterinary care immediately.

Some dogs have less room for error in warm weather. Older dogs, flat-faced breeds, dogs carrying excess body weight and dogs with health conditions that affect their breathing or temperature regulation deserve extra care. Your dog’s fitness, coat, activity and the conditions outside matter too.

You know those summer mornings when you step outside and immediately think, we should have left an hour ago? Your dog’s training plan can change with the weather too.

Earlier mornings and cooler evenings are often easier. Shade matters. Bring water. Choose cooler surfaces and keep an eye on pavement, concrete, rocks and artificial turf, which can become much hotter than the air around them.

I also plan for less physical work. A few minutes of check-ins, loose-leash walking or recall practice somewhere shady can be plenty.

If your normally food-motivated dog starts taking a treat slowly, spitting it out or turning away altogether, look at what else is happening. Heavy panting, fatigue, direct sun or a demanding environment may all be good reasons to change what you’re doing.

There comes a point in a Montreal summer when stepping outside feels like opening an oven door. Those days don’t require an ambitious substitute exercise plan.

You can scatter some food for your dog to find, set up a foraging activity, practise cooperative care, do a little scent work, or work on an easy skill for a few minutes in the house. A cardboard box and some paper to rummage through can sometimes buy you more enthusiasm than a formal training session.

Sniffing and searching are handy options because dogs can engage their brains without a lot of physical exertion. Food puzzles, shredding, scent work, cooperative care and short training sessions can all help meet behavioural needs indoors.

And if your dog would prefer to find the coolest spot in the house and sleep for the afternoon, that’s an option too. Hot weather can change how much activity feels comfortable, so giving them some choice in how they spend that time makes sense.

Maybe yesterday your dog happily trained for fifteen minutes. Today, they’re done after five.

That difference doesn’t need fixing. Temperature, humidity, activity, sleep, health, motivation and everything else happening around your dog can change what feels manageable from one day to the next.

Pack the treats. Bring some water. Find the shady route. Have a plan.

And if your dog flops down under a tree halfway through it, you have some pretty useful feedback about what today’s plan should look like.