Does anyone have a dog that can't swim?

Question

I was looking at the website for a pet spa. For $15 per day, they will teach your dog how to swim. They said in three days they will be able to tell if your dog is a land lover, or a true water dog. My dog know how to swim.

Answer 1

My weenie dog loves jumping in our pool as long as someone else is in it because he sinks like a rock. Its funny because he will still be paddling even though he is sinking.

Answer 2

I had a German shepherd search dog that had to pass swimming in order to be certified. I waited until the instructor's back was turned and shoved him off the dock with my foot because there was NO way he was going to obey my orders to get in the water.

He swam about fifteen feet, paws flailing the water in pure desperation, and fell onto shore like he'd narrowly escaped death.* He passed his certification. . .but he wouldn't have anything to do with me for the rest of the day.

This is also the dog who, when asked to fetch a floating toy, tried to drink the entire lake dry rather than go into the water and get it. I think it's pretty safe to assume that he was a "land lover."

Edit:

* In case it sounded like I'm a mean dog-drowning person, the water at that point was about five feet deep. I could've jumped in and gotten him if there'd been a problem. He practically walked ashore after the first yard or so, anyway.

Answer 3

My dog does not swim, she doesn't like the water too much, when we go to the dog park here, they have a beach, all the dogs there usually run into the water but mine won't go near it!

Answer 4

Dachshunds and Beagles can't swim because their legs are too short in comparison to the rest of their bodies. They just sink it's kind of funny actually, but we are a very water sport oriented family and in order to include the dogs, we had to teach them to swim with life jackets on. The life jackets keep them on top of the water and then they had to figure out how to move around. It was a hoot teaching them and now they are great and safe on the water!

Answer 5

I thought my dog was afraid of water. He avoids puddles and won't use a doggy wading pool anyway. (Well, he used it for drinks but that's it.)

Then I took him to an abandoned quarry where there were large puddles--more like ponds. My daughter was throwing rocks in the ponds, and my dog acted like he wanted to chase after the rocks. So I let him off his leash, and in he went! He seemed to know what to do, and had a great time, but he still avoids puddles on walks and won't go near our backyard swimming pool.

Answer 6

I have two dogs who are "land lovers". It's not so much that they can't swim, they just won't. The other two like swimming. It's funny because the Lab I've got likes swimming, but my one Boston Terrier (they aren't exactly notorious swimmers) absolutely loves it. She'll fetch balls underwater by plugging her nostrils right up.

Answer 7

I have a 3 year old retrever. he cant swim. i took him to the end of the year pool dog swim, and had to hold him while i was in the water. if i let him go, hed thrash around. my scottie was scared too. but she swam when i put her in the water, but only twards the edge to get out and run away from me. im doing the kiddie pool thing right now for them.

Answer 8

we had a dog that wasn't t a very good swimmer. He was Austrailan Shepard. He would just flail about and chop at the water. However our other dog, German Shepard, jumps in a swims like a champ.

Answer 9

Mine can't swim. He is a pug. He freaks out at the thought of his nose going under water. He doesn't exactly have a snout to play around with. I don't think any pug can.

Answer 10

my dog didn't know how to swim. he would sort of kick his feet in the tub when we would give him a bath, but when we were out in our friend's pool, we had to put our dog on a raft b/c he wanted to come in the pool but was too scared to try and swim.