We lived in Florida for ten years. I used to take Toffee into the pool with me, at first I kept putting her on the steps until she knew where they were. My husband and I would let her swim back and forth between us, but invariably she would swim past us and over to the steps. My one thing I had to watch for was that she would run around the pool and bark at the 'chippies' running on the screen roof, because when she barked she would always make little backward jumps with each bark, and I would hear 'bark', 'bark', 'splash'- she always would swim around the wall to the steps
BUT I DID ALWAYS WATCH - JUST LIKE A BABY!!!!!!!!