Is it okay for Dog to drink pool water?

[mshumack]

I am not 100% but I believe drinking water *can* contain up to 10ppm of chlorine so I don't think the occasional drink from the pool will harm them. Other chems like some algeacides might cause problems. Also, I would not let them only drink from the pool.

Thanks for the replies. My pool water is maintained at 3 to 4 ppm Chlorine. I test every other day. And I don't shock or add anything (other than muratic acid to keep PH in range) to the pool.
I did a lot of internet searching on this and it seems about 50/50 for and against. I aways have clean fresh water available for the dogs as well.
Thanks.

[aylad]

My dog has fresh, clean water available at all times. I also have a sparkling clear pool and a not-so-sparkling koi pond. My dog invariably drinks out of the pond. Drinking the pool water is fine (for the dog .

Janet

[cleancloths]

Think about this for a moment. Most animals live out in the wild - where do they drink from (puddles, ponds, streams, rivers, garbage containers, etc....) A pool is probably one of the cleaner sources of water for an animal. If you leave a water bowl outside for the dog it probably has all sorts of bacteria growing in it that you cannot see. As long as you don't put strange chemicals in the pool the dog should be just fine drinking from it.

Heck, we all swallow pool water when we go swimming and it does not hurt us. I many times will just taste the pool water (rather than hauling out the test kit) to determine my chlorine needs.

[ytngt]

I got tired of putting fresh water out everyday just to find that my lab prefers pool water. It likes stagnant puddle water even better than pool water! The dog is still alive and digging holes despite drinking pool water for three years.