So my upstairs neighbor asked me to help her 7 month old puppy (chihuahua/something with a flatter face cross) learn to swim. The dog looks exactly like a pitbull....except she's 20lbs soaking wet)

So we went down to our local pond and first introduced the water, which she was unsure of, but followed her owner into up about belly height. We then played with some sticks in the water and got her comfortable being wet. Slowly we worked out a little bit deeper and got her comfortable being held by her owner in the deeper water. Finally she decided she wanted to try and follow my dog and actually swim on her own. She jumped in with me right there to support her. When it came time to actually swim she did paddle and wasn't afraid but she would not float.

When I taught Ryuk to swim I put him in his harness and gently supported him as he figured out how to use his body. At first his butt sunk but as I slowly pulled away from him he did at least stay at the surface and after a few minutes found his form and now he's a very strong speedy swimmer.


This puppy sinks like a rock.....I mean she was fine with my hand supporting her (we also had a harness on her with a thin line held up and out of the way). She was okay with support just from the top of the harness.....however the moment I moved my hand...she'd keep paddling...but her entire would would just sink (I made sure I caught her before her head went under...)

I grew up with dogs that could all swim and even when they weren't good at it (Welsh Terrier) they still would stay above the surface....not sink like a rock.

How exactly should I approach this? This puppy clearly likes the water but sinking like a rock isn't exactly making me think she'll be fetching sticks like her owner would like...

I'm figuring a life vest wouldn't be a bad idea in general...but shouldn't she at least be able to keep her head above water with out one? My dog has a life vest for when I work him in water but not for when he's just playing or swimming for fun with me....

Dogs that dont have a higher fat ratio like labs, arent as bouyant. They have to learn how much effort it takes to stay afloat.

what if this dog is really trying...I mean, she's kicking as hard as she can....it's just all in vain....down she sinks....

Our boxer couldn't swim...sunk like a rock.
He kept trying to climb out on top of the water.......
and would sink right back down....like a rock.........

Backcountry k9 sells life vests...maybe she just needs a floaty.....

I with Steve on this one. It took my Pomeranian, man I'm mentioning this little dog all day today, well over a year to get the concept. She loved water and still does but now can stay afloat longer. Eventually her undercoat gets the best of her but she still tries her best. I have to have a harness on her near water or she will get swept away on me.

As for what I did, it was fairly simple. I don't know how small the dog is, but I found that life vests for little tiny dogs are too restricting on limp movement. Instead I treated her just like my big Rottweilers and used the beach to slowly push her limits. We would go just a little bit farther each time until she was holding her own.

- Lamarr

Some dogs just cannot swim. Biology will not allow them to float. Bulldogs come to mind as the just can't category but I think pugs are known as not so awesome swimmers as well.

Yeah I have seen a lot of English BullDogs and Pugs that could not swim.

I do not have much experience with Chihuahuas though so I do not know.

Oh and I have seen 20-30 pound Pitbulls. There really is no standard for them. The old world gamey Pits were only 25-35 pounds.
They have been bred to a lot of American BullDogs and Mastiffs to get the 80-110 pound junk you see today.
I would say a good working pit today is in the 40-50 pound range.

Just my opinions.

Swimming Bulldog

Another one

Awesome!