Dog Days of Summer: Four Things Worth Knowing Before Your Next Lake Day
Summer is the best season to be a dog. Longer days, open doors, water to splash in, and more time outside with the people they love. It's also the season with a few things worth knowing about, not to scare you off the lake, but so you can enjoy all of it with your eyes open.
We put this together to go with our Dog Days of Summer conversations on the radio. Four topics, no fluff, the kind of stuff y'all can actually use this weekend. There's a free downloadable guide at the bottom if you want to keep it or print it for the fridge. Let's get into it.
Fun ways to train a summer puppy
Spring and early summer are peak puppy season, so a whole lot of folks are sitting on the floor right now with a new dog who has zero manners and a bottomless tank of energy. I've been there more times than I can count. Good news: summer is the easiest time of year to train, because you're already outside anyway. Use it.
Here's the thing most people get wrong. They think training means long, serious sessions where everybody's frustrated by minute three. A puppy's attention span is about as long as a sneeze. Short bursts of a few minutes, several times a day, beat one long session every time. And the best training doesn't feel like training at all. It feels like a game.
A few that work:
- Hide and seek. You hide, call once, and throw a little party when they find you. That's recall, and it sticks because it's fun, not because you drilled it.
- Which hand. Treat in one fist, let them sniff it out. Teaches focus and patience without a single command.
- Find it. Toss a few pieces in the grass and let their nose do the work. It'll tire them out faster than a walk.
- Tug with rules. Play hard, then ask for a "drop." Teaches impulse control inside a game they already love.
Two summer reminders. Train in the morning or evening, because hot pavement and a panting puppy don't mix. (We covered heat and hot pavement last month, so y'all already know the drill: walk early, skip the midday sun.) And pay attention to what you're rewarding with, because the treat matters more than people think. Which brings me to the next thing.
Every dog has a price
Ask any trainer. Every dog has a treat they'd cross broken glass for, and a treat they'll take or leave. The first kind is what people mean by "high-value," and it's the difference between "eh, I'll come when I feel like it" and "I am LISTENING now."
What makes a treat high-value comes down to three things. High smell, because dogs lead with their nose and the more real it smells, the more they want it. Real meat, protein they recognize as actual food and not a flavor-dusted filler. And small and soft, so they can eat it fast and the lesson keeps moving instead of stalling out on a long chew.
Here's the part I'm proud of, so I'm going to tell you the truth. When you're training, you're handing out treats by the fistful. Fifty in a session, easy. So whatever you're handing over had better be real food, because your dog is eating a lot of it. That's the whole reason we make Scout & Zoe's® treats single-ingredient and human-grade. One protein. Nothing you can't pronounce.
It's also why we went looking for proteins nobody else was using. We were the first in the world to put wild-caught Asian Carp and Black Soldier Fly Larvae into pet treats. A different protein means a different smell, and often a higher-value reward for a dog who's bored stiff of chicken. It's also a real option for the allergy pups who can't do the usual stuff, which is exactly why I started down this road in the first place. Novel proteins like duck, lamb, and venison do the same job. Naturally rich in the good stuff, and weird in the way that works.
Water intoxication: the danger most owners have never heard of
Most dog owners have never heard of water intoxication, and that's the scary part. Your dog spends a happy afternoon diving for the ball at the lake, and by evening something's wrong. It's rare, it's real, and it shows up most in summer. The good news, and I mean this, is that you don't have to cancel a single lake trip to keep your dog safe. You just have to know what to watch for.
What it actually is. When a dog takes in too much water too fast, usually from swimming, diving for toys, or biting at a hose or sprinkler, the extra water dilutes the sodium in their blood. Cells swell, and that swelling puts pressure on organs that can't handle it, like the brain and the heart. Vets call it hyponatremia. You can just call it drinking too much, too fast.
Who's most at risk. Dogs who love the water and stay in for long stretches, especially with a lot of diving and fetching. Dogs who gulp big mouthfuls while they swim, or bite at sprinklers and hoses. And small dogs, who show signs faster because it takes less water to throw off their sodium.
Signs to watch for after water play. Pale gums, confusion, lethargy, stumbling or looking unsteady. As it gets worse: labored breathing, glazed eyes, drooling, collapse, or seizures. If you see the serious signs, this is an emergency. Get to an emergency vet right away and call ahead so they're ready. On the way, don't try to make your dog vomit and don't give more water. Fast treatment makes all the difference.
Now here's the part I really want you to hear, because I don't do doom and gloom. Don't cancel the trip. Dogs can have a blast in the water with a few simple habits built in:
- Take breaks. Out of the water every 10 to 15 minutes. A rest break keeps them from swallowing too much.
- Skip the sinking dive toys. Use a flatter floating toy so their mouth closes around it instead of scooping water.
- Bring their own water. A dog with fresh water in a bowl is less likely to gulp lake or pool water in the first place.
That's it. Three habits, and you get to keep every lake day on the calendar.
Five Midwest spots worth packing the dog for
The dog is family, so leaving them behind while you go have fun feels wrong. Good news: you don't have to. Here are five Midwest getaways that genuinely welcome dogs, not just tolerate them, all within road-trip range if you're starting here in Indiana.
Chicago, Illinois The big-city pick, and proof you can do a real city weekend without leaving the dog home. Montrose Beach has a true off-leash stretch of Lake Michigan where your dog can actually swim, Wiggly Field is the local off-leash favorite, and patios all over town welcome dogs. About three hours from Indianapolis.
Indiana Dunes, Indiana The home-state pick, and the one you can do this Saturday. You don't need a whole vacation, you need an afternoon. Parts of Indiana Dunes National Park welcome leashed dogs along the Lake Michigan shoreline, with trails and big water. Roughly two and a half hours from Indianapolis, no hotel required.
Door County, Wisconsin The slow-down getaway. Small towns, scenic shoreline, and cabins built for exactly this kind of trip. Many local beaches allow leashed dogs, Peninsula State Park has the hiking, and spots like Door County Brewing Co. welcome dogs on the patio.
Minneapolis and the Twin Cities, Minnesota The pleasant surprise. It's more of a dog town than people expect, with a surprising number of dog parks, trails, and pet-friendly patios. The Minnehaha Off-Leash Dog Park even has river access for swimming, and a few hotels run real pet packages.
Madison, Wisconsin The easygoing middle ground between Chicago's intensity and Door County's quiet. They call it the City of Four Lakes, and it's wrapped around water like Lake Mendota. Walkable and low-key, with pet-friendly state parks, open play at Warner Park, and camping and hiking at the Capital Springs Recreation Area.
One tip that ties all of this together. Pack their own water and a travel bowl. It keeps them from gulping lake or pool water (see the water safety section above), it travels easy, and it's one less thing to figure out when you get there. Toss in a handful of high-value Scout & Zoe's treats for the car and the new places, keep the training light and fun on the road, and you've got yourself a good trip.