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Take Your Dog to the Vet
First and foremost, you should take your dog to see the veterinarian for their annual check-up. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, which is as applicable to dogs as it is to humans. By making sure that your dog gets examined, you can catch and correct potential issues before they can turn into serious problems, which is particularly important right now because summertime fun and excitement tend to be more strenuous for your dog. Better still, the visit to the veterinarian is a great chance to learn more about all of the things that can threaten your dog’s health as well as the best ways with which to combat them.
Vaccinate
Don’t Forget Grooming
Make sure to groom your dog before letting them out to join in on the summertime fun and excitement. In part, this is important because a good grooming can help them shed their winter coat, which is necessary for keeping them from overheating in the hot summer sun. However, they should also be getting regular trimmings of their nails as well as regular cleanings of their ears, which makes this time as good as any.
Watch Out for Overheating
Some breeds handle the heat better than others. However, no matter what breed your dog belongs to, you need to make sure that they will not overheat, particularly if you are planning to let them spend some unsupervised time outside. At a minimum, this means helping them with the transition from their winter coat to their summer coat, making sure that they have easy access to plenty of water for hydration purposes, and providing them with shaded places to rest and relax when the sun is highest in the sky. Above all else, you should never leave your dog alone in your car because its interior can become much hotter than its exterior because of the absorbed sunlight.
Activities
Further Considerations
With that said, it is important to remember that all dogs are unique, meaning that their summertime preparations should be unique as well. As a result, you should not just follow the 5 steps mentioned here but also do some of your own research on your own time so that you can be sure that you are doing everything needed to get your dog ready for the summer season.
Nathaniel Berman is Managing Editor at Puppytoob.