swiming is the harmfull for gsd ????? - Page 1

HI All

swiming is the harm full for gsd????

many pepole are said me that please away your gsd from th water becouse gsd's scean and ears are very sesative

and water is  very harmfull for scene and ears so swiming is good for gsd or not

please suggest me

Regards

indian

If the dog has chronic ear infections, then yes getting them wet will cause the ear infections to be worse.  BUT swimming itself is great for any dog.  Excellent exercise without the wear and tear of running on hard surface.  Fun and most GSDs love to swim.  Mine swim every day in the spring/summer/fall, and even in winter I take them whenever possible to an indoor swimming facility so they can get their laps in :)

molly

Never heard that one...Chlorine water in a swimming pool very harmful  ....Jane Steffenhagen told me to swim the heck out of all  my dogs before their  hips form and keep them swimming...it firms up those sockets and makes muscle....ears can be cleaned out with a drop of alcohol and cleaned with a paper towel with  white vinegar on the towel to keep clean and evade fungus...or fungi.

Rinse off your dog after swimming and if you have chlorine in any water you should filter your watering system.  Chlorine dries out our skin and their skin also...

Creeks and lakes you must investigate to make sure they dont have an algea problem and are ok for swimming...along with the snake problem that may arise out of the blue.....blue algea a problem along with the snakes....but check with the owner..

Our shepherds in Galveston go swimming in the salt water....good for them.....

but do dry ears...after any swim/// in any body of water.

My old boy is 12 and I always recon his good health and mobility is down to the amount of swimming he has done.  He loves the canal as well as the sea.  He has often dived in and gone head under and he has never had an ear infection.

I think swimming is an excellent way to excersise any dog, especially breeds prone to joint problems.
My girl LIVES to swim. It hard to get her OUT of the water.
Its a great way to give vigorous exercise with low impact on the fragile joints. I think swimming is ideal for excersising young dogs. That being said, make sure you are not letting your dogs swim in polluted waters, this could cause a number of skin issues and infections. If you are worried about ear infections, wipe out your dogs ears after they are done swimming with ear wipes or a good cotton ball.

Swimming is a great form of exercise for both dogs and humans alike.  I'm still working on getting our Mali to get used to the water.  We'll have her swimming by summer, I'm sure. In the summer we'll take the dogs down to the river and I'll throw driftwood into the water for the dogs to swim to retrieve.  Great fun and great exercise on a hot day. 

I've never personally had problems with ear infections or skin problems.  Hopefully you have a relatively clean river near by. 

Yvette

My dogs love to swim, and they don't care if it's the pool (I hose them off afterwards just because of the chlorine/chemicals even though they don't have dry skin and even when they are not hosed off they haven't had any problems) - no ear problems and I also don't dry out ears afterwards, or put any meds in.  As I said, if there are pre-existing chronic ear problems, then getting them wet is probably asking for more problems.  But, my dogs don't have ear problems, and so they have never had problems swimming.  They love lakes and rivers too - puddles if they have to settle for wallowing!

molly

Or their water buckets also....mine cant pass up the oportunity to try to put their whole body in the  6 quart buckets on their fences..and if you have a water trough , you are likely to find them in it...

My pack loves to swim in our year round creek.  Some of the dogs we got as juvenile or adults and they were not swimmers but have come to love their daily swim (weather permitting) as much as the "ol timers"  .  The pups get introduced to the water early on with small swimming pools and if they are old enough can join the rest on hikes and a cooling dip in the creek.  One pup preferred riding in the paddleboat with me for a while before diving in, so cute, wish I had a photo of that.

Swimming is definitely excellent exercise for them and our male loves diving and retreiving from the shoreline.  We do have one female who is prone to getting "swimmer's ear" so we have to dry her ear out after words.

I always tell folks that gsds love to swim and to provide them access to do so it is a lot of fun for them and they'll sleep soundly after all that exercise:)

This is Yap in Lake Tyler after his pipe toy