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First Swimming Lesson

1K views 7 replies 8 participants last post by  warnerfulishous 
#1 ·
I take my dog to the beach often and I think it may be her favorite place. She goes in the water to about chest deep then stops. I took her to the bay today since there are no waves. I tried to coax her out and then held her up until she was kicking and holding her head up. We did this a few times until she was distracted by other dogs. It looks like once she gets more comfortable she may like it and get the hang of it.

Any suggestions? or experience on how long it may take her to learn?

She is clever enough that when a dog who does swim is playing she waits for them to retrieve the toy and then grabs it out of their mouth :comehereyou:
 
#2 · (Edited)
We've been trying to get Duke comfortable with our pool, and we've had no such luck.. He hates the water, mind you he did fall in unexpectedly and my fiancé had to jump in and grab him out, and that was his first experience..likely after that his mind was set on never again!

But I thought for both my sanity and his safety I'd "teach" him how to swim, and he can swim! It's a little sloppy, but he can safely get to the stairs and get out.. I don't want to traumatize him so I left it at that..

I think you can either have a dog who loves to swim and takes to it naturally, or you have a dog like mine who looks like a hot mess swimming lol .. Although perhaps your baby with a few more lessons will be more enticed, and like you said she likes to go in chest deep, that's a good start!
 
#3 ·
Yep! I can't get Sam to swim at all on his own .. I can't even get him to walk through a puddle so I can't say I'm surprised. I brought him to the beach twice last week and him getting in the water/swimming was not a success lol. We tried luring him anyway we could but he wouldn't go in and then eventually I carried him and he wigged out. The entire time I was against just carrying him in to not traumatize him but couldn't think of anything else! He swam out which was cool but it only happened because he was lifting his paws to "walk" on the water. It was adorable and pretty funny to watch but never again! He wasn't happy for at least an hour after that, poor boy.
I've considered getting him a life vest and trying in a friends pool but at the same time I don't want to buy a life vest for no reason if he's just gonna hate the water. I've read online that boxers are either sinkers or swimmers, with the majority being sinkers. I mean he swam out of the water when I put him in far enough but I wouldn't really consider him a swimmer haha. The only dog friendly beaches I know of around me are on the bay side of the beach and the depth is maybe 4 ft tops even if you walk out like 60 feet. Wish I had a swimmer!
 
#5 ·
We are going to take the pups with us to the lake in September, we got a life jacket for Zoe since we think she'll come in the water with us. Didn't bother for Max because we know he won't even want to get his feet wet, will probably just let him hang out at the cabin. He's a grumpy old man.
 
#6 ·
We took Jester to the beach at about 12 weeks for the first time.... He didnt know what to think about water and jumped around like crazy, trying to step on it and wouldn't go too far in. But since everyone else was in the water... and being alone on the shore didn't appeal to him, he finally went in.

I am not sure If I would call it swimming yet... or if I would trust him to go in unsupervised... but there was panicky paddling. and he did get from point A to... well... some other point
 
#7 ·
Aspen cannot swim if her life depended on it. We had two scares where she fell in the lake, and both times she sank like a rock and didn't even attempt to swim - I had to jump in and pull her out from under the water. She went to some swimming lessons (geared mostly to rehab situations, but the lady who did it says she has lots of boxers come in for "learn to swim" sessions). Now she will move her legs enough to keep her head above water for a very short time, but she doesn't like to swim. She loves going in to her elbows, but that is about it.

Sadly for a dog who doesn't swim and doesn't like the water, she is stupid and fearless around the water and has fallen off the boat several times by leaning too far over trying to grab a floating stick or from jumping on the seat too quickly and her momentum carriers her forward, so she now wears a life jacket at all times when in the boat or around deep water. It has a handle on it so we can just reach over and pull her back in when she forgets that she can't swim.
 
#8 ·
My Mollys first trip to the beach was interesting. Once she figured out that it was in fact water (which she loves) and what the dock was she took off running and ran right of the end of the dock. by the time i reached the end of the dock she was doing fine, a little freaked out but fine, and swam back to the shore. Now, however she just cant get the idea that her head needs to stay above the water.
 
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