Pet Pool Safety Products You Need

We’re the experts at making safer pool areas for your human loved ones, but we also want to protect your furry family members with the pet pool safety products that can save their lives. For many pet lovers, pets are their children, and like young children, they may not have the capacity to make safe decisions around the pool or the physical capacity to save themselves if they find themselves entering the water accidentally. Your local All-Safe Pool installer is the professional source for the pet pool alarms, safety nets, and removable mesh fencing that give you peace of mind and help them have long, happy lives enjoying your backyard oasis.

Kids Will Be Kids

This is true whether they’re the two- or four-legged variety. A swimming pool is a place for fun activities with their family. Games are played, splashing happens, and there’s always lots of laughter and happiness while everyone beats the summer heat. That’s why it is so hard to understand how dangerous the swimming pool can be. It’s why responsible pool owners work so hard to prevent unsupervised access to the most helpless among us who may not understand that the pool is closed or why.

Pet drowning statistics aren’t tracked by government regulators the same way human tragedies are. Most estimates from advocacy organizations range into the thousands–easily keeping pace with the nearly 4000 human lives lost to drowning yearly. The lack of concrete information leads to a blindspot in pool safety awareness. If you have a pet, you have a responsibility to them to do your best to protect them from themselves, and that’s where pet pool safety products that are specifically designed to work with their smaller bodies and limited comprehension can make a big difference.

Where Pets Differ From (Human) Children

While they may face some of the same risks, make no mistake. Pets are very different from kids in a few key ways. 

• Developmental Plateau – It’s not quite true that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but they do reach a cognitive development stage they’ll likely stay at sooner. This means it may be harder to train them in contextual water safety unless you start young, and even then, some may never grasp the finer points of when to stay out of the water. This can also lead to confusion and panic in a potential drowning situation, which endangers them and anyone around them.
• They Have Sharp Weapons – The toenails and teeth of most common household pets are sharper than a human’s, and in many cases, evolution has engineered a strength into them to help them survive in the wild. This makes ripping substandard mesh or non-pet pool covers more likely and makes confusion in the water more dangerous for would-be rescuers.
• Powerful Bodies – While their minds may not be as developed as some humans, their bodies are well developed. Even small “lap” dogs can jump to proportionate heights elite human athletes would struggle to match. Their non-human musculature also contracts and moves in ways most lifeguarding and water safety classes–centered around humans, of course–will not prepare you for.

Planning Is Key To Pet Pool Safety

Since you can’t explain to a pet in the moment and be sure they understand when pool time is over or not safe, you have to get ahead of any potential problems by preparing to avoid or mitigate them. Start by thinking about your pet’s natural abilities, their personality, and how they are likely to approach the pet pool safety products you’re considering. That way, you can tailor a layered safety approach that best suits their safety.

• Teach them to swim safely with other family members. – A pet that is used to swimming will remain calmer if they enter the pool by accident, and a pet used to swimming with family members is less likely to panic and attack a rescuer. It is a myth that any animal is a natural swimmer by default. While some may take to swimming more naturally than we do, plenty of dogs, cats, and wild animals cannot swim or swim so poorly that they become tired easily. Consider a pet life jacket while they’re being introduced to the water, and phase it out slowly as their strength and skill level build. When training and socializing your pet in the water, remember to take frequent rest breaks so they learn the importance of getting out of the pool too.
• Give them an easy way in and out of the pool. – One of the most overlooked pet pool safety products is a way to help animals enter and exit the pool easily. A water surface that seems only a few inches below the deck to us can be insurmountable for smaller animals, like chihuahuas and squirrels. Even larger dogs may have trouble finding the purchase to not only lift themselves but their full coat of waterlogged hair out of the pool. Install and use a pool pet ramp or step that is made for your pet’s size, and make sure it’s used every time they enjoy the pool alongside you. Encourage their familiarity with it and ensure the whole family is on board with the program. An entry/exit ramp built for them behind your pool safety barriers can ensure that if they get into the pool unsupervised, they have a chance to get back out again.
• Invest in swimming pool safety fencing. – Removable mesh pool fencing is a great pet fence that deters entry when you aren’t around. Available in heights up to five feet tall, the taut material stretched between strong, well-anchored poles provides little purchase for claws to climb or tear at. With a self-latching, self-closing gate and an installed gate alarm to help prevent entry, a modern pet pool fence keeps your pet safe while you’re away but can be easily removed to allow more space for activities when the pool is supervised and open. 
• Swimming pool pet safety nets save lives. – Some animals are good jumpers, exceptional climbers, or as sly as a…well, fox. Layering pet pool safety products helps ensure that you have protection even for the craftiest of animal companions. That’s where a pool safety net for your pet comes in. Safety nets are anchored around the pool’s edge, tensioned with springs, and constructed of knotted twine and cord. The result is a barrier with small gaps in it that medium and larger-sized animals have difficulty navigating. Attempting to walk out onto the net and gain access to the pool ends with their feet slipping between the knots not far from the pool edge, holding them safely up and out of the water until you can pull them to safety. 
• Install immersion alarms. – Gate alarms are great for protecting your pool area’s entry point, but if an animal enters another way, they may not trip the alarm. An underwater immersion alarm is a pet pool safety product that senses underwater disturbances and emits an audible alarm or sends a notification to a connected device to let you know a pet or child may have entered the pool. Available in a range of styles, pet alarms are a great way to get immediate notification of unsupervised pool access. 
• Train them to stay out of the closed pool and eliminate reasons for them to disobey your pool rules. – Along with teaching them to swim, train them to not. Help them understand a closed pool gate, secured net, and the lack of family to supervise all indicate that the pool is off-limits temporarily. Your pet is your family, so you’re in the best position to understand why they may decide to try to enter the pool area despite your best efforts. Readily available fresh drinking water, fun toys, and a bowl of food can be almost as important to protect your pet as the other pet pool safety products on this list. 

Make Your Pool Area All (Pet) Safe

Our local installers are ready to help you protect your entire household, including those with fur. Request a free quote, and they’ll set an appointment to look at your property, talk to you about your pool safety needs, and help tailor a plan to fit your family and budget, with some of the top ASTM-compliant pet pool safety products, like removable mesh fencing, pet nets, and alarms. Create a safer pool for all your loved ones. Schedule your free estimate with All-Safe Pool today.