Works EVERY time :)

Guess every time except here. I always have a rubber backed mat as the floor covering in my whelping box and still have swimmers:(

Sorry, but "more bone" has nothing to do with a puppy being a swimmer.

Be advised that there could be a genetic element in producing more than the rare case of a swimmer. It is also important to determine whether this is a case of pectus excavatum.

The swimming puppy syndrome is an uncommon developmental abnormality observed primarily in certain chondrodystrophoid dogs with the syndrome appears to be most common in those dogs that have short legs and wide thoracic cavities. The English Bulldog, Basset Hound, and Scottish Terrier arc especially predisposed to this syndrome.

The cause of the syndrome is unknown, although various undocumented theories have been formulated. These include altered neuromuscular synapse function, improper or delayed myelindin of peripheral nerves, slow muscular development, and ventral horn dysfunction (neuropathy).

Thanks so much to everybody who helped me with my big swimmer puppy!!! She is doing wonderful as it took only a few days of working with her by recommended suggestions of keeping her rolled onto her sides (and sometimes back) using rolled towels placed under the fleece bedding. You could really see how this forced her to really use the muscles she had not been using. Took her about 2 days to really getting rolling...literally and now she has caught up to her 2 sisters!! I appreciate everyone's help and am so grateful as I see her walking across the fleece 'carpet' and floor!!
BTW, I did do a little bit with the rubber backed rug at the beginning of her attempts to walk and did definately help to give her traction, but once she was up and walking ~ didn't really need it anymore!!
Thanks again!!!

I had swimmers in one of my first litters. In the next litter, I noticed the early potential symptoms... Don't know if they would have become swimmers, but I started putting speed bumps in the whelping box, putting the pups on one side when mom was on the other. The motivation to get to mom is too strong for a speed bump to slow them down! They all developed normally. Once I stopped being so OCD making the whelping box bedding smooth and flat, I never saw the symptoms again. Don't know about the above listed causes, but apparently in mine it was simply making sure the puppies developed the right muscles to walk.

Reminds me of when my kids were babies, I noticed that some little kids had a habit of walking on their toes instead of normal heel-toe. Invariably these were kids who as infants spent long hours in one of those rolling walkers. By pushing themselves in the walker so much they developed the muscles to walk on their toes, and even when the walker was gone they stayed on their toes.