In this Day 5 installment of his summer series for dog owners, Max Randall explains how high temperatures and shortened or skipped walks diminish a dog’s daily enrichment. He argues that relying solely on walks leaves dogs under‑stimulated, leading to restlessness, hyper‑activity, and emerging behavioral problems as summer progresses. Max urges owners to adopt a proactive mindset, seek additional enrichment methods (especially for high‑energy or working breeds), and to watch for early signs of a dog struggling before issues become obvious. He references earlier videos and the MK9+ platform for deeper resources and previews a follow‑up video on recognizing early distress signals.
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when a dog owner becomes aware of things like this, you stop becoming one of those people that just reacts to your dog because stuff has changed, and you become more of a proactive dog owner that just understands stuff as well. Hello, I'm Max. Welcome to day 5 of the summer series, collecting a little nugget of value each day until you can confidently lead your dog through summer. And here's everything you need to know about how summer can affect your dog's behavior without you realizing. For those of you that already follow this page or are members on MK9+, you'll know there's a lot more to behaviour than just teaching a dog what to do. I know some trainers on this very platform make it out like training solves everything, but it doesn't. Summertime is hot. Don't know if you've noticed that. And you're going to be skipping some walks, cutting walks short. But even on the walks you go out on, a lot of dogs won't be able to exert themselves as they normally can. With these 3 things, dogs will start getting less enrichment. And a less enriching life, what does that cause? A more restless dog, a dog that tries harder, gets more hyperactive. If we don't know how to handle this and we just keep sticking to a couple walks a day because that's all we really know, by the time September comes around, you've got this dog that's so much more hyper and frustrated than the beginning of the year. You've now got more behavioral issues. So my one piece of advice I wish every every single dog owner knew is this: don't rely on your walks for everything. It's very unlikely your walks will be able to tick every single box for your dog anyway, but especially this time of year, they're definitely not going to. I gave you a couple good ideas in yesterday's video, so definitely go and watch those. But if you've got a working breed, a higher energy breed that really loves to do stuff, summer could really be a problem for you. So for you, I can't help you here. MK9plus.com can really help. But the important question is, how can I tell if my dog is really struggling before the behavior starts giving it away? That's what we're going to learn about tomorrow.
