My dog Penny doesn’t swim well. I know that all dogs are supposed to have the inherent ability to swim but some dogs just seem to do it better than others. Penny is a Wirehaired Dachshund and her long back and short legs seem to be a liability when it comes to the dog paddle. Her front end swims along fine, but her back end kind of pops up and then her rear rotates from side to side making it an effort for her to beeline into shore. I therefore enlisted the help of my friend Lisa at RC Pets (RC Pets manufactures all kinds of great dog gear including life jackets). Lisa and I both walk our dogs down at Kits Beach so one morning this week she brought along an RC Life Jacket for Penny to try out. With its Safety Orange colour and fluorescent strip along each side, should Penny ever fall overboard she’d be easily seen. The handle on the top back of the jacket makes her easily scoopable, too. I also don’t have to worry about the jacket accidently coming undone as not only does the velcro'd flaps keep it well fastened, the clasps at the neck and under belly provide additional closure security.  The environmentally friendly foam it’s comprised of (no PVC, Hallogen-free, no CFC) makes this well-made jacket all the better.

Now for the testing: will it help Penny swim or not? I carried Penny out to fairly deep water (I was up to my waist) and put her in. At first she didn’t even try to swim, just floated and the jacket performed beautifully (no way a dog wearing this jacket would sink), then the good-old dog paddle kicked in. Although Penny’s rear still maintained a somewhat rocking motion on her swim back to shore, but by the third time in, she was doing much better! There’s a somewhat selfish angle to this story… I’ve been getting up early in the morning to have a swim prior to going to work and I wanted to have a swimming buddy, so with a little more practice I’m hoping my dog will feel more comfortable in the water and she’ll want to voluntarily join me. I’ll keep you posted on my success in this experiment!

Here's Penny modelling her new RC life jacket.

Lisa's dogs are busily checking out Penny in her new gear…

Penny emerges from her swim…