Working With Blind Dogs: Inground Swimming Pools

Above: Sassy working her grid

Very often ugly and tragic stories have surfaced over the years about blind dogs inadvertently falling into an inground and drowning.

I hope to offer some sound advice from my own practical experiences with my blind dogs and inground pools.

To Start With
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I've discussed this previously in other areas of Working With Blind Dogs. You must develop a "keyword", that you only use in the utmost urgent situation. This "keyword" should be one sylable only, you should yell it at the top of your lungs, and your blind dog should STOP dead in their tracks... no matter what. Until you have trained your blind dog to do this, and YOU SHOULD, this exercise and many other blind dog issues are futile.


So together with the help of a long-line, please get working on mastering, the 'dead stop', with your blind dog.

In my case the word is, "STOP"! My dogs will stop dead in their tracks.
If I say "STOP DANGER", they know to STOP, then immediately come back to me retracing their steps.

This word will help you in all kinds of other situations as well.

It should be noted that I don't agree with bells and other sounds devices for a blind dog. I find this frequently only de-sensitizes them in the long run, tunes them out of other more important noises, and doesn't encourage them to become independant.

Your blind dog should be able to find you no matter where you are in the house or yard, they have an excellent nose for that and don't need bells. The more you can encourage your blind dog to use their other remaining senses, the more indepenent they will become and enjoy a higher quality of life. .

OK.. you're back because your BD, knows the dead stop word, and the recall word, and knows more or less how to plot a grid. Right?

If you don't have an inground pool, ask a neighbour with an inground pool if you could work with your BD. Don't be shy. I'm sure they'll even volonteer to offer you assistance.

You can do this with or without a canine lifejacket on, and it's very helpful if someone is in the pool waiting for the in-evitable fall.

I work with a harness and a long 25ft line on Sassy, and introduce her to the back yard she's never been in. The moment she arrives in the back yard, she immediately starts to do her , "grid" . Sassy does not know what a pool is and will think the edge of the pool is similar to the edge of a sidewalk and will try to step down.

I survey Sassy and see her coming close to the edge of the pool. I shout: "STOP DANGER". Sassy stops and comes right back to me.. Good girl Sassy. She gets a kiss, cuddle and a cookie.



Several minutes into her visit, she becomes very interested in all the new smells.
Again, she gets near the edge of the pool. Again I shout: STOP DANGER.... oh-oh, Sassy blows me off in favour of the nice smells............ she falls into the deep end of the pool. It's pandamonium as we watch her sink, sink, sink.

The poor dog panics from the shock of having fallen in. She surfaces, a blind dog is completely disorientated, cannot see the sides of the pool and swims in "any' direction. Even when I call her to me, she's too upset to listen, her life is in danger and she swims away from me!!

Inevitably I pull her to me with the long line. She reaches the side and frantically tries to get out. We know that she risks scratching the liner of the pool, so my aid , (who's in the pool), lifts her up out of the water and minds her back feet too.

Sassy is out of the water, is visibly shaken, and very upset. I comfort her.

As soon as Sasssy is calm and settled down, I again, let her go mosey around the yard. This time I see she's really paying attention to her feet, this time when she get's close to the edge of the pool, she listens and does not blow me off, but comes back to me with hast. I stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. I did remove the long line, and Sassy never fell back into the pool.

I try to take her regularly, so that we can practice. Sassy even knows the word POOL now, so when I visit someone else, she is immediately on her guard, does her grid work with extra caution and steers clear from the side of the pool.


Some Caveats
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Some dogs will learn lesson this much faster than others, so patience is required.

Also, please take into consideration that there are some blind dogs who actually LOVE water and wouldn't hesitate to fall into a pool.

Even though we can train our blind dogs about inground pools, "stuff" happens and so do accidents, so a pool alarm is a very warranted safety device. A pool alarms lets out a loud noise when something falls into the pool.

Other devices are available too. Did you know that often even sighted dogs drown when they fall into an inground pool? Once in the pool, their immediate reaction is to aim for the closest wall of the pool, and try to climb out. Depending on the height of the water, sometimes they are successful, often they are not and drown from exhaustion. In the meantime, not all inground pools are made of cement or resin, but a liner, and needless to say, the dog will tear up and destroy the liner while trying to escape. Once panic sets in, the dog will never even think to look for the stairs, often shuts down and doesn't respond to normal commands.

There are now special platform devices for dogs and inground pools which allow a dog to easily climb out. Obviously this is not really a viable option for a blind dog. The best option is training your BD to listen to your commands, and striving to make your BD an independent thinker who develops keen skills.

The worse case scenario is to always, without fail, keep your BD away from any access to an inground pool.

Falling off a wharf, or falling into an inground pool, the risk is still the same. Best best is to work with your BD so that they clearly understand the verbal warning you are issuing to them!

Me, I prefer to work with my blind dogs. I feel they enjoy a more complete life when they have the freedom to accompany me everywhere. As of today, Sassy has not ever fallen into an inground pool again. I make it my business to take her places with me, and so far, she's WELL remembered her lesson from that one wet day this past Summer!

FYI - Sassy is an 11 year old, blind mill rescue who lived most of her life in a cage, in a puppy mill situation, so she came to us with very little skills of any kind.
Sassy has been with us only 1 year as of this past weekend.
Today, Sassy is a happy-go-lucky Grannie-Pei!!!