Do They Know How Long and How Far They Can Swim?

[Leslie and Halas]

My friends moved to a house on a lake late last summer.  I've had Halas over there a few times, and he likes to play in the water.  He'll run along the water's edge, go in about chest-deep, maybe swim out in a small circle, etc.  He seems to love swimming, but he doesn't always swim when he has the opportunity.  There have been times that I've had to get in the water and go out a little bit, in order to get him to really swim.  And the last couple of times he's had the chance to swim, he hasn't taken advantage of it.  They have about 2 acres, unfenced, and I've kept Halas on his leash or a 30-ft lead the other times we've been there.  I can let go of the leash or lead, and he doesn't stray too far.  If he does decide to swim, I can hold onto the long lead.

Yesterday, we took Halas and Barley out there to play with my friends' dog, Bubbles.  With the people and the other dogs right there, I didn't keep Halas on a leash or lead, because I knew he'd stay close to us.  The dogs were having a blast. Three fluffy, poodle mixes running huge circles in the yard, chasing each other, running along the edge of the water.  They were having a great time.  If they got a little too far away from us, we'd just call one of them, and they'd come running back.  It was really fun watching them.

At one point, Halas was walking along the edge of the water, and then he went a little further out, and started swimming in one of his small circles.  I like watching him swim, so I was glad to see him doing one of his little circles.  But then, he turned naughty.  When he was just about back to shore, he turned around and started swimming further out.  I don't know if he saw a fish, or what, but he decided to swim towards the middle of the lake, instead of coming back to shore.  I was calling him, but he'd just look at me and keep swimming.  I started wondering if he would know when he was getting tired; if he would know that he couldn't just stop swimming when he was in deeper water; if he would know when it was time to turn around and head for shore.  He really wasn't out there very long, but I started getting worried.  When he kept ignoring us, and was making no effort to come towards shore, I finally went in after him.  I kicked off my flip-flops, and swam out to him in my shorts and tshirt.

I thought that if he really was getting tired, he'd be glad to see me, and would try to grab onto me for a swim back to shore.  But he must not have been tired at all.  He swam next to me in the general direction of the shore, but he kept trying to angle himself away from me a little, so that he could turn around and head back to the middle of the lake again.  I had to keep pulling him back towards me to keep him heading in the right direction.    He was probably embarrassed, thinking, "Mooooom!  I'm a great swimmer!  Why'd you have to go and do that?!  I was having fun!  I would have come back when I got tired!"  He got in some trouble for not coming when I called him, but he didn't seem to care.  He was having too much fun swimming.  But that's easily the longest/furthest swim he's ever had, and I didn't realize he had that in him, especially after all of the running the dogs had been doing before that.

Lessons learned:  Always have him on his 30-ft, floating lead when he's going to be near water.  Maybe get him a life jacket, in case he somehow gets in the water without his lead, and swims a little too far.  Always work on and reinforce a strong recall.

So, to those of you with swimmers: do they seem to have an idea of how far or how long they can swim?  Or, left on their own, would they overdo it, and possibly put themselves in danger?

Here's a picture of Halas a few hours after his big swim.  He's so curly when he gets wet.  He's also been sleeping like a rock since we got home last night.  Sleepy, curly, naughty boy!  But he's still cute!  And at least he didn't try to smother anyone yesterday.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

My guys aren't real swimmers.....they just like to play around the edge and if they do go in it's not very far.  My brother has a Lab who is a fantastic swimmer.  She can swim forever and will go very far from shore.  He has taught her to come back when he whistles....I think it's a lot like an "on land recall". 

[Lynda Kamrath]

Very interesting question for me.  My ALD has a swimming lesson at a canine rehab facility on Wednesday because I do not know what he would do in a lake or swimming pool.  He loves diving in the waves at the beach but doesn't actually swim there.  So...we shall see.

I have known some lab puppies who were just natural swimmers.  It is hard to just keep them out of the water.  One puppy we took out in a ski boat when she was 10 weeks old and she kept diving into the lake.  We would fish her out and the next thing you knew she was back in the water headed away from the boat.  Another puppy we took to the beach and he headed right out into the water.  My friend was afraid that he would drown and put him on a leash and wouldn't let him get far away from her.  She never took him back to the beach (to swim) even though I told her there was no way she was going to drown a lab.

So, I am a swimmer and can swim as far as I want.  If I get tired, I just turn over and rest on my back for a while.  I have no problem swimming a mile, but I am pretty slow.  I think it works about the same for a dog.  Unless they get frightened, they can probably swim forever.  Just my opinion.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This might be an appropriate place to mention that too much exercise and/or swimming in very cold water can cause a condition called "limber tail" in Labrador Retrievers and similar breeds. So it seems best not to let our doodles overdo it, especially the first time they go swimming in any particular season.

"The cause of limber tail is not known although it is thought to be
associated with hard workouts (especially in underconditioned dogs), heavy
hunting, and swimming or bathing in water that is too cold or too warm"

http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/coldtail.html

 

 

[Leslie and Halas]

Luckily for me, since I wasn't the one that wanted to swim, the lake water was warm.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Yes, we discussed this recently.

[Ronna, Murphy & Wilson]

Murphy would probably swim until he drowned....seriously.  And if he thinks we are going to throw his frisbee he will jump in the water, if we don't throw it he will swim in circles looking for it until he almost panics.  We took him swimming in my friends pool on saturday and he would not stay out of the pool...we had to leave to get him to stop jumping in.  I think he would swim until he passed out from exhaustion.   Wilson on the other hand HATES water...no worries with him.

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Stuart is my swimmer - he LOVES water and will swim to fetch his water toys till he is worn out BUT I believe that he does know when he has had enough.  Dogs are smart and have survived through the ages by their instincts.  While swimming in an in Georgia in a inland lake - he goes waaaaay out there - I don't ever worry.  Now that we are at Lake Michign - that is different - there are calm days and rough days - and rip currents that can cause even excellent swimmers to drown.  I'm waiting for my future SIL to get here so we can take the dogs swimming together on a calm day.  I don't own a long lead - sometimes a dog just has to be a dog.  Rooney - AKA Niles Crane detests water but has discovered that sand gives him the zoomies.

[Carol and Banjo]

ROTFL @ Niles Crane!!!!!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Fudge jumped in our lake after some geese and she never swims without a life jacket, but she didn't have one on that day. It was an unexpected jump :) She kept swimming and was pretty far out and then you could almost see her run out of gas and turn around like, "oh no, now I have to swim all the way back." She seemed to know when she had enough, but even coming back she was scoping the shoreline for a place to escape. She is our tester dog!!

Halas, Fudge and you must never get together. We would find you swimming off into the sunset :) I am sure he was just trying to work off some steam, so he didn't have to smother anyone later.

[Leslie and Halas]

Yes, he's been too tired to smother since then, so I've been able to get some sleep. LOL.

[Leslie and Halas]

So it sounds like we have a mix of doodles who know their limits, and doodles who don't.  The bottom line is that I just have to be more prepared when he's around water.  He likes swimming, so I want him to be able to do it.  I'll just make sure I have my swimsuit on when we're at their house, and I'll keep that 30-ft floating lead on him.

He's still tired from his big day of running and swimming.  He's been swimming before, but it's never for very long at a time.  He just swims in a little circle, and gets back on land.  He may do that a bunch of times, but he's taking breaks.  This time, he clearly had no intention of coming back any time soon.  I don't know where he was headed.  He didn't seem to be getting tired, but I didn't want him to get so far out there that it would take me a long time to get to him.

We've never played fetch in the water, so I don't know if that would encourage him to come back or not.  He'd probably just ignore the ball or whatever it was, and then I'd have to go get that, too.  His recall is normally good, and he had come back to me several times on land already that day, but I guess he just didn't want to get out of the water.