My pups will soon have the opportunity to swim regularly in a pool. I am looking for tips on pool maintenance with dogs. For instance, what is the best way to filter dog hair, best tempreture, and chlorine balance? Aside from teaching them where the steps are and supervised swimming are their any other swimming tips that you can provide me? Thanks!

What lucky dogs!! Do you need/want a personal lifeguard for them - I'll volunteer!

I don't think they care about the temperature, they just want to get in!
I don't have a problem with dog hair in the filter, just remember to backwash the filter regularly.

I put in a salt water chlorination system for my dogs because it was much less chemicals and better for their coats. It will cost you about $600-1000 to upgrade though.
If you don't then just let them swim when chlorine levels are low and shock the water afterwards. Then don't let them back in til the levels have gone down again, that way less likely to bleach their coats.

Lucky dogs!

I used to cut off the end (foot part) of a pair of panty hose and cover the filter with it before the dogs swam in the pool - but I had long-coated breeds then. Afterwards, I would just remove the panty hose and no hair in the filter or lines :)

My dogs swim year round in my saline pool and it makes for clean, happy, dogs!

The panty hose tip is great-- the pool stores sell skimmer "socks" which are essentially thick panty hose feet to put in them. They come 5 to a pack and can be washed in the washing machine. It definitely keeps hair out of the pump/filter. If you have a main drain though, you will get hair in the pump/filter. Unfortunately, I have a cartridge filter and have been dragging my feet about changing since I need to move soon. So if you don't have a DE or sand filter, I would consider changing to one of those. I hear the sand ones are really great. And yes, backwash (or in my case, hose down the cartridges) often.

The downside to salt is that any furniture poolside that can rust, will... so just be prepared to repaint the bottom of the chairs/couches, etc that might come in contact with salt water. Some "pool people" I've talked to say that the salt will rust the metal pipes in heaters and some older systems. My heater is disconnected and all the pipes in my system are plastic, but you may want to have your system evaluated before installing.

I keep the salt concentration on the lower side and chlorine a little low as well. Temperature? Well, the sun dictates that here, but it's always cooler than air temp and the dogs swim literally every day, even the days that are close to freezing in Dallas.

My dogs LOVE to float on the Swimways pop-up floats. They have a pillow area and perimeter that are inflated, and the middle is mesh that forms a sling. I have two floats in the pool at all times and my puppies will start to jump in around 10 weeks (supervised of course). They are 13 weeks now and swim out to the floats and pull themselves up, just like the big dogs. It's quite funny! I had the expensive floats from Frontgate and they couldn't balance on them, so they would "carry" them back to the side for me and in the process, ruined them. The Swimways ones are at Wal-mart, Target, most pool stores for under $20 each and I stock up each end of summer!

When I'm teaching pups to swim, I drape a towel over the coping into the pool where the steps are, so they can visualize where the steps are as well as get a little traction when getting out. After a few lessons, they know right where to go to get out. Be careful about pups and the skimmer areas-- it looks like an exit to them and they can start to sink in attempt to pull themselves out!

I can't imagine life with dogs without a pool! At worst, there's a hint of wet dog smell when they come in, but the daily swimming keeps them in good shape and clean!
CME

My dogs swim in my pool from March to November (I live in Maryland) they care not the temperature of the water (I care plenty, so when it gets warm, and I will use the pool for myself too, my pool is heated to 90, otherwise it is whatever the temperature of the air is.

They love the swimming and frankly, all I do for them is rinse them thoroughly when they get out, dry them well particularly around the neck area and the ears, then put 50% alcohol/50% water drops in their ears to keep down infections.

The dog hair is picked up by the filters and I make sure, if someone is shedding, to clean the filter more often.

We have lots of pool toys for the dogs, bumpers, floaties, diving sticks etc.

Puppies swim in the pool either with a harness or without after my husband is willing to get in and makes sure they can stay afloat and they know the way out!

We redid the pool this year, and they made the choice to have dark water over light water, so the final gunnite was dyed grey for them!

Can you say spoiled?

Bonnie

Bonnie, could I be one of your dogs?

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Replying to:

My dogs swim in my pool from March to November (I live in Maryland) they care not the temperature of the water (I care plenty, so when it gets warm, and I will use the pool for myself too, my pool is heated to 90, otherwise it is whatever the temperature of the air is.

They love the swimming and frankly, all I do for them is rinse them thoroughly when they get out, dry them well particularly around the neck area and the ears, then put 50% alcohol/50% water drops in their ears to keep down infections.

The dog hair is picked up by the filters and I make sure, if someone is shedding, to clean the filter more often.

We have lots of pool toys for the dogs, bumpers, floaties, diving sticks etc.

Puppies swim in the pool either with a harness or without after my husband is willing to get in and makes sure they can stay afloat and they know the way out!

We redid the pool this year, and they made the choice to have dark water over light water, so the final gunnite was dyed grey for them!

Can you say spoiled?

Bonnie

My dogs swim year round in our pool. It is an ionization process so there is very little maintenance, and no messy chlorine to deal with.

I've had the pool 10 plus years and never have had issues with hair in the filters. I take my filter unit apart once a year (in the spring) and clean it well, and am surprised at the lack of hair. I use D.E. for filter medium, and it's wonderful stuff (better than sand, in my opinion).

My biggest problem is the vinyl liner, I've had a few tears from claws, but I just patch them up. I've had more problems with the liner from dry/sun rot above the water line. I'm getting ready to put in a new liner this winter.

Have fun with your labs in the pool. It's wonderful to swim with them!!!

We have a fiberglass pool that we bought with the dogs in mind. Their claws can't damage it the way a liner can be torn. The only thing I have to be careful about is toys that sink. My girl dives down from the edge and will walk all around the bottom trying to retrieve her toy from the deep end. She stays down too long!

Can I ask a question on what is the best way to get my boy INTO the pool?? We also have a lake which he will run into and swim in but he is too nervous about the pool steps to get in. Unfortunately, I didn't get him until last October when our pool was already closed for the season so his first introduction was this May when he was already 9 months old. I have carried him in and he will frantically swim to the steps and lunge out of the pool. I have tried coaxing him in with food. I have tried to stand on the steps to show him where the bottom is. I have carried him in to the bench step and let him stand there for a minute to see that he could stand - but all to no avail. He just runs around the edge trying to lick me and my kids whenever we get close the side. He also grabs our floating turtle thermometer all the time (which I blamed on the kids until i caught him at it!) so he is clearly not afraid of the water itself, just the pool as a whole.

Any ideas? I don't want to traumatize him - I'm ok with him never getting in if that is what is truly the answer, I just feel like he would have so much fun if he would give it a try.

Life Jacket! For starters-and a bumper IN his mouth.
Ruff Wear makes the best, k-9 Float Coat. Lots of great info also at Canine Water Sports in Ct.
( I think it is caninewatersports.com) but you can google it. It is REAL important a dog swims safely.I KNOW, he's a Lab - he should just swim-but TRUST me.

Thanks Sandra - I actually do have a life jacket for him and he will go running into the lake no problem and swim his little heart out but no matter how hard I try, he is afraid of the pool. I thought it might be a depth perception thing since the water is clear, the bottom is white and there is no gradual entry so I have tried to show him the steps numerous times but it's always a no go.
thanks for your response though!

I wonder if the steps are slippery?Could you put a colored tub mat on them? Or like you said a depth perception thing. The people are wonderful at Canine Water Sports as I mentioned. I am not sure if you live near them, Ct.? But certainly drop them an email with your question. They have been very helpful to me & I have not even made it to a class yet ( they are 3 plus hours away from me)- My Labs bum "sank" until they helped me. Long story for another day. Good luck