Will Water Loving Dogs Swim And Swim And Swim

[mokhahouse]

Molly loves to swim but will usually come back if I call her but she has to be able to see and hear me. On one occasions she swam out much further than usual and there was quite a few people on the beach. I could see her looking for me, swimming back and forth. She looked exhausted. Thankfully she spotted me and headed straight in. It was the only time I was really worried.

[j]

All my Border Collies have been water mad and would swim at any opportunity.

One of them used to body surf on the waves She would also put her head right under the water to pick up rocks from the bottom of a river or dam.

Another one would spend hours "rounding up" our ducks and geese in the dam. If they actually got out of the water, he would herd them back into the water so he could swim again.

I have never had any problems with them going too far though

ETA - I think the only time I have ever had a heart stopping moment was when one of my dogs was a youngish adolescent/puppy and was swimming in the creek. There was a low level crossing across the creek and he swam over to the crossing to get out of the water, but got stuck in the current and got dragged under the crossing through the drain pipe. The crossing was only one lane wide, but the time it took him to travel that distance seemed like an eternity. I was beside myself thinking he would get stuck in there or there would be a stick jammed in there or something. It was probably only 30 secs that he was out of my sight, but boy! I only ever let him go on the downside of the crossing after that.

Edited September 5, 2010 by j

[James Bond]

Our lab loves swimming on the long line - I don't dare let him off even on dry land as his recall is a bit rubbish right now although getting better. Unfortunately our two favourite beaches are both very shallow quite a long way out so he doesn't actually often get the chance to do any more than paddle! Occasionally he falls between sandbars and gets a real swim .

I am thinking of making an even longer line with another rope so he can get out a bit deeper.

JB