The joy of seeing your dog eagerly making their way to a lake and jumping with excitement is indescribable. Although dogs may seem like natural swimmers, not all are born with the skill. It is simply a myth that all dogs instinctively know how to swim.
Teaching your puppy how to swim can be tricky since the pup may be a little timid at first and confused about what to do. Hence, spending some time training them and boosting their confidence can go a long way.
Find Out If Your Dog is Comfortable in Water
Unfortunately, some dog breeds aren’t made to go swimming in depths. This is mainly because their size and shape don’t allow them and they also don’t have the right muscles. Some of the dog breeds that struggle in water are Bulldogs, Pugs, Basset Hounds, Dachshunds, Pugs, Greyhounds etc. Also, if your dog is overweight or has weak bones, you should be careful about letting them into the water.
This doesn’t mean that your dogs won’t enjoy splashing around in the lake water or will never swim in a pool. But if they do swim, they are more likely to require some kind of buoyancy help to keep their heads above the water.
Introducing Your Dogs to Water
If you have ever tried to bathe a dog, you would know how hesitant the fido was back then, especially if it’s their first time. So you can imagine how tricky it can get if you are taking them to a large body of water. To make things easier, you can introduce them in a shallow area of water where there aren’t any waves or currents which your dogs will find unsettling and scary as well. Also, the location should be calm so that your pup doesn’t get overstimulated and distracted by their surroundings.
To keep your pup motivated during the sessions, reward them with dog treats and praises which are highly useful to catch their attention.
Training Your Dogs to Swim
As soon as your dogs get comfortable in calm shallow water, you can move ahead and train them by introducing them to deep waters, but still calm with no big waves. To ensure that they are safe, it’s a good idea to give them a life jacket, even if you are standing right next to them. Once they have gotten used to this, you can start removing any assistance. This is similar to how you remove the training wheels from a kid’s bike once they have gotten used to it.
It is best to keep your dogs from drinking the water from the pool since you don’t know its quality. Hence it is wise to keep fresh drinking water with you always and a bowl for dogs to let them drink.
Let them Experience Joy!
At this point, you can start having fun trips with your dog to the beaches or lakes with your pup, knowing fully well that they can manage themselves in water. Just make sure that you bring a pet-drying towel with you for drying your pets and keeping them warm.
