Yet More Endless Questions from Yours Truly

[Winterspring]

Are Filas good swimmers? Do they like to swim? We're getting an above-ground pool both for cooling off and low-impact exercise (we all have crap joints in this house...too bad I can get my oldest kitty in there to help with her arthritis). Since he's a Mastiff and needs to be exercised, I know swimming is awesome. They use hydrotherapy for horses that have gone lame or have had broken legs, and for other animals. It's the only aerobic exercise I can do that doesn't grind my knees into dust. I would like to minimize pressure on his joints while giving him a good workout, so we also wanted to get one of those dog ramps (or make one big enough for him) so he can come swimming, too. (With a nice freshwater spray-down after to get the majority of the chlorine out of his coat.)

The question isn't "should we", because I know it would be good for him (and more fun than plodding around the block), but "can we". We're getting a pool regardless, because I love to swim. Just want to know if Taurus can be my synchronized swimming partner.

I don't care about the filter. Won't be my job to maintain the pool, anyway! HA!

 

[Iymala]

The only issue is the liner in the above ground pools. Their nails can rip it quite easily. If you train him to go in and out at the ramp and monitor and direct him when he is in the pool then he should be good to go. Claymore does fine in our above ground pool but we are always in there with him and he likes the swim. When he is ready to get out he swims to the ladder and we give him a boost out. A ramp would be far superior or even those stairs they have.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Get a ramp instead of a ladder for getting into and out of the pool, and MAKE SURE HE KNOWS WHERE IT IS AND HOW TO USE IT. Even if he doesn't have access when you're not there accidents happen.

 

[Winterspring]

Yes! A ramp seems like it would be much safer, and his little hands and feet won't slip through. Thank you for confirming that opinion for me, ruth! We were going to make one for the bed, too, since I am MEGA paranoid about his joints. And I can't imagine that long lope of his trying to go up steps. (I'll probably end up using it, too, to save my knees.) I would rather build the ramp myself, but I might be getting a tad too ambitious, especially since I can't leave well enough alone and it would have baroque designs on it in a finely sanded hard wood for traction, and I get kind of dopey about spoiling my kids. (I just bought the cats highly bejeweled collars so they look just as lovely and regal as I think they do, and am considering either buying cat beds with a cooling pack you can slip in or design one if I can't find it. It would be wasted on Taurus. He's found a sheet he likes. And Mommy and Daddy's bed.)

I'm just wondering if it's an individual dog thing, or if Filas in general might like to swim. I noticed he had webbing on his cute little hands and feet, so I was curious as to whether or not they were meant to be water dogs, too. (They seem to be pretty all-purpose otherwise...)

 

[raechiemay]

I know it's not exactly the same but my first EM loved to swim. With her having HD it really helped with her flexibility & range of motion. Only downside to it was she was spay incontinent so she would leak really bad after a swim. We had just the regular, in ground pool & Jessie was introduced as a "middle aged" puppy. She took to it really well, we just took our time with it as to not freak her out. I think it helped at the time that my parents had a water loving dachshund who would literally take a running dive into the pool whenever you let her & when she was tired she would whine & bark to be put on her floaty so she could still be in all the action, just didn't have to do anymore work. She would often pass out on that floaty. We taught Jessie where the stairs were & she loved that the 2nd stair kinda wrapped around the front part of the pool. We also had another seat by the waterfall that was the same depth of water as the 2nd step. Over the course of a couple weeks Jessie decided she loved to sit on the seat by the waterfall as it was shaded & she had a great view of everything. She came to love the pool so much she would often help herself when she got too hot & we never had to worry about her getting stuck or drowning.

We loved calling her the pool monitor too because she would not tolerate any kind of horse play around the outside of the pool. The one & only time she stood up on her back legs throughout her entire life was when my stepdad pretended to throw my younger brother in the water. Jessie was not having it & jumped up on him to give him a in your face warning. LOL. I've never seen my stepdad get startled but he was!! So I think it's safe to say that a lot of mastiffs CAN love water, I would just take your time introducing it to him.