Swimming For Exercise

[krissn333]

My parents' neighbors have a pool and they said I could use it to do some water exercise with Sutra, as long as I keep him away from the edge (they're worried about toenails ripping the liner, a valid concern). So, today was his first time swimming. I held him up at the chest, just to be sure he didn't panic/struggle. I am quite sure if I had let him go he'd have held himself up. I just guided him around the shallow end of the pool. We did about 7 laps (the shallow end is pretty small) around the outer edge. I didn't want to do too much with him the first time.

 

It's amazing...he did a really good job even though he was a bit stressed by it. I brought him home and then had to run some errands. When I got home, he was SO energetic! Now I have to be careful that he doesn't get TOO excited and do something he shouldn't. I am taking him out again tomorrow morning.

 

I want to do this with him because he's started to lose some muscle in his bad shoulder, and I don't want that to get any worse. If I can get him back to feeling well again, we may be able to do more walks, which will help, but, his shoulder has got to feel great first.

 

I know that Winslow swam for exercise...has anyone else done this with their pup? I wish we had a facility around here built for this purpose, but, it's nice that I have access to the pool. Unfortunately, since it's outdoor we won't be able to use it once it starts to get cold.

 

If you've done this before, can you give me some sort of idea about how much to do in the beginning, how hard to push him, etc.? I don't want to overdo it with him, but I also want this to be beneficial for him. I would imagine just doing it at all is beneficial, but I want to maximize our benefit, I guess