20 Reasons Your Dog Needs to Swim
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Dogs love water, and swimming is a great form of exercise. Not only is allowing your dog the privilege of swimming fun and enjoyable, it’s also good for your canine companion. Swimming is so much fun that you should not keep it from your dog. In allowing your dog the privilege of swimming in the pool, in his own pool or even in your local beach or lake if the water is safe, you are teaching him a number of important life lessons he will carry with him throughout the rest of his life. And though what he learns in the water might not seem like anything that will benefit him later on, it is. So let your dog learn to swim, play in the water and have a good, fun, relaxing – and cool – summer. You won’t regret it.
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Great Exercise
Dogs love to swim and it’s great exercise for them, so it’s just one amazing reason to keep your dog in the water for as long as possible. If your dog doesn’t know how to swim, don’t worry about it; he will learn and you can even get him lessons. But the exercise he’s going to get frolicking in the water is enough to keep him good and healthy for a long time.
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Weight Loss
Sometimes dogs eat too much and they get a little fat. And when they get a little fat, they get a little lazy. And that means your vet is going to ask you to make sure your dog loses weight so that it’s not unhealthy. A good way to do this is to get him in the water so that he feels as if he’s playing when he’s actually getting some great exercise.
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Increased Motion
When dogs are in the water, they are able to increase their range of motion. This is why so many dogs that are injured are taken to swim lessons so that they can recuperate and heal their injuries. An increased range of motion makes it a bit easier for them to move, to remain uninjured and to go about their lives with as much ease and comfort as possible.
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Stamina Building
Dogs that get to swim are able to maintain stellar stamina so that they are able to move, have range and be able to enjoy their lives as well as they should. A dog with good stamina is capable of working out harder, of making better decisions and of being more capable of maintaining a healthy level of energy when he or she is working out.
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Practice
The best reason to let your dog swim is for practice. The more practice your dog has, the better. When your dog is a good swimmer, he’s healthier, happier and more capable of saving himself in case of something happening. For example, if you boat and take the dogs with you, you certainly want them to be able to swim if they were to jump out of the boat. It’s just about being good at what they’re doing.
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Keep Cool During Hot Months
When it’s hot outside, dogs overheat easily. This means that you want to provide your animal with the ability to swim to cool off. We aren’t saying you have to go build a pool, but your dogs can swim in something such as a kiddie pool or a little pond or something in your yard. It’s just a good idea all around to ensure that your dog is able to have a place to swim when the weather is warm.
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Relief
Sometimes it’s hot and dogs need some relief from the hot air. Sometimes they’re not feeling well and need a little cooling off to help them. Sometimes they have muscle aches or other health issues and being in the water provides them with the ability to experience a little bit of relief from what ails them. The ability to swim is a good one for dogs since it can provide them with a bunch of relief that’s good for them and good for their stress level and happiness levels.
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Bonding Time
When you and your dog swim together, it gives you time to bond. This is the most important thing that you can do with and for your dog. Time together spent bonding is so important to the both of you. The more you bond with one another, the more you are able to feel happiness and the deeper your relationship. When your relationship is stronger and happier, you are able to spend more time together relieving one another’s stress and feeling good. You’ll both live longer, happier lives and there is no beating that.
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To Get Clean(er)
If the dog has been out in the yard all day, if it’s rained and he made it his business to hang out in mud puddles, or whatever he’s done to become a filthy mess, he can go swimming to clean off. Of course, this is when you’re going to want something like a kiddie pool just for the dog or even a lake or pond in which your animal can go and clean up on his own. You don’t want a filthy dog jumping into your in-ground pool and making a big mess in there.
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Joint Relief
If your dog suffers from joint issues, you might find that teaching him to spend more time in the pool is going to help relieve a great deal of those joint issues. This kind of relief is imperative to helping your dog feel good and healthy, and providing it with the feelings of health that it needs to get through the day. These issues can be age-related, or they can be health-related. Whatever they are, they are important for your dog to seek recovery from, which means some time in the water is absolutely necessary.
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Therapy
It’s not uncommon for both people and dogs to spend a great deal of time in the water to recover and receive therapy after many health issues or accidents. The feeling of weightlessness that the water provides their bodies is so good for them that it makes it possible for them to feel good, to work their muscles and to potentially get back a significant portion of their strength and former ability. It’s never guaranteed, but medical studies have proven that swimming therapy does help.
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Confidence Building
If your dog is nervous and scared of the water, spending more time in it with you is going to help your dog build his or her confidence. This is going to make them more likely to want to get into the water, to feel more confident in their abilities and to feel stronger. When the dog has more confidence in the water, it’s better all around. You will worry less that your dog is in a dangerous situation, and you will worry less that your dog is incapable of self-care and saving in the water.
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Injury Training
Dogs are sometimes injured by things that you cannot control. For example, the attack of another dog, a car that accidently hits one or even something as mundane as a pulled muscle or injured body part from jumping off a porch or landing incorrectly can do wonders on a dogs’ body. For this reason, training is so important in the water. It’s going to allow your dog to retrain body parts previously injured in other manners and help them to become healthier and more responsive to healing.
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Senior Exercise Assistance
Dogs are notoriously used for help and assistance with those who have special needs. Whether special needs is a person with an injury or a disability such as the inability to see or hear, or it’s someone who has just gotten a little older and requires a little bit more help with basic care, dogs are great for those things. They are able to care for seniors who need them, and swimming is a basic part of their job when it comes to that role in their lives.
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Safety Training
Swimming is something that teaches your dogs to be safe. For example, not all dogs are natural or good swimmers despite what it might look like from the outside looking in. For example, there are some breeds that require a life vest just to be outside around a swimming pool since they would sink right to the bottom (the French Bulldog, anyone?). This kind of safety training makes it possible for dogs to learn how to behave in and around the water, and it might even teach them to save the life of someone in need drowning.
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Fun
Let’s be totally and completely honest here; swimming is fun. There are, in fact, few things in life as much fun as hanging out on the pool deck and having a good time while everyone swims, and the dog certainly does not want to be left out of this. You should let your dog learn to swim for this reason and this reason alone if none of the others apply to you in any way. We think that dogs that swim have more fun than dogs that don’t.
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Training
If you want to teach your dog to get stronger, faster, more agile or just plain work on training them in every aspect of their life, swimming is a great resource. Your dog will learn to swim in the water and it will help with different training methods, such as teaching them the correct phrases or just enabling them to learn basic commands and respect for both you and the water. It can also teach dogs to behave in the water.
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For Learning Purposes
Believe it or not, dogs that love to swim can sometimes be a bit excited in the water, and that can prove unsafe for others in the water at the same time. Let’s say that you have kids that love to swim and act like crazy kids in the pool. If they’re ever playing a game that involves a lot of splashing around – and what pool games do not involve a lot of splashing around – you will want your dog to recognize that this does not necessarily mean that your kids are drowning or in danger. You don’t want a dog jumping in the pool to save a child that does not need saving. It’s dangerous.
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Safe Summer Exercise
The summer months are often brutal for all of us, and safe summer exercise is key to keeping everyone healthy. The pool is a great place to get that kind of exercise without worrying that your dog is overdoing it or becoming dehydrated or heat exhausted. You will want to teach your dog that drinking pool water is a bad idea – though he may or may not learn this quickly on his own if you really give him a shot. It’s just a good idea to let your dogs swim so that the summer months are a safe time for him to do something active that won’t affect his health in a negative manner.
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Socially-Challenged Exercise Abilities
Some dogs are socially-challenged in many areas, and that’s all right. Swimming is a great way for them to learn to become more social and less challenged, to enjoy being around other people and to enjoy basic things in life, such as safe exercise and time with human beings. It’s a great way to teach your dog a number of lessons, to allow him to become safer when the weather is dangerously hot, and it’s just plain fun. So let your dog learn to swim.
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