Care Guides

He swam beautifully. That was the problem. My spaniel took to the sea like he had been waiting his whole life for it, and because he looked so competent I let him keep going, and by the end of the afternoon he was shaking, drinking salt water, and had a cut pad from something under the sand.

Sea water is not a swimming pool with waves. It took me one bad August to work that out.

The salt water thing first, because it is the one that catches everybody. A dog swimming in the sea swallows some with every retrieve, and salt water pulls fluid into the gut. A little is nothing. A lot causes vomiting and diarrhoea a few hours later, and in real quantity it causes a dangerous rise in blood sodium, which is a genuine emergency with staggering, disorientation, and seizures. The dogs at highest risk are the obsessive fetchers who will not stop, which describes most spaniels and every labrador I have ever met.

The fix is boring and it works. A big bottle of fresh water, offered every fifteen or twenty minutes, and no arguing about whether he seems thirsty. He drinks the fresh stuff, which means he wants less of the salt. And you stop throwing the ball long before he wants to stop, because a dog who is tired keeps going and swallows more with each trip.

Tides and currents do not care how strong he is

I watched a labrador get pulled sideways off a beach in Cornwall by a rip that was invisible from where his owner stood. The dog was fine, eventually, because he swam across it rather than into it by pure luck. The owner went in after him, which is how people drown.

So: no throwing anything into water you would not swim in yourself. Learn where the rips are on a beach you use often, usually a channel of flat calm water between breaking waves, and keep him out of it. Never send a dog after a ball in a river with any current. And if a dog is in trouble in water, the right answer is to call for help rather than swim out, no matter how it feels in the moment.

Swimming pools are a different set of hazards. The main one is that dogs do not know how to get out. A dog who falls into a pool will paddle along the edge looking for a ramp that does not exist, and that panic is how they exhaust. If you have a pool, teach him where the steps are, repeatedly, from every side, until he can find them from the deep end without thinking. There are pool ramps made for dogs and they are worth the money if the pool is uncovered.

Chlorine is fine on the way in and not fine left on. It dries the coat and irritates skin, especially on a dog with allergies, and it stings eyes. A hose down with fresh water after every swim, ears included on the outside, and that is the whole aftercare. Same applies to salt and to sand.

Ears are the injury I see most in swimming dogs. Water sits in the canal, warm and dark, and bacteria have an excellent week. Spaniels and any dog with a heavy hanging ear are worst affected. Dry the ears properly after swimming, cotton wool on the visible part only, never down the canal, and if he is swimming often ask a vet about a drying solution to use afterwards. A dog shaking his head or scratching an ear two days after a swim needs seeing before it becomes a full infection.

Sand is underrated as a problem. Dogs who dig and then catch a ball get a mouthful, and a lot of ingested sand can compact in the gut into a genuine obstruction. It happens most with wet tennis balls rolled along the beach. Use a floating toy that does not pick up grit, and if he has eaten a real quantity of sand and then goes off his food and vomits, that is a vet visit, not a wait.

The heat side of it deceives people because the water feels cool. A dog on a beach in July is on a surface reflecting sun with no shade at all, and heatstroke happens to dogs who have been swimming intermittently all afternoon. Bring an umbrella or use the shade of a rock, and go in the morning or evening in the worst weeks. Wet fur on a hot dog is not the same as a cool dog.

Buoyancy aids are not embarrassing. Flat-faced breeds are poor swimmers because of their body shape and short muzzle, and heavy-chested breeds sit low. Old dogs and dogs with any joint problem benefit hugely, because swimming is excellent for them but tiring in a way that arrives suddenly. Any dog on a boat should wear one, full stop, and the handle on the back is how you get a dog out of the water without going in.

My spaniel is eight now and still loses his mind at the smell of the sea. He gets forty minutes, three fresh-water breaks, and a towel and an ear dry in the car park. He objects to the last part every single time.