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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Dawn has a background in competition in breed and the obedience ring, the whelping box, trained her own ‘registered therapy dog’, herding, tracking, lure coursing, water work training, field training, agility, and sailing with her boat trained dog. Dawn was one of the few trainers utilizing ‘positive reinforcement’ based methods before it’s popularity. Dawn has been interviewed by authors for a variety of articles such as Dog Fancy and The Washington Post. The Washingtonian Magazine chose Dawn as one of “Washington’s Best Dog Trainers”. As the owner, and founder of Merit Puppy Training, LLC, she continues to teach group classes and also works as a private consultant.
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6/14/2005
Dogs ‘noted’ in breed descriptions as “good swimmers” create a misconception that any canine will naturally take to water. Many breeds are physically built to swim more efficiently than others but that doesn’t mean every dog CAN swim. Whatever breed you own if you have a swimming pool, live near or have access to water you need to ‘water proof’ your dog. I’ve owed many swimming dogs’ having grown up in Florida, and spent much time around water, as well as sailing with my dogs’ down in Florida, and the Caribbean. For almost 20 years I owned a home with a swimming pool so water proofing my dogs’ and children were a fact of life. All my dogs’ were assisted in the water while teaching them how to swim, sometimes using a doggy life preserver while teaching them how to climb up the ladder to get out of a pool using food to lure saying, “ladder UP” directing them to swim to the ladder. If you have a ‘water dog’ but haven’t tried swimming you can assist by going into the water together and teach him how to swim using your arm to balance the rear quarters also teaching how to exit should he ever fall in. If your dog is unable to keep his rear end up and back parallel to the water line he will eventually sink, and drown. There are many ways to keep your dog safe around water - good dog training basics and common sense are paramount.
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You can teach your ‘swimmer’ how to enter and exit water safely using your ‘Sit-Stay, Retrieve, and Recall System’ giving you control over his swimming behavior on land and water. Any uncertainty that your dog won’t come back once enjoying the water you need to stop and teach these behaviors on leash, and or with special water equipment made for dog’s that will be learning to swim before allowing off leash swimming. Throwing a dog into water to teach him how to swim or allow a dog that can’t swim to jump into water is dangerous, horribly last spring a dog I knew drowned this way. It’s ok to allow him into water supervised on leash, or with you in the water together as he gets comfortable testing the water near the shoreline ‘feeling’ the ground under his paws while licking the water. Teaching boundary commands like, ‘OFF’ are a great way to control your dog around water because once taught he will learn to understand it’s meaning and stop to look back at you for acknowledgment. Dog’s typically don’t generalize new commands well and need help from you. If you don’t have time to teach these techniques please stay on leash, supervise your dog around water, and have a reliable ‘Sit-Stay’ and if your dog is off leash have a solid ‘recall’ as it could save his life.
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