swimming in thick weeds

[poutpro]

I have had my lab out for his season the past few weeks and he is doing alright, but he gets scared to go out of the boat when he has to go into weeds. He does fine and loves the water when it is open, but when there is weeds, he will get out of the boat and then immdediately try to get right back in. What do I do to solve this?

[LABS4ME]

It's a confidence issue. A lot of guys expect their dogs to handle every situation they put them in when out hunting, but the dog has never seen it before in training. Best thing to do when training a young dog is set up as close to real of a hunting situations as possible and work your dog through these. Take a canoe down to a local park with some weeds at the edge of the water, throw a mark and have him jump out of the canoe into the weeds, get out with your waders if you have to a coax him over to complete the tretrieve, then turn around and do the exact retrieve over until he completes it on his own. Even setting a canoe on land in the weeds is a good first start. Think about it, you are expecting him to jump into somewhere where he can't see a couple feet in front of him, can't touch bottom, has weeds tangling around his legs when swimming, he'll lose sight of you, may not have gotten a good mark on the bird in the 1st place etc.etc. To many guys doing "water training" at the beach or off a dock and not in the thick stuff. Work with him on simple retrieves close to the canoe or off shore into thick weeds and build up his confidence. The more he's exposed to this and other situations, the more confidence he'll gain and you will be one step closer to a finished retriever...

Good Luck!

Ken