Going to the dogs: a dog lover goes all out to keep her pooches cool

Pool & Spa News, Sept 20, 2002 by Rebecca Robledo

George Kazdin's client dearly loves her two Rottweilers and one English mastiff--all of which she rescued. She has a vanity plate on her car stating that she's a dog-lover, and she does volunteer work for a local Rottweiler rescue organization.

So when she decided to build a pool, she naturally figured her dogs would like to swim, too.

But love does have its limits.

"She didn't want to have [her dogs] dirtying up the big pool," says Kazdin, president of Kazdin Pools & Spas in Southampton, N.Y.

The answer? Give them their own 13-by-2-foot pool right next to the main 20-by-40-foot people pool. "[Whereas] everyone else would build a kiddie pool for their grandchildren, she built a kiddie pool for her Rottweilers," Kazdin says.

"That was pretty much a first," adds Glenn Cook, company vice president.

Cook, who worked with the client, says she came to him knowing what she wanted. "She knew a vinyl pool wouldn't work out because these dogs are about 125 pounds apiece," he says.

So the builder began with a gunite structure. Cook placed one step in the 2-1/2-foot-deep vessel so the canines could have easy access.

The pool was designed with its own circulation system. "We didn't want to mix any of the water between the two [pools]," Kazdin says. An oversized cartridge filter removes the extra hair from the system. The builder also chose this medium because of the pool's size. "You couldn't backwash a pool like that. You'd lose too much water," Kazdin explains.

A commercial-sized chlorinator addresses the extra bacteria that dogs carry in their coats. "We made the client aware that the skimmer baskets and pump baskets have to be cleaned a little more often," Kazdin says. "The filter might have to be cleaned twice a year as opposed to the once a year it's designed for. And we just have a very good flow rate in there."

The doggie pool, as it came to be called, also has dual main drains with anti-vortex covers.

As a finishing touch, the client requested a plaster casting of one of the dogs' paws set in the shell. Crews poured some plaster in a bucket and took the canine's print to create something of a decorative tile. Crews set it in the pool and plastered around it.

But the whole place still went to the dogs. "The idea that the dogs would have their own area to go into hasn't proved to work out so far," Cook says.

"The dogs like her pool better."