Go Back   Pet forum for dogs cats and humans - Pets.ca > Discussion Groups - mainly cats and dogs > Dog training - dog behavior

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old July 27th, 2006, 09:02 AM
melz's Avatar
melz melz is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Ottawa, ON
Posts: 119
training dog to like water?

I'm not sure if this goes here but I thought i'd give it a shot. My dog has been sick due to this increadible heat.. He's better now that I've started bringing him back to my parents (they have central air).

My father doesn't want this to continue throughout the whole summer though which is very disapointing. He's asked me to leave my dog at home during the day starting next week.

I've tried everything to keep him cool, and I can't afford air at this point in time... so I've tried to frozen bottles of water wrapped in a dish cloth for him to lean in, giving him ice cubes, stuffing his kong and taking it out of the freezer. Nothing works. He's still panting heavily and gets depressed when he's back home at night. his attitude totally changes.

I want him to get used to soaking his paws in water but he hates water so badly that he cowers and runs away from me.

How can I get him to enjoy swimming without making a big fuss about it. He's such a little prince. MR. doesn't like the rain. he won't go out if it rains unless he really has to.

Any tricks to help?
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old July 27th, 2006, 12:10 PM
LM1313's Avatar
LM1313 LM1313 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Spokane, WA
Posts: 819
My dog hated rain and water even though she was half lab and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why. Then we gave her a bath one day and it took her more than half the day to dry out, even though it was over ninety-five degrees out! Turns out she had inherited a double-coat (I think this is the right term) from her non-labrador side and the water got trapped in the undercoat and made her miserable. We didn't realize until we saw her shivering because her long top coat was completely dry.

So you might want to check out your dog's coat and see if that's the reason . . .
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old July 27th, 2006, 12:13 PM
Prin Prin is offline
Senior member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 28,492
What about fans?

I don't know if you can ever teach a dog to like water...

ooo maybe you could teach him to go in the tub with no water though- that's a very cool place to lie.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old July 27th, 2006, 08:14 PM
OntarioGreys's Avatar
OntarioGreys OntarioGreys is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Woodstock, ON
Posts: 1,696
Check out kijiji for a used A/c a lot of people are puting in central air and getting rid of a/c's, I see there is a 10,000 btu that is 2 months old for $240 that is enough to cool down an apartment I am using one in a house and it keeps the upstairs cool enough for the dogs with 2 of 3 the bedroom doors closed off during the hottest point of the day. I noticed 4 others listed for less on the first page, maybe your dad will help with a small loan


http://ottawa.kijiji.ca/f-buy-and-se...-W0QQCatIdZ107
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old July 28th, 2006, 01:36 AM
DRN DRN is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Texas
Posts: 54
We humans have bare skin and when we get wet, the exposure and breeze cool us off. Unlike humans, dogs (especially long-haired dogs or dogs with heavy coats) don't cool off by getting wet. They can cool off by drinking water, so the most important thing you can do is make sure your dog has plenty of fresh, clean water to drink. Cool water is best but, unlike humans, ice cubes and cold water don't work well for dogs.

Also consider having your dog groomed. We live in the desert where temperatures reach 100+ degrees for most of the summer, and our dogs are spaniels with lots of hair. Once or twice each summer we take them to the groomer for a summer cut, where the groomer shaves off all their hair to a short length. They look strange but they are better able to stay cool so it's worth it.

Here's another suggestion that might upset those who are more particular than I am about appropriate dog behavior: Our dogs love to get in the bathtub and drink from the running faucet. They prefer running water to drinking from a bowl, and they don't seem to mind standing in puddles of water to get it even though they don't like getting wet. Of course, you can't leave the water running all day and night, but every now and then it's a good way to cool your dog off when he is hot. Be careful, though, because your dog may like it so much that you find he begs for "tub water" several times a day.

I know from experience that an overheated dog is miserable and the heat can change his personality. Like humans, dogs can get heatstroke. It might be a good idea to call your vet and discuss what to look out for and if they can offer other ideas on how to help your dog cool off. Good luck.

Last edited by DRN; July 28th, 2006 at 01:41 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old July 28th, 2006, 08:56 AM
mafiaprincess's Avatar
mafiaprincess mafiaprincess is offline
Performance Spaniels
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Whitby, ON
Posts: 2,395
My cocker was a water hater. It took time. Like a lot more time than you have..

Turned out she didn't know how to swim.. Someone gently put her in the middle of a creek last year and she thrashed to save her life rather than had calm strokes..
She hates bathing..
Hated her kiddie pool.

I bought her a lifejacket, and she swam some in our pool..

This year things are 100x better. She will walk into her kiddie pool and stand in it. Last year you had to force her..
She seems to enjoy swimming now in her lifejacket. And actually without one swam off a beach to retrieve a ball a few days ago. Seems she's learned to swim in her lifejacket time, but I wouldn't push making her swim without help for more than like 10 seconds at a time.

But it took like a year to enjoy it..
__________________
CRB Houdini's Apple Cider RXMCL AGDC AADC MSDC MJDC RNT CL3-F CL3-H EXJ Bronze
Stanton Acres Out Of The Ashes SGDC RNMCL MJDC ADC CL3-F CL3-S CL3-H
Stark Naked Burn it to the Ground
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old July 28th, 2006, 02:08 PM
rainbow's Avatar
rainbow rainbow is offline
-
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Beautiful BC's Kootenay Country
Posts: 34,757
As Prin said, what about using fans? I have two big floor fans, one for each dog, and they lie in front of them. I get the smaller table one.

Also, outside, a large hard plastic kids swimming pool. And, freeze water in containers and add bits of chicken, hot dogs, bananas, apples, etc. If you can, leave a sprinkler on.

Oh, just realized he doesn't like water. Mine didn't go into the pool at first so I started throwing their toys in there. Worked like a charm.

Last edited by rainbow; July 28th, 2006 at 02:14 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Forum Terms of Use

  • All Bulletin Board Posts are for personal/non-commercial use only.
  • Self-promotion and/or promotion in general is prohibited.
  • Debate is healthy but profane and deliberately rude posts will be deleted.
  • Posters not following the rules will be banned at the Admins' discretion.
  • Read the Full Forum Rules

Forum Details

  • Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
    Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
    vBulletin Optimisation by vB Optimise (Reduced on this page: MySQL 0%).
  • All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:07 PM.