Sade has been to the beach a few times now and is enjoying it. She also went swimming in Coffee Creek (an area nature preserve) with a lab she made friends with yesterday. I noted something interesting. She instictively keeps her mouth closed when swimming. (I had to teach my other shepherds to do that). Also, she will not drink from the lake and she didn’t from the creek either.
Libby has been to the beach, but still likes terra firma undr her feet. Went to lake Ontario to the sandy beach, but the waves had to be bitten. I think I need to send her to visit cousin Ivan.
That is really interesting, I never thought about having the mouth open or shut when swimming. At least you know they are taking in water with parasites or chemicals.
How did you teach your other dogs to keep their mouths shut when swimming?
I think the swimming is great exercise for a dog.
A friend of mine uses swimming exclusively to condition his dogs. He competes on a national level with the one dog but he has two dysplastic elbows . The swimming allows the dog to stay in shape without stressing the joints.
I would just tell them to keep their mouth closed and hold my hand under their lower jaw until they figured it out. It usually happened very quickly but Sade did it automatically from the first time, yet she bites at the water in her baby pool.
It is good she is not ingesting the water. I tend to avoid the lake the day after bad storms because you will usually get higher bateria levels then. I also worry about blue-green algae blooms which can be common in smaller lakes and ponds during heat waves and late summer. Blue green algae can toxic in some situations.
http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/bluegreenalgae.pdf
Swimming is a great way to condition a dog (or person) because it does not stress the joints. I used to swim Ruffie for his HD. It made a huge difference for him as well.
Irene
@Irene
You make an excellent point about water run-off. There is a definite increase in giardia to surface water after heavy rains. Blastomycosis can also be prevalent, which is nasty stuff:
http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/courses/blasto/intro.html
She is a very smart pup to keep her mouth closed!
In Florida (and other warm states) swimming in warm water poses another health hazard. There is a brain-eating amoeba that has affected enough people in this area that even some spring-fed waters have been closed to swimmers in the summer.
http://www.lcra.org/water/safety/boating/pam.html
LOL. I think between the three of us, we have just scared everyone into staying out of the water. And we worry about shark attacks…
Seriously, swimming is great fun and exercise but it is important to know the dangers and heed no swimming signs. They are usually there for a good reason.
A brain eating amoeba in Florida . . . well that explains a lot. (present company excluded of course).
I’ve been waiting for a reply to this all day, but STAN—I didn’t expect it from a sweet guy like you! Now if it were John or Al, it would be a different story. 😉
I couldn’t help myself — it was teed up so nicely!
Wow, you learned something new everyday! I will keep these info in mind. Coffee creek sounds very good in the morning.