When are portuguese water dogs ready to swim?
I have a 3 month old PWD puppy and a pool and I was wondering at what age should I allow him to swim? I figured I should wait until he is an adult, but should I expose him to the water sooner than later so he won’t be afraid when he’s older?
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Tagged with: Adult • pool • Portuguese Water Dogs • Puppy
Filed under: Portuguese Water Dog
See my grooming answer.
Actually Porties need to be introduced to water and taught to swim. Again, start him young. We started with a few visits to the lake to splash on the shoreline (and roll in slime and dead things). Then I got him to try swimming by throwing toys a foot or two beyond where he could stand. He never really liked it until the day I waded out about 3 feet deep and he decided he preferred swimming next to me to being alone on the shore.
For other suggestions you can visit with people who do water competitions with their dogs. They will have good ideas for introducing your dog to water. Assuming you are doing some beginning obedience work, your trainer should be able to refer you to the water trial folks.
Finally, a better resource for your PWD questions would be the PWD Group at http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/pwdpets/.
Continued good luck.
Just start off by giving him baths, letting him splash in puddles and allowing him out in the rain. Puppies love to swim and you can allow him to within the next couple of months. It is a water dogs natural instinct to swim so start him off young. Take him for walks by the coast and onto the beach and let him paddle and if he wanted to go right in then let him. You might want to do this before using the pool because then he can go in gradually, getting himself used to it. Make sure you have taught him to come back before letting him off down a beach! If you find he dives straight into the water happily, then allow him in the pool!
Good luck!
I introduced my springer to the water when when she was about 12 weeks. It was summer and we where on holiday by a loch so i walked into the loch with my older dog and she followed.
When she was a a little bit older, say 15 weeks we took her to the small lake in our park, i stood on one side and my mum on the other, when my older dog went in and swam across we shocked to see that our little puppy instantly dived in and swam across with him!
We can’t get her out of water now.
When I walked them today she swam in every lake, around 5 lakes, and at the end of the walk I sat by one of the lakes and she kept bringing me her ball for me to throw in for her. She spent about and hour swimming today!
The sooner the better really, but don’t force him, just praise him a lot when he goes in.
Good luck