I have experienced the accidental drowning of friends’ and clients’ pets for the past several summers.  We have already had one client’s puppy drown this year.  As someone who does not own a pool or have a pond on my property, I cannot give you first-hand advice.  However, in talking to pet owners, I have been given some very good suggestions for keeping your dogs safe around a pool or pond and would like to pass them on to you.

Do not assume your dog can swim.  They may be endowed with a natural instinct to swim, but I have seen many of them that were very afraid of water and panic when they first come in contact with it.  Familiarity builds confidence.  Do not presume that a larger or adult dog will automatically be comfortable in water.

Show your dog the shallow end of the pool and the location of the steps.  They will often try to swim for the edge only to become exhausted struggling to get out.  If you take them in the water with you and walk them up and down the steps, hopefully, they will learn the lesson.  You may have to practice with them multiple times until they are familiar and confident about getting out.  Remember that small dogs may not be able to jump from the top step to the edge.  I have also seen dog life jackets in several catalogs.  These may be a solution for the weak swimmers in your pack.

When teaching your pet to get out of the pool, keep in mind that thick-coated dogs will be significantly heavier when their coat gets wet.  This will make it more difficult for them to exit the pool.  This may be one more reason to give these types of dogs a complete shavedown in the summer.

Older dogs can be especially prone to water fatalities.  Often their vision is poor and they wander into the pool unnoticed or they have lost their agility and fall in.  Older dogs and young children are very similar in terms of the risks to them around a pool when they are unsupervised.  Many of the water fatalities I see involve older pets.

Obviously, the city where you live will dictate what their requirements are regarding fencing and other pool safety requirements; however, if not prohibited, you may want to install mesh fencing in front of any existing fencing that has slats wide enough to let a pet pass through.  A fence with wide gaps between the slats may not deter a new puppy or small dog.

Be sure the gates are latched and have a means of preventing the latch from being opened by a large or smart dog.  A big dog can often jump up and open the lock mechanism with their nose or paw.  A spring-loaded clasp or ring through the eye of the latch should prevent it from being opened.

Do not leave doors from the home to the pool or pond area open all the time.  This should keep your dogs away from the pool or pond when they are not supervised.  Also, be aware of whether pet doors would give your animals unanticipated access to the pool or pond area.

Finally, if you have a pond with a dock, add a gate or some fencing where the dock abuts the land to keep your pets off the dock.  I am personally aware of one older dog drowning after it wandered out onto the dock and then fell into the pond.

My focus in this article has been towards dogs; however, some of my suggestions would be applicable to cats and children as well.  Finally, if you have any additional pet pool/pond safety ideas, do not hesitate to call Dr. Doolittle’s Animal Hospital.  I will attempt to incorporate them into a future article.