From June through September, Central Texas afternoons are genuinely dangerous for dogs. We train year-round, so our summer protocol is non-negotiable. Steal it.
The pavement rule
Place the back of your hand on the asphalt for seven seconds. If you can't hold it, your dog can't walk on it. In August, Round Rock asphalt can exceed 140°F at 4 p.m. — enough to blister paw pads in minutes. Sidewalks run cooler than asphalt, grass cooler still, shaded granite trail cooler again.
Our summer schedule
- Field sessions before 9:30 a.m. or after 7:30 p.m., period.
- Midday sessions move indoors or to shaded water work — the dock at our facility earns its keep in July.
- Brachycephalic breeds (Frenchies, bulldogs, pugs) get half-length sessions and double rest, even in the morning.
- Watch for early heat stress: heavy spatula-shaped tongue, glassy eyes, wobbling gait, refusal to continue. Any one of these ends the session immediately.
Mental work beats mileage
Fifteen minutes of place-command duration, food-puzzle work, or new-skill shaping tires most dogs more than an hour-long walk. Summer is the perfect season to build the boring, valuable skills: extended down-stays, threshold manners, crate calm during TV time. Your dog comes out of September better trained than it entered June.
Water is training too
Swimming at Blue Hole or a long-line session at a Brushy Creek access point is legitimate obedience work: recall out of water is one of the hardest recalls there is. Condition it in summer when the water is the reward.