While planning fun summer activities for you and your golden retriever. You may be wondering if golden retrievers like water? Here’s our experience with a golden retriever and water.
Yes, Golden Retrievers love water. Playing and swimming in water provides an excellent exercise for them. Introduce them to water as a puppy and let them become comfortable on their own. Golden Retrievers enjoy swimming at the beach, creek, or pool!
Let’s learn a little more about our beloved goldens and their love for the water.
Table of Contents
Do Golden Retrievers Like to Swim
Golden Retrievers love to swim! Once your golden discovers its one true love of water, it will be quite hard to keep them dry.
Our golden discovered his love for water very young. His first taste of “swimming” was when we filled up our big tub and let him splash around. Then he graduated to the kiddie pool. Now every time he sees water, you can count on him jumping in.
Although it is true, not all goldens love water, but most do. It is possible for your golden not to love the water because they were not introduced to water as a puppy. A good indication that your golden may take to swimming is if they are playing in their water bowl.
Here are a couple of steps to take to get your golden to find their inner love of swimming.
How To Introduce Golden Retrievers to Water
First, you want to introduce your golden to water on a small scale. Try filling up a tub or kiddie pool and let your pup splash around and play. Play in the water with them, making it fun, or bring in a favorite waterproof toy. If you have an older golden retriever that is unsure about swimming, get a large kiddie pool for them to try on a hot summer day.
Let them get comfortable with the kiddie pool before taking them in deeper water. When your golden is running and playing in excitement about the water or goes straight to the kiddie pool without coaching, it may be time for them to graduate. Try getting them a bigger pool or taking them to the beach or creek where they can gradually walk into deep water.
Always make it fun for them instead of a training lesson. Bring a ball or a floatable toy for your golden to play with. You can start playing fetch next to the water and get them having fun and gradually get closer. They will likely be excited and run in the water while playing. Goldens are very active dogs full of personality and energy.
It’s important to know your dog and not force them too soon. Some may take a little more time in the kiddie pool, and that’s okay. You make sure your golden doesn’t have a bad experience and become totally scared of water. So remember to make it fun and let them get familiar with the water on their terms.
Retrieving in the water
They are named retrievers for a reason! Swimming isn’t the only instinct Goldens Retrievers have. They are naturally born retrievers also! Retrieving in the water is what the golden retriever is bred to do. So you will find them very interested in playing fetch in the water. This will likely help teach your golden to get comfortable swimming.
Our golden constantly retrievers the goggles floating around in the pool. He’s on a mission when he spots the goggles, even if they are attached to your face. He will still try to “retrieve” them. This is why goldens are the best and have quite the personality.
Are Golden Retrievers good swimmers?
Golden Retrievers are built to be good swimmers. They have long strong hind legs that are great for swimming. Goldens are water dogs and have webbed paws and a water repellent coat. They paddle with all four legs which resemble walking on land. They have a strong front leg paddle that helps keep their head out of the water. Golden retrievers are strong swimmers. In fact, the more swimming your golden does the better they will become at it.
Our golden swims a couple of times a week. He would absolutely swim every day if we allowed it. When he was first starting swimming, he could swim regular dog paddling. Now he swims very efficiently and is quite fast. He can beat us in a race, and good luck trying to get away from him.
Do golden retrievers naturally know how to swim?
Golden retrievers were originally bred to retrieve waterfowl in water for hunters. This makes them among the natural swimming group of dogs and listed on the top 10 swimming dogs. All dogs will indeed start to instinctively doggy paddle when placed above or in water. Not all paddles are created; equally, some dogs will become overwhelmed quickly. Golden retrievers are skillful swimmers.
That leads us to the question:
Do Golden Retrievers need a life vest?
Chances are your golden will not need a life jacket; that being said, we still recommend having one on hand. Let your golden experience the water without the life jacket and gain confidence on their own. We find our golden needing the life jacket after a long day of swimming. He loves the water so much he continues to swim even when he is tired.
At this point, he wants to be held in the pool, so he doesn’t have to work as hard but refuses to get out! So putting on the life jacket helps him relax and not have to work as hard. So after a good amount of swimming, jumping, and playing, we put the life jacket on him, and we know he can continue to swim safely.
The Outward Hound Dog Life Jacket is the one we use with our Golden Retriever.
It provides the right amount of buoyancy in the water but not too restrictive so they can still run and play on land. We find the front neck float really helps keep their head above water and helps keeps their ears from getting too much water in them. They can also still potty while wearing the life jacket.
For Golden Retrievers, we recommend the large or extra-large. Our golden is one-year-old and roughly 55-60lbs, and comfortable fits in a large. Check the sizing chart to ensure proper sizing.
Golden Retriever Coat
Golden Retrievers have a water-resistant coat. Their coat consists of two layers. Their inner coat is dense and provides them with warmth. This makes them better suited for swimming in colder water. The outer coat is longer and lies flat, and also repels water. The outer layer or “topcoat” helps shield the golden retriever, but the topcoat’s main job is to repel water keeping the skin of your golden dry.
This is a great quality if you use a gold retriever to duck hunt in the colder months. But if you’re like me and your golden is a pet and lives inside with you, this coat also means golden retriever tends to shed quite a lot! This also means your golden will need to be groomed regularly.
Golden Retriever Ear Care
So we have gone over all the great qualities of goldens love for swimming and being the perfect water companion.
Golden Retriever’s floppy ears make them prone to developing “swimmers ear.” Just like when you were a kid and water got trapped in your ear, and it turned into an ugly ear infection. Well, this can also happen to dogs.
Breeds like golden retrievers are susceptible to swimmer’s ears because their ears hang down, reducing air circulation, creating a moist breeding ground for yeast or bacterial infection.
Signs your dog may have swimmers ear: itchiness, redness, shaking of the head, odor, pain, or dark discharge. Your ear issues may start at the exterior of the ear, but a golden ear interior is an L-shaped structure which makes it more difficult for them to shake out the water.
The type of water your golden is swimming in will not make a difference in whether your golden retriever will get an ear infection. The cause is the actual water making the ear too moist and not being able to dry out.
Cleaning Golden’s Ears After Swimming
The key to avoiding an ear infection is maintaining dry ears and proper cleaning after swimming. Drying out the ears will help prevent bacteria and yeast from growing. This simple step can go along way in preventing discomfort for your golden and keep you out of the vet.
Here are a couple of products we use to help keep our pup’s ears happy and healthy!
RECOMMEND: SWIMMING GEAR AND WATER TOYS
EarWell Wipes
SAFE for Regular Use which Prevents Ear Infections, Reduces Wax Build Up and Removes Debris in and Around the Ear.
ZYMOX Ear Cleanser Solution
Gentle no-sting formula helps ease painful ear infections caused by bacteria, fungi and yeast
Drying A Golden Retriever After Swimming
Drying a golden retriever that loves to swim on a daily can become somewhat of a chore. If you have a pool or pond that your golden just heads straight for everything your open the door well your in luck we have some tip on getting the dry quickly. The method works but it’s not the fast way to get them dry. We use big adsorbent beach towels to wrap him in and absorbed the water. After about 3 towels he “dry” I say, “dry” because they feel like they are never really dry, Even after towel drying him, he still feels very damp. That leads us to our next method of drying.
If you truly want to get your golden retriever dry and cut down on your time invested in between that actual drying and the laundry, it’s creating. You need a dog dryer! After we had our pool put in, I was determined to get a solution for drying the dog quickly and efficiently. That’s when we decided to invest in a dog dryer.
It’s important to note not all dryers are created equal. This dryer can dry a golden in 7 mins, yes 7 minutes, you read that right! Its also great for shedding, (win win) it will blow the loose fur right out of your dog’s coat keeping it from falling all over your house.
Take Away
They love to swim! Which is so much fun for you and them until they get an ear infection or you have to continue to dry them over and over again! Dog mom problems. Having drops on hand and investing in a dog dryer is a life changing purchase!
Check out all our favorite golden retriever products: Best Golden Retriever Products
