If it’s a hot day and your dog is panting, your first instinct may be to splash him with water.

However, where you splash the water matters.

As dog expert Cesar Millan explains in the video above, the best place is on her chest. If a dog uses water to cool herself off, she’s more likely to wet her chest first, not her back. Reaching under your dog to splash water is more likely to cool them off in a relaxing way.