Swimming

[Blue Dog]

How long can a BC swim in water to deep to stand in? Can they be trusted to find their own way back to shore before becoming exhausted?

 

Background: My 10 month old smooth coat has always loved the water. He is especially fond of running streams, waves and any water populated with birds of any and every kind. When he was less than six months old, he took off swimming after a gaggle of geese into a part of the lake totally surrounded by sheer walls. I jumped in and grabbed him. Just last evening, he followed a gaggle of geese into a rather large, deep, nasty brown pond. After watching him thrash around for about ten minutes and imagining his little head disappearing below the muddy surface, I went in after him again. Clothes and all.

 

When I have swum with him off the beach, in the ocean, it is not unusual for him to swim out more than 100' before turning and coming back to the beach.

 

Am I overreacting? I know that it would be idea if he would just recall in these situations but something about waterfowl seems to interfere with his better judgement.

[CptJack]

Much like everything with Border Collies:

No, I wouldn't trust him to know his limits and would not be surprised if he found himself out too far to come back safely, because he was in pursuit of something.

 

That said, how far he can go safely is going to depend on his fitness level, and there's no way for me to answer that.

[juliepoudrier]

I would not count on him thinking that he needs to get back to shore before he's too tired to make it. What you're experiencing is the incredible focus that this breed has. And when they're focused and determined they will do things to their own detriment. I've had a bunch who like to swim, but one in particular who scared me more than once, and she had an excellent recall. Once was in winter, swimming in the bay after ducks. I had visions of having to go in after her, but fortunately I finally was able to get her to hear me over the sound of the surf and she came back. Another time I was out with a friend who has a goose control business. Again it was winter and she went out in the pond to scare the geese off. She didn't want to come out. I was worried about hypothermia, which is a real concern with folks who swim dogs in goose control jobs.

 

You can buy a dog life vest and if you think this is going to continue to be an issue, I'd certainly put a vest on him whenever you're taking him to/near water. I have mixed feelings about a long line, though I did have one on one of my youngsters when we were out a county ag fair doing demos right next to the James River. Her recall isn't the best, but while she was swimming I had visions of her snagging it on something in the river and having to go in to untangle her.

 

Anyway, those are the options I'd consider while also working on his recall and perhaps teaching him that geese and other waterbirds are simply off limits.

 

J.

[Blue Dog]

Thanks for the information. We do a lot of boating and he always wears a life jacket when the boat is underway. He jumped off of a slow moving skiff once (yes, geese again) but never did that again and he fell off the sailboat at the dock once after misjudging a leap to shore. That also required an in-water rescue as both the boat deck and piers are several feet above water.

 

I will keep working on recall and endeavor to keep him out of those situations. I take it from your comments that there is really no way to tell when he is spent or nearly spent so prudence dictates that I need to keep going and getting him when he gets away from me like that.

[GentleLake]

I take it from your comments that there is really no way to tell when he is spent or nearly spent so prudence dictates that I need to keep going and getting him when he gets away from me like that.

 

Yeah, unfortunately there's no convenient formula that'll tell you how long is OK. You have to know your dog, and even with that there will be variables like water temps and current that can change how long he can last.

 

I used to have a dog who was compulsive about swimming and wouldn't come out on his own regardless of the conditions. There were a couple forceful retrievals in his case as well. As he got older and had a more reliable recall things improved, but we really had to work on that recall.

[gcv-border]

Another problem to worry about (but this issue is not unique to border collies) is water intoxication. Some dogs ingest a lot of water when swimming. If they ingest enough in a fairly short period of time, the body can not handle it. Here is a bit of information I found easily when I Googled "canine water intoxication".

 

Hyponatremia occurs when more water enters the body than it can process. The presence of so much water dilutes bodily fluids, creating a potentially dangerous shift in electrolyte balance. The excess water depletes sodium levels in extracellular fluid (fluid outside of cells). Sodium maintains blood pressure and nerve and muscle function.

When the sodium concentration in extracellular fluid drops, the cells start filling with water as the body attempts to balance the sodium levels inside the cells with falling levels outside the cells. This inflow of water causes the cells – including those in the brain – to swell. The central nervous system can also be affected.

Symptoms of water intoxication include staggering/loss of coordination, lethargy, nausea, bloating, vomiting, dilated pupils, glazed eyes, light gum color, and excessive salivation. In severe cases, there can also be difficulty breathing, collapse, loss of consciousness, seizures, coma, and death.

 

 

My younger dog fancies himself a dock diving dog. He loves to "catch air" as he jumps off the side of the pond after his bumper. I will usually limit him to 8-10 throws because (1) I don't know how much water he ingests when he grabs at the bumper and (2) he will usually cough a little after releasing the bumper which I interpret to indicate that he may be swallowing too much water.

[teresaserrano]

Tess usually swims for half an hour, but we're playing fetch, so she swims after the toy and brings it back to me, she isn't swimming non stop. It's me who stops the swimming, she usually looks fresh and willing, she usually gets the zoomies after swimming so not physically tired. She helds her head up high when swimming and doesn't cough or vomit water, so I assume she isn't ingesting too much of it.

 

Many years ago I had portuguese water dogs. They would swim for one and a half hours after the boat (rowing boat, not engine), and when we got off at the pier and my ex dived into the water, they would dive with him and swim for another half hour. And at the end of that, they where definitely not tired. But they where water dogs. The dogs I had after them, liked water and where good swimmers, but they where different. Not water dogs. I was, and am, a lot more carefull with Tess around water. The diference between her and those water dogs is huge, no matter how comfortable she is swimming.

[Blue Dog]

When Blue was first introduced to swimming off the barrier islands in the Gulf, he would intentionally splash wildly with his fore paws and bite at the water he was frothing up. This fairly quickly led to a fire hose style evacuation which alarmed me very much but it didn't really seem to bother him and he quit the biting at the water game in salt water but it is still a favorite in fresh. Got to stop those damn waves somehow.

 

They really are just a little smart aren't they?