Can Beagles Swim?

Beagles belong to a breed incredibly good with family and extremely playful. And therefore, beagles are often chosen as a family dog over many other dog breeds. They look too cute with their brown eyes and soft and floppy ears. Beagles are very kind to children.

Their desire to love people makes them a perfect addition to your home. Taking them home isn’t as easy as it sounds. Obesity is one of the biggest threats to their life. And therefore, it is essential to keep them physically active. Swimming would help beagles to fight against obesity.

Sadly, beagles are not great fans of swimming. You really have to train them from being a puppy to get them adaptable to swimming. However, few beagles get naturally adapted to swimming very quickly. Their ability to swim is solely dependent on individuals. If taught at a younger age, the beagle would eventually start to grow a love for swimming.

Here in this article, we will discuss the importance of training beagles to swim. You can also get acquainted with some methods to easily train them. The later part of the article also gives some precautions to take care of while giving swimming lessons to your beagle.

Why Is It Essential To Train Beagles To Swim?

Swimming is a perfect exercise to deal with the overweight crisis of beagles. Overweight can severely affect their lives when not treated well. Swimming can do great things to the health of beagles. Here is how swimming makes an impact on the health of a beagle. You will know why it is essential to teach swimming lessons to your beagle after having a glance at the advantages listed below.

• Beagles usually have plenty of unexploited energy. Swimming exploits leftover energy making your doggie more fit.
• The breed is prone to obesity. Swimming is very useful in burning up excess weights gained.
• Ten minutes of swimming is far better than ten minutes of walking.
• Swimming involves the participation of most of the body muscles. Therefore, it is a great way to strengthen the muscles of beagles.
• Regular swimming session strengthens the heart and lungs of the beagle.
• Swimming reduces the chances of inflammation.
• The metabolism of the beagle can be improved by swimming for at least 10 minutes daily.
• The blood circulation of the beagles can be increased by swimming.
• Swimming helps to retain a good shape.
• Stiff joints are the result of a lack of exercise. Swimming can cure stuff joints gradually.
• Swimming helps to maintain healthy skin and fur coats.
• You can take beagles for swimming in extreme temperatures to cool down their body.

Now you know well that swimming does a lot of benefits to the health of your beagle. And are you wondering where to start from? It would be better to give swimming lessons at a younger age. Check up on the next session to know how to start giving swimming lessons for your beagle.

How To Train Beagles To Swim?

As said earlier, it is better to start giving swimming lessons at a very younger age. Younger the age of the dog, faster the learning. But, grasping of swimming lessons is purely based on the individual. Some dogs dislike and might be reluctant to get into the water while some others would love to. Likewise, some beagles take up the lessons quickly while others take time. However, the right time to start swimming lessons is undoubtingly the puppy stage.

Do not pull your beagle into the pool right away on your first session. First of all, make yourself aware that this learning process would take time. Make pool visits with doggie before you start swimming lessons. Let your dog get attached to the environment of the pool.

Taking a fellow dog who loves swimming would make things easier. Let your beagle watch its fellow being swimming and having fun in the pool. Seeing another dog playing in the pool might make a tendency in your beagle to do the same. Sometimes beagle would get down into the water and give a try of its own seeing the other one swimming. It is how beagles might start swimming naturally.

Don’t go crazy if your beagle doesn’t have any tendency to get down into the pool and swim even after seeing its fellow being swimming in the pool. Some doggies need a push to learn new things. Your beagle might belong to that category of dogs if it had no idea to get down into the pool on its own. It might need some training to take up swimming.

Don’t forget to put a doggie life jacket on your beagle when you start training. Your dog might drown inside the pool on the first session itself if a life jacket is not considered. A drowning experience on the very first session in the pool might scare it off. There are chances it might end up fearing water for the entire life. No matter how hard you would try, fear won’t let your dog take up swimming lessons in this situation. So, better go with a life jacket in the initial sessions until your beagle is super-comfortable in the pool.

You can give the initial swimming lessons to your beagle in a shallow water source or pools for kids. Water sources of smaller depth are great for learning. Deeper pools are hard for beginners. You can move them to adult pools after a few sessions. It would help them build up more confidence to swim.

It is better to accompany your beagle in the pool until it uses all four paws for swimming. Stay nearby the pool itself. Keep an eye on your beagle until it is super comfortable in the water. You should look for sudden outbreaks of nervousness if the water gets into their nose. This usually happens during the first few independent swimming sessions. They will get used to it quickly.

You can also use toys to encourage swimming. Start throwing the toy from the banks of a pool. Your dog might quickly get back the toy to you from where it was thrown to. Slowly shift the game into the pool. You can also get down into the pool and repeat the game. Start increasing the distance gradually and make your beagle cover longer distances by swimming. This is how you can train your beagle to swim through games.

You should be very patient to teach a new skill to your doggie. Beagles would take time to grasp swimming lessons even if they are known to be intelligent and clever. Give your doggie enough time to learn. Don’t hasten the process of learning.

Some Dont’s While Training Your Beagle To Swim

• Don’t hurt your dog to take up lessons quickly.
• Beagles might take time to react to your training. Don’t go crazy if you fail at the first attempt. Patience is the key.
• Swimming for a long time can be very tiring for dogs. It would exhaust their energy. Give breaks in between the sessions. Don’t make them swim for long hours.
• Start training from a not so deep pool. you can gradually take them to deeper ones. Don’t start in a pool with great depth.
• The safety of your beagle is important. You should not start training your doggie without a life jacket.
• Don’t leave your dog as it is after swimming in a pool. Wash them properly to get off seawater, algae, or chlorine.
• Drinking up a lot of chlorinated water from the pool can be injurious to the health of your beagle. Don’t allow them to stay long in chlorinated pools. it might cause damages to their eyes and skin as well.

Conclusion

Training your dogs to swim requires a lot of patience. Beagles are a breed that doesn’t show much interest in swimming. Therefore, training a beagle to swim would be pretty much difficult.

But they will definitely grasp the lessons and start loving swimming. You can try out different methods to train beagles to swim. It would be better to start at a younger age.

Above all, the safety of the dog must be your priority. Take the necessary precautions. And you can seek the help of a professional dog trainer if needed.