Melissa,
Your situation is similar to mine.
Our cottage has very deep docks and very little accessible shore line; and a VERY strong river current on the St. Lawrence. I always envision my dogs half way to Brockville before I discovered they were gone!
Having had the dogs fall off the docks a few times, we undertook this summer to try to teach the dogs to handle the water.
First thing we learned is that dogs swim instinctively. Both dogs, even though apparently panicked, could easily propel themselves where they wanted to go.
Second is that they will also head to the closest "solid" structure once they are in the water. In our case, that's the dock. The bad news is that does not help them get out of the water once they are in.
We tried to teach them to swim to shore downstream. Unfortunately, their instincts were to try to swim to the shore UNDER the dock! We came close to having to fish them out from under a few times.
Third, that being said, we had no doubt at all that if the dogs fell in, they could find their way to shore eventually.
Finally, is no matter how much the dogs appreciated being "cool" after their swim, they really hated going into the water itself. But boy, were they full of energy after! It was instant zoomies!
All to say is that I wouldn't worry to much about it. But neither would I leave them unattended for long. We have mink down at our dock which sends the dogs into hunter mode. David thinks I'm over protective, but my stomach always clenches when I've not seen a dog within the last 5 minutes.
