Swimming Through Stress: How Correction Changes Your Dog’s Perspective - a podcast by Ty Brown

Today I was down at my community lake, which brought to my mind the many times I’ve worked with dogs in the water. I have had lots of clients in the so-called “Sun Belt”—areas such as California, Texas, Arizona, Mexico, and even the south of Spain. Since most of these places are very hot, people who live there either have swimming pools or live on the beach. Naturally, they want their dog to enjoy swimming with them.

Here’s the catch: many of these dogs are German Shepherds or Rottweilers or other protection breeds, dogs who aren't necessarily bred for swimming. In generally, these dogs don't naturally enjoy swimming. Nonetheless, their owners want to make sure that their dog can swim—to ensure their safety if they were to accidentally end up in the water—but to also to enjoy swimming. They just want to be able to take their dogs out to the beach or pool to have some fun.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that I can get almost any dog to enjoy swimming. Do they start out loving it? Absolutely not! Most of them start out wishing that they didn't need to go into the water. But every dog that I’ve trained to swim has ended up being not only a decent swimmer but an enthusiastic one as well.

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