By Jessica Evans
Working mainly with water therapy it makes it easier if our patients love the water. This then becomes a super fun game for them to enjoy at their weekly sessions. Some dogs however do dislike the water and it makes it a little bit more of a challenge to ease them into the process. As you expect there are some breeds that are predisposed to loving water: the Labrador, Shepherds and Spaniels to mention a few. These dogs are normally the easiest to work with
What you might be surprised about is that our most water-loving dog is, in fact, the Rottweiler!
However, it doesn’t always start off that way. Most Rottie sessions start with their guardian telling me how they dislike water, won’t go near a pool and that they think this process will never work. On average I find it takes one to three sessions before we have a crazy water dog and then there is no stopping them! Rottweilers were originally bred to do multiple different jobs, they are herders, guard dogs and use to pull carts filled with goods to sell in the towns for their guardians. So it’s easy to see that they can adapt to many different tasks.
Besides the Labradors, Rottweilers are the clowns of the hydro. Most sessions in the pool consist of tons of laughter, litres of water spilling down the sides of the pool and even dripping off the ceiling. Not to forget the epic launches from the ramp of the pool (I do think their aim might be to see who jumps closest to the other side).
Every session remains for me to look at the funny side, the brighter side of life. They remind me to remember the little things like swimming because it’s fun and not only to exercise. A Rottweiler session is always a breath of fresh air often with a few stink bombs thrown in 😉