How To Teach A Dog To Swim?

And yet: does the dog like to swim? Or does he not love, but simply obeys the command of the owner, who invited him to plunge on a hot day or threw a toy into the river? And is it worth getting angry if for some reason she does not fulfill your whim, refusing to get into the water?

Most likely, in this kind of relationship between a person and a four-legged friend, one should proceed from the fact that swimming is an instinctive act for a dog. This is the optimal behavior that the animal chooses when it is in the water.

The whole point of working with a dog is not to teach him how to swim. And first of all, to help overcome hydrophobia. And such a turn of affairs already imposes certain obligations on a person: learning to swim should be perceived as one of the acts of raising a dog, one of the links in a complex system of interaction between a person and an animal. It hardly makes sense to be guided by the popular wisdom "The salvation of drowning is the work of the drowning themselves!" and, having swam into a deep place, push the dog off the boat … Say, it is by its nature obliged to swim!

To swim out, of course, she will come out. But the impression of fright can be so strong that it will be extremely difficult to overcome it in the future.

Instinctive swimmer. A puppy, like a human infant, is an instinctive swimmer from birth. But if the methods of teaching kids to water are well developed, then there are no “swimming schools” for dogs.

Most likely, here you should rely on Nature itself and, for a start, carefully observe the behavior of wild animals in the water.

The model of such behavior is reduced to the instinctive ability of young animals to imitate the actions of their elders. The first acquaintance with the river occurs out of necessity, the cub comes here just to quench its thirst. If the weather is hot, it can rinse or even lie down in the water in a shallow place. So gradually, as he grows up, he learns to overcome fear of hydration - looking at adults, imitating their behavior. The hunter's instinct is able to captivate him and the moment of pursuit of prey so much that a young animal, not trained to swim, can easily overcome a water barrier and not even pay attention to a significant current.

This is, in general terms, a scheme that is quite suitable for training a puppy, weasel, consideration of the pet's desire, play - all these methods should be in the arsenal of the "instructor". But not hard coercion.

I didn't notice how I swam. There are no special tricks in the swimming school. It is better to start with ordinary walks by the water - let the puppy get used to it, get used to it, and feel confident in the neighborhood with this new environment for him. After a while, the owner can start practical training: he smoothly, slowly, enters the water in a gentle, shallow place, holding his pet on a leash. The leash in this case is used solely for control, but not as a way to drag the dog into the water.

It is possible that at the beginning of training there will be problems: the dog will start to resist. You can take her in your arms and hold her on the water - while ensuring her freedom of movement.

The most common ball game opens up rich possibilities: if the dog likes it and does not mind swimming after the toy, all that remains is to gradually increase the distance at which the ball is thrown.