Anyone have Corgis who swim?

[allicolls_Aefvue_Far]

We’re taking our dogs to the lake over 4th of July weekend. The lab/whippet mix we’re not worried about, but I wonder whether the 8yo fat female Corgi might be a combination of too fat and too old to learn.

She loves to chase a squeaky toy so we’ll take one to toss in the water, and we’ll get her a life vest. I imagine she’ll want to cool off, but if she hates it (she totally might, she’s an opinionated little thing), she can just chill in the shade and watch everyone else.

Anyone had experiences, positive or negative, with Corgis and water?

[Go_Fish]

In my experience, Corgis don’t mind hanging out in the rain all day long, will splash through puddles, roll in the mud and generally don’t mind getting wet. But immerse them in water, and it’s a whole different story.

My family had a ski boat when I was a kid. We’d take the dogs with us. It would get hot and we’d drop the dogs in the water to cool off. One of us would be in the water to lift them back into the boat. The heelers and cockers were great. My corgis had a look of complete panic. Sure they can swim…sort of like watching a panicked gerbil or hamster on a wheel. But mine all hated it. I get the same sort of look when I put them in the tub for a bath.

Yours might be the exception…worth a try. But my ball-chasing obsessed corgis will NOT go after a ball thrown in the water. They come to a screeching halt at the shoreline. My dad’s heeler dogs will jump right off the end of the dock! :lol:

[LulaBell]

Have y’all ever seen that YouTube video of the corgi jumping off the dock? Priceless!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glii-kazad8

[Calvincrowe]

I do!!! Our Corgi has been a water dog since he was tiny. His first pool was a garbage can lid turned upside down on a hot summer day (he was 10 weeks old!). His mother was fond of water, and he swims like a little otter–eyes and nose just above the surface, powering along like a torpedo. We watch him carefully, though, as they tend to roll like a top-heavy freighter. Just keep an eye on your girl and a life jacket is key.

[CarolinaGirl]

My corgi totally swims… our 6 month old lab on the other hand is not a swimmer (yet)… Corgi totally does laps around him while he stands there wading lol. I never pushed her to swim, but she frequently went to the dog park that had a few ponds near my house. When she first started swimming she often had issue controlling the back end and would end up rolling over in the water when her back end turned sideways lol. But she figured it out and the last trip out where we were trying to teach the lab pup to swim she was totally out there enjoying her little swims. She generally doesn’t go out very far unless someone is out in the water, but she goes in and swims a little arc and comes back in… over and over. She even will jump off the dock… as we were at a dock dog practice when were doing swim lessons with the lab… I decided the corgi might end up being the dock dog by the end and the lab still wasn’t wanting to swim.

Also she’s never had a life vest.

[etc]

I’ve had lots of corgis over the years. This is the first that I’ve had that doesn’t like to swim…found out after I bought him a wading pool! I had one that would go swimming in the pond in Dec. when it was about 40degrees and she was pregnant! My other corgis have climbed into water troughs during the summer. I’ve seen more corgis who do swim than who don’t.

[Marshfield]

All of ours have been swimmers. They prefer to swim in shallow water but are fine if they fall off the dock in deeper waters.

[Guin]

The Tribble is a swimming platypus! :lol: She will only go in somewhere she can wade, but then paddles all around. It’s very amusing because she doesn’t turn very well - too long. I think she’d die of the heat if she couldn’t get in to the lake to cool off during the summer. Here’s a picture of her and her brother Shadow.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150208779856616.309505.514236615&l=9feeb16e50

[allicolls_Aefvue_Far]

Thanks everyone! We will definitely take a life vest, because even if she takes to it naturally, she could probably use a little help to not tire out so quickly. If she’s not comfortable jumping off the dock, she can wade on the boat ramp. She may hate it, since, during baths, she pretty much looks like the most miserable dog in the world, but that’s her loss!

[CarolinaGirl]

[QUOTE=allicolls Aefvue Farms Deep South;5681828]
She may hate it, since, during baths, she pretty much looks like the most miserable dog in the world, but that’s her loss![/QUOTE]

Mine will swim til she’s exhausted, but still looks like she’s being severely punished for something when having to get a bath… with soap OMG lol She also doesn’t do rain, she just sits at the door looking at me like I’m nuts for even suggesting that she go outside when the sky in falling.

[Toadie_s_mom]

@CarolinaGirl;5681843

Mine will swim til she’s exhausted, but still looks like she’s being severely punished for something when having to get a bath… with soap OMG lol She also doesn’t do rain, she just sits at the door looking at me like I’m nuts for even suggesting that she go outside when the sky in falling.

Exactly! I’ve had 2 that swim. One in a lake and the other in the Gulf of Mexico. One was 2 and the other was 5 when they got their 1st opputunities, and both took to it immediately.

[hasahorse]

My own Corgi will wade in her kiddie pool, but will not swim. There is a pond at the farm I board at, and one day, after seeing all of the other dogs go in and out, she thought she would try it. She got in up to the top of her legs, and promptly turned around at got out. She had a look on her face like “that was dumb”.
I had a foster dog who loves the water. He swims daily in the pond his family has on their property, and usually beats his sister the lab at fetch.

[witherbee]

Mine HATES rain and baths, but LOVES to swim. Used to love our pool, loves her puppy pool, and loves the ponds at the Dog Park. She is obese (we did not cause it, but are having a hard time getting the weight off), and I worried about her, but she does well. I would use a lifejacket too at a lake. We call her the Yellow Submarine when she swims lol!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/img2364h.jpg/

[Guin]

Yellow Submarine :lol::lol::lol:

For slimming her down, I’ve had great success with Wellness Core Reduced fat, 1/3 cup twice a day, a tablespoon of cooked ground turkey, and a big spoonful of frozen (thawed) green beans or a spoonful of pumpkin. The Tribble was way too hefty and she lost 3 lbs over a period of 18 months. :yes:

[2ndyrgal]

My Corgi can swim…

but doesn’t like it at all. We had an inground pool when he was a puppy, and I got him acustomed to swimming in it enough that he knew where the steps were so he could get out in an emergency.

He does not care for water, or hard rain. Loves snow, mud and the arena sand, and will wallow like an idiot.

His younger brother, God rest his soul, was a swimming fiend, he LOVED the water, even in the winter in freeezing temperatures.

They can swim, they just don’t turn well, not because they are long, because they don’t have any “rudder” aka , a tail.

[seabreeze]

My Corgi loves water and can swim like a fish. She does “sense” when she’s going out deeper than she should and will turn around and head back for shore.

She’s a short, fat, older Corgi, but she loves her some water.

[Guin]

@2ndyrgal;5688256

They can swim, they just don’t turn well, not because they are long, because they don’t have any “rudder” aka , a tail.

!!! You’re right! So funny! :lol:

[Addison]

My corgi loves to swim. We take her out in our boat and use a life vest because when she gets tired she tends to roll to one side. The vest has a handle/strap on the top which makes it easy to lift her out of the water.

[DMK]

@CarolinaGirl;5681843

Mine will swim til she’s exhausted, but still looks like she’s being severely punished for something when having to get a bath… with soap OMG lol She also doesn’t do rain, she just sits at the door looking at me like I’m nuts for even suggesting that she go outside when the sky in falling.

No kidding. One day I will understand how a corgi that finds every filthy puddle within a 10 mile radius to plop his body down in, or who waded chest deep through the edge of a muddy pond in 45 degree weather can act like acid rain is falling on his head when asked to do his business in the rain or does an excellent impression of a prisoner on his way to the chair when asked to go to the bathroom where he gets a bath! :lol:

[The_Hobbit]

I guess my corgi was the exception…the first time she got in a pool she promptly sunk, motionless, straight to the bottom like a lead weight; she didn’t even TRY to swim or move.:eek: We dove and got her out but she remained unimpressed with any sort of silly swimming idea from that point forward.:lol: