It’s summertime and with the heat comes the need for water, to drink and swim in. You and your dog can take a dip in at any number of pet-friendly pools across the nation and it can be a truly beneficial activity. After all, swimming is fun and can be great for both your and your pooch's health too! Keep reading to find out why your pooch should be swimming:
Researchers at Hartpury University Centre, UK, Tate Preston and Dr. Alison Wills, have discovered that hydrotherapy helps with movement in Labradors with elbow dysplasia. Dr. Wills explains: “Dogs with elbow dysplasia displayed an increased range of motion, stride frequency and stride length — measures of mobility in our study — after the hydrotherapy.”
The benefits of hydrotherapy also extended to the healthy control group. “Interestingly, the healthy controls also showed significantly better stride characteristics,” says Dr Wills. “From the findings of this study, it does appear that swimming is good for dogs.”
So should everyone take their dog swimming? Dr. Wills maintains a cautious approach to her exciting results: “It is hard to generalize the findings to the entire canine population due to the small sample size. Dogs also come in all shapes and sizes so what works for one may not for another. Even so, most dogs still find swimming fun!”
We all want to see our dogs happy but if they are in pain that happiness can be short lived. To learn more check out Science Daily.
Besides helping your pooch with better mobility splashing around in the water can make for a great work out. Do it regularly and you can watch Fido go from a pudgy pup to a lean barking machine in no time at all!
