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LadyMarissa's avatar

Have you ever had or known a dog that can't swim?

Asked by LadyMarissa (16090points) July 17th, 2023

I had never really thought about it, but always assumed that dogs instinctively know how to swim. I have seen a lot of videos lately where owners are putting their dog in a life jacket when going near water. I’ve heard several owners say that they are taking their dog to the pool to teach it how to swim. On my Gramp’s farm, we NEVER had a pet dog; however, we did frequently find a bag full of puppies tossed out on the side of the road & they automatically became pets for the kids. Almost all the orphaned canines spent a good portion of their life swimming in the pond in the cows pasture. I don’t remember one ever drowning. I do realize that a dog can get in a situation where they get in trouble & grow so tired that they can no longer swim & might then drown. So, now I’m wondering, do we really need to teach our dogs how to swim or force them to wear a life jacket?

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11 Answers

jca2's avatar

I just googled it and I found that no, not all dogs can swim:

https://www.m-dog.org/do-all-dogs-know-how-to-swim

Response moderated (Unhelpful)
Zaku's avatar

Only one who didn’t want to. He liked to boat, though.

JLeslie's avatar

The dogs I know can swim, but a friend of mine’s dog drowned. I guess he couldn’t get himself out, it was terrible. The dog loved playing in the pool.

snowberry's avatar

My dog was raised in the desert, and at first she didn’t even like to wade in the water! Swimming? She tries to climb on top of it! After a lot of work I eventually taught her to swim, sort of. She’s less likely to drown if she lands in deep water anyway.

Forever_Free's avatar

I have a dog that disliked getting his feet wet or being splashed. When hiking, he would go around streams or leap over them.
When I moved to the beach and walked him everyday he became accustomed to it and would walk in the surf with me.
It took herculean effort to try to get him in the pool. It just wasn’t his thing. He fell into the pool one day as I was near cleaning it and he freaked out. He knew how to paddle, and I guided him out. I however do not think he would have been able to swim very far alone.
It’s just not his thing. He is Australian Shepard/Terrier mix.

jca2's avatar

When I was doing home visits, I visited a woman who had a small white terrier type dog. It was an older dog, she was an older lady in a very large house. Not a mansion, but quite a large house with a swimming pool in the back. The second time I visited her, I asked where the dog was and she told me it drowned. She lost track of the dog and didn’t see it for two hours and found it drowned in the pool. Very sad, very tragic.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Cato hates water! No clue if he can swim.

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Pandora's avatar

I would think it depends on the dog. I believe most short-legged round-body dogs with short snouts have a difficult time swimming. I guess because they are more likely to roll and a short neck makes it difficult for them to keep their face above water. I have a mut and she does not care for the water. She sinks like a brick and I think it’s because she has skinny long legs and is mostly muscle. She doesn’t have a lot of fat on her. My maltese could swim well but he didn’t care for it unless the day was really hot. He also always looked so panicked in the water.
So it’s possible that some dogs also fear drowning or at the least not being solidly on ground.

Love_my_doggie's avatar

I’ve had 2 dogs who couldn’t swim and were frightened by water. A few times, I tried gently leading them to the edge of the ocean or a lake; they’d quickly race back to higher ground.

It seems that chasing balls and playing “fetch” also isn’t instinctive. Before my last dog got rescued, she’d been badly neglected and ignored; nobody had ever played with her. When I’d throw a ball, she’d look at it indifferently and move along to the next thing.

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