[stusam85]

I was just wondering if anyone could tell me how swimming compares to walking in terms of amount of exercise. The vets have told me not to walk Wolfie too much as a result of severe arthritis in his shoulder and a quantity of gun shot pellet in his other front leg, but he needs to lose some weight too. So I have been giving him a 5-10 min walk so he can do his business and then let him swim in our pool. When he is in the pool he loves it when I spray the hose and he chases the water and as a result he is swimming quickly. He swims about 300m in 5 mins, and he is panting quite heavily afterwards. He goes in the pool at least twice a day, and has a few other short walks as well for toilet breaks. I know swimming is quite a strenuous activity for him so I don't want to make him overdo it .... but I also want him to be getting enough exercise as he does not walk much.
Any thoughts??
(I hope this makes sense!)

 

[smokeybear]

People can overdo swimming, like all activities it should be increased in small increments.

1 min
2 mins
3 mins

and increase


Also do not do it every day to begin with, so that the muscles used have time to repair, recover and strengthen.

 

[stusam85]

People can overdo swimming, like all activities it should be increased in small increments.

1 min
2 mins
3 mins

and increase

Also do not do it every day to begin with, so that the muscles used have time to repair, recover and strengthen.

He has been increasing gradually .... last summer he used to swim slowly with us when we were in the pool (we've only had him just over a year), this summer we discovered he liked chasing the childrens' water pistols and therefore started swimming quicker, then he started chasing the hose. Now we are not swimming, as it has cooled down, so I am letting him go in on his own. He runs to the pool every time we go out but I don't want him to do himself an injury. It is our fault he is overweight because when we first got him we had not taken in to account his lack of activity when we worked out how much to feed him, so he gradually put on weight. (it took us a while to notice as he has such a thick heavy coat ) I am very conscious of our previous mistake with him .... so I don't want to cause him any more problems but I want to try and get him as healthy as possible.

 

[rona]

How old is he and has he any other health problems?

 

[stusam85]

How old is he and has he any other health problems?

He's 8 and as far as we know he has no other health problems. He is a Belgian Shepherd and at the moment he is 40kg

 

[rona]

When mine was 8 at hydro, he was doing 25 minutes with about 10 of that with jets.
You should warm him up a little before using the hose and don't get him swimming at speed for too long, you really need to have wind down swimming at the end too.
Can you take his heart rate?
Heart rate is an excellent indication of how far you should be pushing him, particularly as he's overweight and as he gets older it will become even more important to monitor

 

[stusam85]

When mine was 8 at hydro, he was doing 25 minutes with about 10 of that with jets.
You should warm him up a little before using the hose and don't get him swimming at speed for too long, you really need to have wind down swimming at the end too.
Can you take his heart rate?
Heart rate is an excellent indication of how far you should be pushing him, particularly as he's overweight and as he gets older it will become even more important to monitor

Thanks Rona. We normally have a bit of a walk either side of his swim so he doesn't lay down straight away (as a bit of a wind down) but I will maybe try and get him to wind down a bit more in the pool too before he gets out.
I've never tried to take his heart rate ... I not actually sure I know how to!!

 

[rona]

Fit For Dogs - Exercise and Resting Heart Rate - YouTube

My boys was 120 after a swim at aged 8, it gradually crept up to 140 recently at age 10.5years, at which point we decided to put a flotation jacket on him, it's now back to 120 and he's still swimming the full 25 minutes