Dogs In Your Pool, Is It Safe? Should You Let Them Enjoy It Too?

Your dog, furry baby or man/lady’s best friend, although one of the family, can bring in approximately 3 times the ‘dirt’ or other particles that a human brings into the pool.

In their fur dirt, oil and faecal matter (that’s right… POO) can be trapped and then ‘washed’ into your beautiful sparkling pool. This means more chlorine/sanitising agents will be required to ensure your pool stays healthy and clean.

Should You Let Your Dogs Swim In The Pool?

A pool-loving dog diving down deep.

When it comes to dogs in your pool, there’s more to consider than the dirt and substances that’d come along with your dog into your swimming pool water. So before letting your dog swim, it may be a good idea to take the following into consideration:

• Their paws and nails, which are normally firmly on the ground, will be displaying perfect doggy paddle and may scratch other swimmers;
• Your filter may require backwashing or cleaning more frequently; and
• Your dogs skin and ears – Like humans, showering after a dip may be useful to ensure irritation of the skin does not occur. In addition to this, ear infections in dogs typically occur due to water ingress and dampness, so it may be worth giving your ‘baby’ a dry in and around their ears.
• Your swimming pool cleaner quality. You’re in good hands with any Kreepy Krauly swimming pool cleaner.

In short, dog swimming is dependent on your dogs personality, breed and individual traits.

Just remember to treat your water correctly for the extra ‘dirt’ that may be entering the pool.

Not much unlike cleaning pools after a storm, and dependant on what your dogs get into in their non-pool time, you’ll want to monitor and treat your water as needed after they’re finished swimming.

If in doubt about dogs swimming in pools, contact your vet and/or local pool shop for more hints, tips and advice about dogs in swimming pools and if pet owners should let their dogs swim in their home swimming pools.

Better Health Victoria has 5 keys to maintaining swimming pool health.

The five keys to maintaining water quality in your swimming pool include:

• filtration
• chlorination
• pH level
• total alkalinity (TA)
• calcium hardness

Visit our pool maintenance tips for more pool advice..

Next Up: Frogs in your swimming pool? Here’s how to keep them out!