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Life Vests and Water Safety


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Keeper has always LOVED swimming, and he's a very strong swimmer. That said, I don't live anywhere near water. He will occasionally get the chance to swim, but usually only for 15 or 20 minutes before we leave. He used a life vest last summer as a puppy when he was learning, but hasn't used one as an adult.

 

Next week the whole family and some friends are going camping at Flaming Gorge lake/reservoir(?) for 10 days. It should be great fun, we spend the whole day in the lake and on jet skis/boats. But I'm trying to think ahead to keep the dogs safe. The Boston terrier swims/fetches readily with a life vest. Trooper doesn't swim yet, but he's obsessed with catching water. Like I said, Keeper loves swimming. Neither has a vest yet, but they both will get one before the trip.

 

So, does a vest help alleviate water ingestion while swimming? Water intoxication is my biggest concern. Is there a type of life vest that's better for active swimmers rather than just boat safety? Are there any other safety tips I should know?

 

I might just be paranoid, but I've heard of too many horror stories. :(

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I love the Ruffwear life jacket that I have. Not sure that it would for much for water ingestion while swimming. I kinda think that that may be due more to biting the water and ingesting while fetching than just swimming. It does keep their head and chest a bit higher though.

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Water intoxication: in my very limited experience, my dogs seem to ingest more water when they are fetching than just swimming. So you may want to limit throwing toys into the water. [it does take the fun out of it though.]

 

Just my two cents. [it does take the fun out of

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We have a vest for Callie, just in case. When we spend a lot of time on the water (rarely), she gets exhausted pretty fast and swimming uses a lot of energy! We let her swim for a while without it and then throw it on to make sure that if she gets too tired, she can make it back to us safely.

 

Plus, I do think it does keep her head above the water more than if she was just swimming. I've never heard of water intoxication (will be doing some research to educate myself), but I've never wanted her to ingest the nasty lake water we've got more than she already slurps up on purpose.

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We have life vests for all three dogs for when we are boating. We do not use them at all for just swimming/fetching for several reasons: all are pretty athletic; all are good to reasonable swimmers (Megan is a confident, loves to swim sort of dog and the other two are good swimmers but only swim for a purpose, like fetching); we have them swimming in limited areas (pond, sound, etc.); wearing a vest traps the heat when it's warm and/or the sun is shining, and it is easy for a dog to become overheated in those conditions.

 

We are very careful when boating that the dogs are not placed in conditions where they could overheat in their vests.

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