Three
weeks ago, I adopted a dog, Foster, the son of my female Bossie, Sadie. The day he came to my house to meet me, he
promptly fell in the swimming pool and had to be pulled out, unable to do so on
his own, even though his rear legs rested on a seat in the deep end.
Two days later, he again fell in the pool,
having to be rescued despite his back feet resting on a seat that could’ve
easily allowed him to climb out of the pool.
But instead of seeing that possibility, Foster again panicked and clung
to the side of the pool with all his might.
Knowing
that I had a potentially lethal situation with Foster and the pool, that same
day, I attached a leash to his collar, went in the pool with him and had him
swim around to each seat and step area and then climb out on his own. We went in the pool over and over again until
he had managed to get out of every possible exit point in the pool. Satisfied with Foster’s ability to get out of
the pool, I thought the problem was solved.
But I was wrong.
One
week later, Foster again fell in the pool and had to be rescued. This time, as with the last, his back feet
rested on one of the seats in the pool, but he was too panicked to climb out on
his own. I pondered what to do in order
to get Foster over his fear of the pool before he had the chance to fall in
again. But before I could come up with a
solution, he again fell in the water, this time in the Jacuzzi.
His
mother, Sadie, as always, was by his side and frantically barked, running this
way and that from Foster’s location up to the back of the house, to get
someone’s attention. Realizing something
was wrong from the insistence and tone of Sadie’s barking, I went out to
her. Just as I exited the house and
caught sight of the pool, I noticed the deck around the Jacuzzi drenched in
water. Then, from around the corner,
Foster, who had already been rescued from the water, came trotting over to
me. I was relieved to see him safe but
still concerned.
Each
time Foster’s fallen in the water, he’s panicked and has been unable to
extricate himself. While working as a
veterinarian technician, I was made aware of clients whose dogs drowned
because, like Foster, they’d panic when they fell in the water. Currently, I’m at a loss of what else I can
do to help Foster learn to get out of the pool on his own. Though I’ve had swimming pools with every dog
I’ve ever owned, I’ve never had a dog that I couldn’t teach to get out of the
water on their own. Likewise, I’ve never
had a dog that panics when they fall in the water.
It’s
not that Foster doesn’t know how to
get out of the water on his own. He
proved he could when I went in the water with him. But when he falls in on his own, that’s when
he panics and is unable to think rationally.
Well, perhaps that’s not entirely true, since he does seem to end up
with his rear legs resting on a seat or step each time I find him in the
water. I can’t imagine that Foster’s
randomly falling in where there’s a step or seat every time. But why then won’t he hoist himself out of
the water? Why does he wait there,
shivering and panicked until someone comes to get him? And what if someone isn’t there the next time
he falls in?
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